The pictures!

From Day 1 of the Continental STTE/Saabscene Meet...

After a quick meet at Jeroen's house in Den Bosch, The Netherlands, off we went in convoy to the carting... 6 Saabs, 1150 combined horsepower.. and lots of spooling turbos.

In a puff of tyre smoke.. we arrived for these photos outside the carting place.





Saab 90 belongs to Onno (small_wonder), Black Saab 900 Turbo to Tijn (Doktor_evil), Silver Saab 900 Turbo to Wijnand (wijnand), Green 9000 to me (mark_a), blue 9-3 turbo to Eric Burr (blue99turbo) and green 900 turbo to Maarten (maarten)

After a fun session of carting (photos to follow) we all went off in STTE/Saabscene style to the (so called) beauty contest.. this was to be judged at the city's Saab dealership (Nieuwkoop Motors in Den Bosch) by one of the staff.



Whilst deliberations took place.. we all had a good look at the cars on display..

hmm.. what to chose if suddenly rich.. 9-3 SS or..


.. 9-5 aero..



Great debates between Wijnand and Tijn...


And the verdict in..



Seems he liked the 9000... he presents all the owners with a Saab kite.. and the winner(?) with a 'Made on Trollhatten" book!

After much tyre smoking.. lots of boost.. and a quick high-speed run.. it's back to the carting track where again Eric Burr and Onno lead the way posting great times, beating us all into submission and getting times that see the two of them in the best lap times of the month leaderboard for the carting centre..

so much for my usual excuses...

and then the evening festivities...

After a fine few drinks.. Eric Burr drives us all in the 9000 to the place where we are going to have dinner.. a nice informal bistro place.. wine and beer consumed and a hearty three courses later, find us back at Jeroen's house for a spot of late night chatting, drinking and Granturismo 3 Playstation 2 prowess..



This continued until 3 am.. then enough was enough.. those that were staying crashed out at Jeroen's place..

The next morning there were a few comments about a certain ones snoring.. (not saying who)

..

Day 2 dawns..

Onno has cleared up Jeroen's living room/dining room.. and now Jeroen (fantastic host that he is) has fixed a full sit down breakfast for us all...

Over coffee, boiled eggs etc.. more Saab chat happens.. followed by the obligitory photoshoot...

Eric Burr and his firebreathing, great sounding, Hirsch tuned 9-3...


His engine ..



His intercooler (viggen cross-flow)



The Brothers Van Dorst (Maarten on rhe right, and Jeroen on the left) and Maarten's firebreathing, great sounding hirsch tuned 900 SET.



Maarten's engine



Me and my 9000



Onno(who'd nipped off for a shower..)'s great 90's engine



The three turbos.. (740hp between them)


After fairwells..Eric started his journey home to Germany.. and all that was left to do was to visit the Amsterdam International Car Show...-- specifically Saab!!!

The saab stand at the Amsterdam International Auto Show (AutoRAI) was excellent.. lots and lots to see and pretty big.. (plus nice hospitality and drinks )

They had the new 9-3 Aero there along with it's new fitted integrated navigation/multimedia system. (Looks great !!!)

and a few little details you all may not yet have seen in person yet... such as.. the exhaust it has ..



It's wheels and brakes..



They also had the new 2003 Saab Hirsch (305HP) 9-5 Troll..









All in all an excellent couple of days.. and very nice to meet everyone.. roll on the next meet, which will be even better (which will be hard).. with the following agenda..

Day1) Speed2003 tuning show, where STTE has a stand. evening at Jeroen's.
Day2) Speed2003 tuning show, where STTE has a stand.
Day3) Drive down through autobahns to nurburgring for a trackday.

Watch this space for dates..

hopefully you can count a few brits into that meet!

Nice pics! Looking forward on the next meet!

Best looking 90 I've ever seen, nice in odoardo and leather trim too
Great pics

Really great pics Mark, looks like you all had a ball. Hopefully I'll be there for speed.

Thanks to all for making this a great weekend!!

Mark wrote:....we all went off in STTE/Saabscene style.....
I know some guys who've lost their privileges to comment on BMW owners and their antisocial driving style

I hope some Brittish people can make it to the next meeting in May. I'm looking forward to meeting you.

The dates for your agenda are the 3rd, 4th and 5th of May 2003!!!

That is one AWESOME steering wheel....

(I can't believe I'm getting excited about steering wheels... )

<hangs head in shame>

Looks like an excellent time was had by all. Nice pics too

Are there any other pics of the Hirsch Troll?

Maarten wrote: "Mark wrote:....we all went off in STTE/Saabscene style.....
I know some guys who've lost their privileges to comment on BMW owners and their antisocial driving style"

You must be talking about those classic Saab drivers!

Anyways, thanks again everybody for the great trip. I had an absolute blast. And thanks again to Jeroen for being such a great host!

Off all drivers, we (the classic drivers that is) drove very decent! We might had a little problem keeping up with the newer and very tuned ones, still no anti-social driving!

Still, was a good day, It certainly got my turbo spooling!

Hehehe...the endless Saab discussion: classic Saab vs GM Saab

I agree, the classic Saabs drove a little less anti-social than the GM Saabs.

On the other hand, classic Saab owners' parking habits are more anti-social. Look at the picture, all classic Saabs have parked with one wheel on the road (not that parking on the grass would be legal ).