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From your Club President
The May 12th meeting will be held at the Brecken- ridge Brewery, 5th and Kalamath in Denver. Agen- da includes .
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Another Summer has passed and I reflect on what has happened. Our Club has had many well-attended events . In Estes Park we presented our cars in the Scandinavi- an Mid Summer Festival. In Ability Con- nection Colorado we, as a club, presented our cars in one of the premier car show- ing events in the Denver Metro Area. We gathered as a group to drive to the top of Pikes Peak just outside of Colorado Springs, Colorado only to find a very chil- ly day at the top at 14,110’ when it was 85 degrees at the bottom. We had a BBQ at Jerry’s home and attended a detail clinic at Adams Premium Car Care where they demonstrated how to keep your car look- ing new.
We want to welcome the two new Direc- tors of our Club, Tom Jansen and Bruce Harbison. Collectively as a group of now 8, we have a whole lot of enthusiasm to create fun in the upcoming year. We will be contacting members through Yahoo Groups and Facebook of the upcoming events as we progress into 2016.
Thank you for all your enthusiasm and your support for our Great Club.
Jerry Danner, President RMSC Photo by Tom Nelson
by Darrell Christiansen (photos by Charles Stoyer)
This is the last planned meeting at the current location, with the potential of future meetings being at the new Breckenridge location on South Santa Fe. Crazy Moun- tain Brewery, out of Avon, CO will be taking over the
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current facility, so there may still be the possibility of holding future meetings at this location. Jerry is work- ing on setting the Club up with the new Breckenridge location to have future meetings there. Our first meeting is planned for the July 22 meeting and will be a VIP tour
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of the new facility. (After the meeting this was changed to September, due to the new facility not being totally complete.)
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Jerry introduced new member Jesse Oranzinni, from Vermont, who owns a 1998 Saab 9000 CSE. Jesse will
be here for 3 months while he is in training. Wayne Brewer has moved back to Cotopaxi from Alabama on a permanent basis. The Club just recently acquired some old parts that Wayne hauled back with him from Ala- bama. Leslie Cruz, who has had 85, 87, and 91 900 Tur- bos, and just bought a 1989 Saab 900T CV attended the Club meeting for the first time. Also attending the meet- ing was new/old member John Hill from Argentina.
Ryan Kapple is doing better and is at home recuperating. In the interim Clay Sewald at Jerry’s shop, will be taking over as Webmaster.
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At this time, there are 11 members signed up to be on the field at the Concour d' Elegance, on June 7. On Friday night before, Bob Bondurant will be at Club Auto for a night of food and cars. McClaren will be introducing their new model 570. Deadline for Sunday's show's
sign-up is May 22. Last year we had 16-17 at the show, and the $50 fee goes to good charitable causes.
The Scandinavian Mid-Summer Festival is in Estes Park, and we have 10-11 cars currently signed up. We are go- ing to try to have around 19-20 cars, space permitting.
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The event is the weekend of June 27th – 28th, and our Club will be showing on Sunday the 28th.
by Darrell Christiansen (photos by Charles Stoyer) (continued)
The annual Summer Drive is coming up, and will proba- bly include the Buck Snort Saloon again. Date and route are TBA.
The 2015 SOC will be August 13th to the 16th in Lexing-
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ton, KY. Eight members indicated that they may attend, with most saying they would fly to the event.
The current update from NEVS, is that they have come out of reorganization, so now they have to come up with the money to pay off the creditors.
Orio, Saab Auto parts, visited Jerry concerning parts dis- tribution for the United States. They want to sign up some of the local shops to purchase parts directly from them. Jerry has indicated that he will continue to buy parts from the Elway dealership, that was Shaw’s, unless they discontinue the program.
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Jerry has two slide presentations this evening, one is his visit to the Simone Car Museum in Philadelphia, and the other is on the computer system in our recent model Saabs.
Dr. Simone, owner of the Simone Museum, has acquired numerous pre-1960 road racing vehicles, and has a cur-
rent exhibition of a collection of Saab cars owned by Bill Jacobson, a longtime friend of Jerry’s. Jerry went back to view the Jacobson collection that was on display, courtesy of the Simone museum. The slide show showed the many vintage racing vehicles in the museum,
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along with the current exhibit of Bill Jacobson’s Saabs.
