Convention Day 1 - Friday Aug 13th
I headed over to a local cafe shortly after 8. It was pretty quiet, but
another 9-3 convertible owner had pulled up at the same time and we walked
in together. We joined each other for breakfast and it turned out to be
Dennis Sweeney (of Dennis Sweeney, Inc who sells and services Saabs and also
sells parts). We had a great conversation and a hearty breakfast. After
that, I caught Paul, Don, and David in their hotel parking lot. They were
just getting ready to go wash and detail their cars. I headed over to the
convention to find out where my talk was to be given after which I watched a
few cars racing away on the autocross course. Of course, I've taken a bunch
of photos and I'll post them when I return (including one of the 4 door,
Monte Carlo Yellow Viggen). I went back to the parking lot and sold a few
t-shirts and Chip Lamb pulled up in his 9000 and unloaded an incredible
amount of Saab parts to sell. Indeed, it was a magic act to see what he kept
pulling out of his car. A crowd quickly formed to go though all the goodies.
At around 12:30, I headed over to my seminar room and got set up. I gave a
talk titled, The Electronic Rally - Saab Resources on the Internet. I gave a
brief technical introduction to the Internet and then we toured The Saab
Network and about another dozen sites. I'll put the presentation online with
a list of visited links. After that I caught a bit of John Moss's Basic Saab
Care and Repair and then Kemal Demos' Rally Tips. I ran into Steve Crowe who
many of you know from the Saturday night technical chats as he was competing
in the Master Technician Challenge. All day I ran into TSN members and it
reminded me why I like the Saab community so much. This is an incredibly
friendly group of people. I met owners who had sold Saabs through TSN or
bought Saabs through TSN. One person came up and said, "Hey, you're Scott
Paterson. You send me email." I laughed and replied, "I probably send you A
LOT of email." I bumped into Matt Kanewisher from Abbott Racing USA. They'll
be changing their name soon to reflect the fact they carry more than just
Abbott products. He promised to make another guest appearance on TSN chat
soon.
At six, I hit the reception tent for a dinner of ribs and chili which is
what I would've picked if they had asked me. I ate with Martha and Steve
Carrellas and we watched Baxter Black, 'Cowboy Poet' perform. I have to
admit that I was a little dubious about the entertainment value of a 'Cowboy
Poet,' but Baxter was incredibly intelligent, insightful, and funny. Most
importantly, he's a poet based in prose rather than rhyme, so he related
many cowboy anecdotes and I was laughing so hard I was crying. After this
came the auction. I only stayed for the first few items because I wanted to
get back and write up these past few days. The first item up for sale was to
have your photo on the cover of NINES. The bidding was particularly fierce
and I believe, if I recognized the winning bidder correctly, that Mark Kline
of ScandiaTek took this item for a tidy sum of $500. Worth every dollar, in
my opinion.
Convention Day 2 - Saturday Aug 14th
Saturday morning opened with breakfast and autograph signing by Erik
Carlsson. I must say that he is one tireless man. He did anything and
everything every single Saab owner asked of him at the conference. He signed
everything and posed everywhere. Shortly after breakfast, many owners were
getting their cars ready for the concours judging. Meanwhile, the Aspen
police department dropped by in one of thier new 9-5's. That's a sweet
looking police car.
In the first row of the Concours were the many Sonetts including one that
had been modified into a dragster with 900 16 valve engine which protruded
into the cabin. I think I heard the owner say the top speed was around 120.
John Moss and Peter Backstrom were two of the Sonett judges and they were
meticulous. You can see them here inspecting Paul Perry's 1968 Sonett V4
which eventually took first place in the category. Paul also took away 2nd
place for his 1960 93F and David Young's Aero won 2nd place in his division
too, as we were to find out at Saturday night's dinner.
back to the parking lot for the drivers' meeting for the road rally. Some of
you might recall that I participated in my very first rally at the 1996 Owners' Convention - the Saab Summit with
Barbara and Susan Olencki and we finished 2nd overall for all cars
participating regardless of class. I had a lot of fun doing that rally
(thanks to Don Young who had created it) and,
believe it or not, had not participated in a rally since. So, I was looking
forward to doing my second rally at this convention. David was going to
drive his Aero and I would again navigate with help from his dog, Nesca.
About 40 cars were participating including Don in Paul's Sonett with Tom
Remedios as navigator. We started out on the 12 mile odometer check leg with
one minute intervals between each
car. We found ourselves to be .4 mi off after we completed the odometer
check leg. The first leg after that was a ten minute transit zone and we
reach the end of the zone well before ten minutes was up, so we pulled over
and waited while a good many Saabs went past us right onto the next leg.
The whole drive was through some incredibly scenic Colorado countryside,
so I didn't mind having a few extra minutes to snap some photos. After the
ten minutes, we got back on the road and started following directions and
CASTs (Change Average Speed To). At one point we were looking for Ute Pass
Road on a sign at which point we were to CAST 38. We found the sign, but
we were on a 65MPH road with traffic behind us and there was no way we could
slow down so drastically. I thought we must have missed our turn, so we
turned around and found the sign did say Ute Pass Road - 2 miles and the turn
there was for Ute Park Road. So, after my error, we turned around again
and head to Ute Pass Road. We were to find out later that there was a Rally
Errata sheet that would have told us to ignore the first Ute Pass Road and
cast 38 at the second where we would turn onto the road with a 40MPH speed
limit. In any case, David made up our lost time by going significantly above
our 38 CAST. We passed four Saabs and even after I thought we were caught up,
David still kept pushing forward. This action saved the entire rally for us.
We crested a hill to find a sudden checkpoint. We were expecting a dismal time
for the leg, but ended up only 28 seconds late.
The next two checkpoints were DIYs (Do It Yourself). I was to find out that
we missed our second checkpoint by only 1 second and our third by 24 seconds.
As we rounded a corner about 2 hours into the rally, we were surprised by
the final checkpoint on the side of the road and came in 21 seconds late for
a total of 74 seconds off perfect time. The chances on improving on my 1996
finish were pretty slim, but we were to find out later that we did it. David
and I were the overall winners for all classes at the convention. Second place
came in at 79 seconds, third at 92 seconds, and fourth at 99 seconds. The cars
that did the worst were the computer equipped. I think first place in that
division was 200+ seconds off. Don and Tom finished second in the intermediate
class.
Dinner that evening was a lot of fun since our Bay Area Club kept walking
up to the front to pick up awards. Denise McCluggage gave a wonderful talk
that included 9 Saab-related anecdotes. Steve Crowe was one of the top four
finishers in the Technicians Challenge, so he won a trip to compete in
Sweden.
Convention Day 3 - Sunday Aug 15th - Return Travel Day 1
At the Sunday morning breakfast I was able to get Erik to sign both my
Saab-Scania Story book and my rally award. There were a number of
round-table/focus group discussions and I attended the one on Saab's current
advertising campaign (Saab vs). I happen to like the campaign. From a
practical business standpoint, I believe that Saab needs to target new
potential owners which is what this campaign does. It may not speak very well
to current owners, but that's not a priority, in my opinion. The best thing
for current owners is for Saab to sell a lot of cars and be profitable, which
serves to assure current owners that Saab will be around for a long time
to come. I also had a chance to snap a photo of the 2000 9-5 Aero.
We started packing up and Paul gave a few rides in the Sonett and 93 after which he pulled up in NG900 and towing gear and began hooking up the 93. We left sometime around 2pm heading towards Moab, UT where we would spend the first night. There were a number of good photo ops.
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