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From your Club President
Our Rocky Mountain Saab Club has had a great year. With the legacy of Saab be- ing part of history, we still have a lot of enthusiasm amongst our members.
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This summer we gathered together at Red Rocks Park in our great City for a photo shoot to be assembled for the cover of NINES Magazine, the official Saab Club of North America Magazine.
I want to thank Tom Nelson for making this happen. This issue #325 was dubbed as our club magazine as almost half of the publication printed was submitted on behalf of our members.
Summer BBQ's, summer drives to visit remarkable car collections oth- ers want to share their personal col- lections with, Colorado National Monument, Denver Auto show, small car shows, tours, and not to mention our club projects. I truly appreciate all who participate.
We are planning another great up- coming year of events. We will keep all posted. Saab will always be im-
The October 8th meeting will be 7PM at Brecken- ridge Brewery at 5th and Lipan in Denver. Agen- da includes a report on the various club projects and John Libbos who worked for Saab 1987- 2012 and now works for Maserati.
portant to our style. Thanks for being a member of our remarkable club.
Photo by Charles Stoyer
RMSC Meeting Minutes August 13th 2013
by Larry Beetham (photos by Charles Stoyer)
The meeting was brought to order by club president Jerry Danner, welcoming 3 new members: Marshall Warnick from Arvada
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with a 2003 Dolphin Gray 9-3 convertible; Robert Morales with 2 9000’s, a ’97 CSE & ’94 Aero; and Tom Willison with a ’92 900
CV and an ’80 900 5 Dr.
This month is the annual business meeting
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with board elections for 4 of the 7 positions open for Jerry Danner (Current President), Larry Beetham (Current Secretary), Bob Buck & Darrell Christianson. All 4 were willing to run again, though I declined to fill the position of secretary next term after serving for the past four years. There were
no additional members to come forward for nominations so all four were retained unani- mously. Note that the RMSC board mem- bers are elected at-large and then elected to positions by the board. Officers are elected from the board members only. Positions oth- er than President, Treasurer and Secretary are appointed from the general membership. The new board is now Jerry Danner
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(President), Paul Bottone (Treasurer), Dar- rell Christiansen (Secretary) and At-Large members are Larry Beetham, Bob Buck, Dave Snider, and John Clary.
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The remainder of the business portion of the meeting was a review of the finances and stating that the main goals of the club are to
RMSC Meeting Minutes August 13th 2013
by Larry Beetham (photos by Charles Stoyer) (continued)
have fun, learn about cars and participate in road drives and social events.
Paul Bottone reviewed the final plans for the
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Labor Day weekend drive to Grand Junction reminding us that there are 13 different wine tours available and multiple auto museums and shows. He will be leaving Friday night and the hotel reservations are in nearby Fruita.
Membership Chairman Tom Nelson stated in addition to Yahoo Groups we are increasing our Facebook presence with 32 members now. With 130 registered in the club he en- courages us to join the groups.
Progress has been made on Project Colleen, some rust on the front fender turned into a fender replacement. Jerry had pictures and description of the process of removing and preparing the structure to glue on the new metal, which is a newer method instead of spot welding and has very good results. The club spent 2 hours with 4 people working on it but we have about 8 hours of work left; he also had pictures of earlier work done last winter on the tranny and headliner.
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Jerry also had pictures of Project Rob, the
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’86 900 SPG that showed the spare tranny, rack and pinion and other parts that are all removed and will be a puzzle to put back to- gether and of the 1958 93B that he recently bought from Barry Nash, this car was previ- ously owned by Pete Carson.
The group spent several minutes sharing random stories about Saabs, reminiscing and socializing, the next meeting in October is planned to cover pictures of the upcoming SOC13 and word of SOC14 in Redmond, Oregon next August.
We adjourned early at 8:40.
Grand Lake Stroker “Barn” Find
by Charles Stoyer (Photos by Jerry Danner)
Last Fall, my wife and I bought a house in Grand Lake CO. To get there, we drive on Golf Course Road, which winds around quite a bit. On one of the turns was a Saab 96. Of course I noticed it right away.
As the months went by, I looked a little closer and noticed it was a bullnose, which of course meant it was also a 2-stroke. I told myself I need to stop by
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some day , introduce myself and find out what the story about that car was.
I did mention it to Jerry Danner, who is the RMSC president and also a collector. He said he was inter- ested. I never quite got up the nerve to stop by and knock on the door, though.
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One day in August, when I was scouting and prepar- ing for a bull moose hunt, I was up there for a few
days with my 1993 900T ragtop. As I was driving by there were two women standing in the driveway talk- ing; one had a bicycle. So I figured this was my big chance and I stopped.
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Diane was the owner of the car, recently widowed and so the project planned for this car had thus come to a halt. She said her cousin was interested and wanted to buy it. I gave her my card with phone and e
-mail and said if her cousin did not buy the car to contact me and I would see what I could do to find a buyer. I told her I was a member of the Rocky Moun- tain Saab Club.
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She had fond memories of the car and remembered it would go almost anywhere in the winter time, which lasts quite a bit longer in Grand Lake than it does down here in the Front Range, not really more snow but certainly more snowpack since it never melts.
Grand Lake Stroker “Barn” Find
by Charles Stoyer (Photos by Jerry Danner)
A week or so went by and I got a call. I went over to take a closer look and found out there was a “new” engine for the car and a spare “parts car”. I relayed this to Jerry and he showed up one Sunday afternoon to check out the car.
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Jerry was looking for a bargain and Diane knew pret- ty well what the car and spare parts/car was worth so Jerry went home with an empty dolly but not before taking a bunch of pictures and thoroughly checking out the car. And, not to mention, taking a few photos of a cow and calf moose off our deck!