Jim Beetham showed some items from his dad’s desk that were of historical significance for some older model Saabs. He had some old items including a brand new key for a 1972 99, a grill emblem created by Saab Den- ver, owners ID cards, manuals, and a 1965 NADA price book that had values on old cars, such as Studebakers.
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The second slide show was a presentation put together by Jerry, showing the different components of the com- puter systems in the more recent Saabs, and how they all communicate and interact together to manage the many systems included in the vehicles. The presentation was based on the electronics for a 2005 9-3 Sports Sedan. In 1970 Saab first used computers for engine management, and 1974 was the last carbureted vehicle, and 1977 was the last year that points were used. Everything from this point on that was made by Saab contained various com- puters to manage the engines and other components of the cars.
by Darrell Christiansen (photos by Charles Stoyer)
The meeting was held at Mile Hi Automotive, with 27 members in attendance.
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Jerry welcomed everyone to the meeting and discussed the current understanding of the situation at the new Breckenridge Brewery. It is becoming apparent that the new facility is not set up for meetings for a Club like ours. We are still going to try to get a tour set up for one of our meetings, in the near future.
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Crazy Mountain Brewery, in the former Breckenridge, is in the process of remodeling, and it is still to be seen how that facility will be setup for the future. The Colo- rado Plus facility, in Arvada, is wanting to charge for the room use, even though we are buying food and drinks.
We are still on a search for a new meeting room for up- coming meetings.
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Tom Nelson discussed membership, with regards to email addresses. Tom cannot change emails for people, only the member can. If you have completely forgotten how to sign in, Tom can delete your current membership and you can start over with a new one.
New members were introduced. Jesse, visiting from Vermont, was in attendance for his second and final meeting before returning home. Someone signed up as a new member on the website, and drives a 2004 9-3 Aero. Dick Brown from Colorado Springs was in attendance,
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and owns a 2002 9-5 Aero. Tom Robertson has a 2008 9
-3 Aero. David Banner from Fort Collins, drives a 1997 9000 CSE, and is in the process of restoring the car.
Paul Battone discussed upcoming events. July 25th is
by Darrell Christiansen (photos by Charles Stoyer) (continued)
the annual BBQ at Jerry’s house from 11-3, Jerry will be providing the dogs and brats. August 22nd will be a drive up Pikes Peak in our Saabs, with breakfast prior to the drive.
The National Saab Owners convention will be held in
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Lexington, Kentucky this year, August 13th through the 16th. Jerry asked for a show of hands of members that were planning on attending. Jerry and the group will have a report on the convention at the next Club meet- ing. If you get there the day before, you can take a tour
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of the Corvette factory in Lexington, for $25.
John and Jerry will be getting together to set up a plan for working on Project Rob, the 1985 SPG. This car was
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Rob Martinson’s. The car has been stripped down, and will take quite a bit of work to put it back together.
The Club meeting for the evening will have a discussion
of the SRS system, and a demo of how the air bags in the cars operate. The 1993 Saabs had a driver side airbag, and the 1994’s came out with the passenger side airbag. Saab has a great video out ‘200 milliseconds of your life’ that should be available on the web. The airbags are operated from computers that are integrated with the overall computer management system of the car. The airbags are triggered by a ‘G’ force that results from a collision. There are multiple sensors that are now in-
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stalled in the cars to set off the various bags in the car, depending on the type of collision. Two of three sensors need to be activated to deploy the airbags, with only the airbags in the collision area of the vehicle going off.
The computers also have recording devices to record the events of the accident for future analysis. Most cars that come to Jerry’s shop that have the airbags deployed, are
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totaled by the insurance companies, due to the difficulty of installing and resetting the systems. Side seat airbags can be reinstalled three times before the computer needs to be replaced. The seat upholstery needs to be resewn with cotton thread in the area of the bag in order for the bag to release properly. The meeting then retired to the yard to set off several different airbags.
November 2015 Meeting: Quaker Steak & Lube
by Jerry Danner (Photo by Tpm Nelson)
The Rocky Mountain Saab Club of Colorado held it’s November 2015 meeting Quaker Steak & Lube.
Chicken wings & many spicy sauces star on the American menu at this casual, automotive-themed chain. Thirty Seven (37) members attended this meet- ing. Hanging from the ceiling from our meeting room was a 1977 Corvette Stingray, hanging upside down. The restaurant was filled throughout with many other race cars from dirt track to Indy Cars and filled with many automotive memorabilia pictures and artifacts. Food was wonderful and happy hour specials lasted to 7:00pm.
