By Hooniverse
Now that we know Saab will live to BORK! BORK! fight another day, we can put the eulogies for our favorite automotive jet spawn away. But who says we have to put away the moving pictures as well?
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCc7PwxIKjE[/youtube]
Most of us know the early Saab cars had two-stroke engines. However not all (None?) of us know what it’s like to drive one of the little things. Thankfully, Anders Jensen has been kind enough to put a camera in his 1964 Saab Sport (which is set up for 1,000cc-and-under historic racing) and put the resultant videos on the Tubes of You for all to see and give us an idea of what it’s like to give one a serious workout. The most action packed of those vidyas is seen above, and was shot during the 2008 Copenhagen Historic Grand Prix. In addition to dodging mangled MGBs and oil-puking Giulias, there’s plenty of excitement as Anders zings the 844cc triple up to (and past) the redline and stirring the 4-speed manual via the column-mounted shifter. No, you didn’t misread it: this car has four-on-the-tree. Praise Odin and pass the lutefisk…
Kamil Kaluski
I dunno…there's not gonna be much room in there for the chicken suit.
You'd be surprised how much room is in there. Erik Carlsson is about 6'4" (just under 2m)…
In heaven, all race cars sound like 2-strokes, air-cooled, single-cylinder four strokes, or V-12s.
Are you telling me that there are no Novi V8's, Offy 4's, Alfa or Lotus Twin-Cam's, BRM H-16's, BRM V16's, Cosworth DFV or BDA's, Hemi-6's…etc….etc….etc….in heaven?
Okay, Okay! I give! Uncle! Uncle!
But there are lots of two-strokes in heaven.
My GT550 sounded just like that SAAB, and because I sold it to a dipshit when I moved, it's probably in bike heaven. Dammit. Never should have gotten rid of the thing.
God, please let Spyker return Saab to this type of greatness. I couldn't give a damn about anything during the GM days (except maybe the 9-3 VIggen), but this is just awesome.
I love the rumble of a V8 and the snarl of an inline-six, but the small-bore class at my local vintage racing organization has some of the neatest-sounding stuff imaginable. When the green flag drops, there's a fantastic mechanical symphony: An F3 Cooper powered by a single-cylinder motorcycle motor plays the bass line, a few H-Modifieds powered by Panhard flat-twins fill out the midrange, and above it all you can hear the wail of a SAAB 850 Monte Carlo like this one.
When the SAAB whizzes by, trailing a cloud of two-stroke smoke, some of the Alfa and Porsche guys crack jokes, saying that the owner gets money from the government as part of a mosquito abatement program. Deep down, they're just jealous that it's so loud.
I can't speak for the Ivy League professors, but two-stroke SAABs are perfectly fine for some of us Pac-10 lecturers:
http://uwnews.org/uweek/article.aspx?id=52703
I will wave to you if I ever see you out and about. My Grandmother lives in Shoreline. Yes, people generally don't recognize hand signals but they are kind of fun to do.
i had no idea they race their old rides like assholes! fascinating!
Sigh. I'm missing my three-on-the-tree Rambler even more after watching that. :/
WEEEEEE….wwEEEEEEEEEEEEE…wwwwEEEEEEEEE….WWWeeeeeeee….4 on the tree..3 under the hood…gotta love it!
What a start. That yellow car that went weaving in and out was nuts. Causing that other yellow car, that had a bad start, to rear end someone in the first turn and die on the track. So my anouncer skills aren't great. I love the long throw of the shifter and the sound of the motor.
I'm facing transmission envy. And shivers. Man, what an engine note.
God what a beautiful sound! I love the way he blasts around that one real tight turn in first.
I used to own a yellow '67 Monte Carlo, which came with one carburetor per cylinder. One fine day I found my cornering limit. I was tearing up the dirt back roads in Palm Harbor, Florida, going faster and faster around these tight right-angle turns, when I oversteered right off the road between two rows of orange trees. I think it got up on two wheels but it didn't quite roll, and luckily I managed to go between the rows of trees without hitting anything. When it came to a halt it was sideways. The passenger door was about one foot away from a 8" diameter wood fence post, there was an orange tree about a foot in front of the car, another orange tree about a foot behind the car, and car was bottomed out in that kind of deep, dirty soft sand you find in Florida orange groves. Aside from dust, there wasn't a scratch on it!
It took a couple hours to get it out of there without bashing my car up or wrecking the trees (citrus farmers hate it when you do that). I had to tie a tow strap on the axle and use a come-along anchored to a tree to pull it sideways. Tug on one side, pull it sideways a few inches, then switch axles and anchor trees and pull the other side outward a few inches until I was finally out from between the trees and could maneuver backwards and forwards. That afternoon was practically the most fun I ever had a-hooning.
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