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There was the car, a ‘64 96 Bullnose, in pretty good condition for it’s almost 50 year age, with the trunk full of spare parts (of course). Then there was the parts car, surrounded by very tall grass, having been parked therefor so long that it had sunk into the mud over the years and was resting on its frame. So nei-
ther car was actually in a “barn”, but close enough.
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In the meantime, Tom Nelson had told me that he knew some people looking for bullnose 2-stroke 96’s and I should have told him about it. So after Jerry de-
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clined to meet Diane’s offer, Tom went off to find a buyer from his Saab and Facebook friends.
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We are looking forward to an article about the rescue of these cars later on...
2013 Saab Owner’s Convention in Albany NY
by Jerry Danner
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Saab Owners Convention 2013 was held in Albany, NY at the Desmond Hotel & Conference Center August 15-18, 2013. Since 1995 there have been very few I have missed. This year's event ar- guably one of the best events that has ever been held (except Colora- do IMHO). The layout of the Ho- tel was almost perfect for our needs. Huge lecture room for sem- inars, other rooms for seminars, great area for vendors, huge park- ing lot to display people's choice and concourse cars, huge dining room for dinners. There was a great amount of enthusiasm for this year's event.
Rocky Mountain Saab Club mem-
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bers attending were David Snider and his daughter Rose, Steve McCoy, Bruce Harbison, Barry Nash & Jerry Danner. Steve & Bruce rode together towing
Bruce's 1977 Saab 99 EMS. David & Rose also drove taking David's 99 from Denver. They logged over 1,800 miles one way. I flew in. As usual when I attend a SOC event and do not have a car, I bring a large bag of Saab badges to install on the rental car because I want to bring my enthusiasm and the Spirit of Saab with me when I do not have my cars with me. This year I placed 68 badges on the Mazda- Saab. People always get a thrill when they see this car. All of our club members showed up Thurs- day.
Thursday people & cars started ar- riving. It was a day to get used to the venue. Thursday night banquet was held for the Sponsors for
SOC13. Peter Backstrom arrived from Sweden. Peter was the speaker for the Sponsors dinner. Peter's topic
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was where Saab is at today and where he is
Friday had much more activities. Registration opened, Albany Saab Shop brought their DYNO, vendor area & part swap opened, Saab parts tent opened at 9:00, Seminars started at 10:00am. Peter Backstrom gave a great talk on Saab Competition from 1957 to 1981, Vintage Performance by Jack
2013 Saab Owner’s Convention in Albany NY
by Jerry Danner (continued)
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Lawrence, Classic 900 Trionic Conversion by Jordan Pagano from eEuroparts, Performance Excellence, Saab Ephemera & buying a used 9-3 & 9-5 by Jim
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Hutchings, Replacing a "B" Motor Water Pump by Gary Stottler & David Snider. Cocktails & cash bar started at 6:00 with the Welcome Dinner at 7:00.
Saab Parts North America Sponsored the event with
keynote speaker Tim Colbeck. Tim got the crowd into a game show of "Is this your final answer". After he gave a talk about the state of Saab and where it is expected to go. After we retired to the parking lot for socializing. John & Linda from Performance Auto-
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motive hosted a Club SOC in the parking lot with a great band going on towards 11:30. Turbo also hosted a party for the annual Turbo Party.
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Saturday was also a busy day. Vendor & Part swap area open, DYNO was again open for the perfor- mance group to see how much power their car can produce. Parking for the People's Choice and Con- course awards. Parking placed the cars in groups to easily be judged. Judging for the people's choice was done by the masses. Concourse judging was done by a selected group of judges knowledgeable of the
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2013 Saab Owner’s Convention in Albany NY
by Jerry Danner (continued)
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product. Cars were then staged for the group photo and the photo was taken at 4:00pm. Cocktails were served at 6:00 with the dinner and Awards starting at
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7:00. Mile Hi Body Shop, Inc sponsored the dinner event. Harold Freeley gave the key note talk about being a Saab-A-Holic. Harold always gives a great talk that keeps your interest. After the Dinner talk, awards were given. The only member of our club who brought in a trophy was Bruce Harbison who took 2nd place in the Concourse and 2nd place for Best Fleet which our Rocky Mountain Saab Club
hosted. Retired to Parking Lot Socializing with the famous Potato Gun mysteriously arrived.
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Sunday was a wrap up of the week's events. Sunday was the annual John Moss Charity Auction. There was a different twist this year. Instead of John calling the auction, John presented the items with Chip
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Lamb, a professional auctioneer, called the bidding.
Everyone said their goodbyes on Sunday until next year.
In summary, this year's event was a success. The ven- ue was excellent, The weather was great with 85 de- gree temp with no rain, the program was great, lots of Saab's showed up from the east coast, many regulars showed up. SCNA was responsible for the event and got great praise.
2013 Saab Owner’s Convention in Albany NY
by Jerry Danner (continued)
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Side View
by Jerry Danner
Next year's event is going to be west of the Mississip- pi in Bend Oregon. Phil Lacefield Saturday night af- ter the awards Banquet gave a presentation where the event is going to be held. Dan Morley of the the NW Saab Owners Club is planning a great event for those who attend. They are planning a seven day tour of the West coast prior to the event. It will be spectacular!
The side view of this car is remarkable. You can see the shape of an airplane wing where the original de- signers of Saab came from. I just purchased this
Keep your ears open and plan to attend next year's event.
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1958 93B. I was painting the wheels and wanted to share this rare car picture with all. – Enjoy!!
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