The Finnish Police still has one Saab 900 (16 valve 900i) in active duty. The car is more or less used as a backup and it is possibly going to museum sometime soon.
Here’s a video from the Finnish broadcaster YLE (in Finnish only):
http://areena.yle.fi/video/1299758544123
The clip should be viewable outside of Finland also.
Uusi autotekniikka asettaa pelastustyöntekijöille aiemmasta poikkeavia haasteita vakavissa auto-onnettomuuksissa. Erikoisvahvat korirakenteet, turvatyynyt, ynnä muu moderni teknologia (esimerkiksi sähköautojen kaapeloinnit ja akustot), voivat vaikeuttaa ja hidastaa pelastustöitä merkittävästi. Tämä puolestaan voi pienentää vakavasti loukkaantuneiden uhrien mahdollisuuksia selviytyä hengissä.
Pelastuslaitoksilla on käytössään sähköinen järjestelmä, josta saadaan ruudulle kaavakuvat onnettomuusauton vahvistetuista rakenteista, turvatyynyistä, polttoainejärjestelmästä, akuista ym. Järjestelmä ei kuitenkaan ole vielä aivan kaikkien laitosten käytössä. Tästä syystä Autoliitto on alkanut edistää erillisen, tulostettavan Pelastuskortin (Rescue Sheet) käyttöönottoa. Kyseessä on yksinkertainen nettisivustolta ladattava, automallikohtainen tiedosto, jonka voi tulostaa ja sijoittaa autoon.
Pelastuskortti tulee sijoittaa kuljettajan puolen aurinkolippaan.
Lisätietoa autoliiton sivustolta: http://www.autoliitto.fi/?x20043=4790196
Sekä englanniksi FIA:n tietosivuilta: http://rescuesheet.info/
Suora linkki Saab-kortteihin: http://www.ifz-berlin.de/ret_pdf/finland_saab.pdf
Graham Robson: Rally Giants - Saab 96 & V4
I just finished reading Graham Robsons book “Rally Giants – Saab 96 & V4″. I wasn’t expecting too much of it, since it was only 128 pages and the price was surprisingly reasonable at Amazon.com. But actually the book does give a nice overview of the Saab rallying efforts and mentions all the highlights from the two stroke era to the end of the Saab 96/99 times. The technology side is somewhat cursory but describes the evolution of Saab rallying engines and cars in a level appropriate for this sort of book.
The imagery was a nice surprise. In addition to the usual promotional material there were some not familiar from previous publications or internet. Presumably some came from the archives of Saab Museum in Trollhättan with the help of Peter Bäckström.
I’m no expert on Saab rallying (especially the Swedish effort), but I did manage to find one error in the book:
Robson claims that Simo Lampinens Rally Of The 1000 Lakes winning car in 1972 was prepared by Saab Finland Works team. Actually this car was not prepared by Saab Works Finland but brought in from Sweden for this one race (the coloring is misleading in this case). It went right back after the race. Hence the temp licence plate.
There was not a whole lot of detail about the Finnish drivers and cars in the book, which was something of a disappointment from a Finnish perspective. Saab Works Finland built 19 full specs Saab 96 rally cars and 2 Saab 99 16 valve cars from 1970 onwards and brought home many international and scandinavian victories for Saab. It would have been nice to see a bit more detail of this side of the “operation”.
The Swedish – Finnish partnership worked pretty well though – despite the obvious rivalry. Simo won the 1000 Lakes in a Swedish prepared car and Stig Blomqvist brought home the last major victory for Saab 96 in a Saab Works Finland prepared car in the 1977 Hankiralli (Arctic Rally). This shows that the co-operation worked, despite Tapio Rainio really hating the fact that he had to give his favorite car (the AEC-501, which had been mainly in his use since RAC 1974) to a “swede”… 
But all in all – a good read with some nice photos. Well worth the price.
I just stumbled on the FormulaSAAB site – the “Quantum Formula S Online Registry“. Great site with tons of info on these Saab racers.
Such a great little story about some DIY tuning on the two strokes – I had to repost this here. Here’s a shortened version of an eBay ad selling some pretty rare stuff:
“These moulds have been in the back for almost 40 years, for some, it’s kind of like uncovering some famous Mummy, others it’s like a medical oddity, and whenever I look at them my stomach churns. I don’t know if they could even be used anymore, maybe collectors material, enclosed in a glass case or something…
What you are looking at are lower engine case moulds that would be used for custom casting crankcases for Saab 3cyls. They were handmade back in the 1960′s by an old family freind Myron Mynchuck who was pretty famous for winning Saab 3cyls, years ago that he and his brothers raced all over the East Coast. What people didn’t know was that they were cheating pretty bad and not getting caught at it. In the pictures, you can see that they made the custom moulds using the outer shell from the factory block, however, the inners had a smaller area to raise compression for the 2 stroke engine, so after winning, when the protests started, the inspectors would look at the crankcase and see all the factory castings and see no reason to tear the engines down for further inspection. Nobody knew what they were really doing. In the pictures you can see that later they added some reinforcing ribs, because the extra stress from racing with the added compression was causing lower end failures, some of those ribs have gone missing.
The outer is the cast SAAB engine case, and the inner is wood and resin. There are a coulpe of cracks in the resin inner from age. Otherwise still in good shape after seeing how they have been moved around over the years.
Anyway, I’ve been sitting on these moulds for years, wanting to find the right home, I think E-Bay is the best way at this point.”
Find the original eBay item here.
Originally posted by “jpk644″ on the Saab Club Of Finland forum.
João C. from Portugal sent me a couple of very nice christmas gifts:
Saab bookmark clip
Saab Aero-X by Burago with a different packaging compared to what I have seen.
Thank You João! I sent a little something your way also… 
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I also finally decided to buy the Saab two stroke tuning manual by Niklas Enander of www.classicsaabracing.com. I was not disappointed – 350 pages of Saab performance (two stroke as well as some V4) in the Swedish language version (somewhat less in the english version). I can only recommend despite the somewhat high price.
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I hope I can have the 1964 stroker project mostly finished by next summer. I have promised that it will be on display at the IntSaab2011 and have decided to keep my word!
IntSaab means a LOT of work for me, so I will not be able to start new projects any time soon. But it has not kept me from planning ahead. Here’s a little hint (my holiday reading…) >>