Our normal meeting place is still in limbo. Crazy Mountain Brewery is excited to host our meetings like in the past with Breckenridge Brewery at the same location at 471 Kalamath. We will keep all posted when the new operation finally opens.
Elk Hunting in a Troll-Blazer?
by Charles Stoyer
Minutes from that meeting follow.
While hunting Elk during 4th season near Grand Lake CO, I was driving my Jeep Cherokee. On Na- tional Forest roads, in search of the elusive Wapiti. No chains, but chains were at the ready in the back
(Ed Note: The September meeting was cancelled due to lack of venue. It seems there are several places where we would like to hold our meetings but they all want to charge for the use of the room, in spite of the fact that the attendees, for the most part, will pur- chase food and drink.)
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seat, just in case.
I came across a Saab 9-7X, a.k.a. “Troll Blazer” since it was based on the Chevy Blazer platform. As you can see, it is fully chained up—all 4 wheels!
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by Darrell Christiansen (photos by Tom Nelson)
Jerry welcomed everyone to the meeting, and thanked Bob Buck for finding us the place to meet. Bob had been driving by this place for years, and checked into room availability, and it worked out quite well. They have two rooms, with the second room being bigger than the one we used.
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Jerry talked to the owner, Kevin, of Crazy Mountain Brewing, and they are getting their liquor license re-
viewed on Friday the 13th. They are hoping to once again fire up the BBQ and hopefully the meeting room will be available for the January Club meeting. Jerry was not sure of the setup at the Quaker Steak meeting room, so he did not bring any videos with him. Next meeting, January, he will be showing video on the ORIO Saab Parts program that Mile High is participating in.
Saab parts are generally available for the newer cars, with the only parts problems currently being for the old- er vintage Saabs.
Jerry introduced new members. Walt, who owns several 08 & 09 Saabs, Wayne’s (Cotopaxi) son was in attend- ance even though he does not have any Saabs. Jesse
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Coats, obsessed with the 900’s, was introduced to the Club by Bob Buck putting a Club card on his wind- shield.
Elections were held for the Board Members whose terms are currently up. The Club currently has 4 Board mem- bers, Bob Buck, Darrell Christiansen, Larry Beetham, and Jerry that were up for re-election, with one, Larry Beetham, choosing not to run again. Tom Jansen volun- teered to run, to fill the spot vacated by Larry. Each of the Board members discussed the function of the Board, and the type of work that is involved. Bruce Harbison
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also volunteered to put his name in for election. Paul Buttone made a motion to elect the three that are rerun-
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ning, and add the two additional candidates, resulting in a Board composed of 8 members. This motion was se- conded, and the vote was taken by a show of hands. All five candidates were elected to the Board. It was later determined that the Bylaws specify that the board may have as many as 11 members. Pictures of the new Board were taken.
Jerry also reviewed the financial status of the Club. Our
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(Continued on page 9)
Club has a solid financial basis thanks to money raised via the last SOC, hosted by the Club in 2009, and several projects that the Club has worked on and sold. We have the 2019 SOC convention to look forward to, and our bank balance gives us plenty of money to work with to get this project going. Some of this money may be ear- marked for Tom Donney’s Saab museum, when plans for it are firmed up.
Marshall has a 2003 Saab Convertible with automatic transmission that he wants to sell. Wants to free-up gar- age space and hopes that someone in the Club might be interested. It is Dolphin Grey in color. The Beetham’s have a 1989 9000S automatic for sale for $3000. Tom Jansen has a 2001 Viggen convertible, manual, in Laser
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Red that he is asking $7,500 for. Posting ads for sale cars on both the Yahoo and Facebook Club sites is per- mitted for active members of the Club.
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Tom Nelson spoke to the membership that has grown from 177 last year, to 193 this year. This is the list the Tom keeps, and was passed around the crowd for confir- mation of information. We also have a Yahoo site which
had 182 last year, 197 this year. There were additions, and a few that unsubscribe. Tom, Jerry are moderators for the list, and Rob Gardner of Fort Collins is the owner of the list. The Club also has a Facebook list that had 85 members, and now has 128 members. There are mem- bers on the Facebook list that are not on the Yahoo list. John Clary and Tom are both moderators of the Face- book membership. Paul Bottone keeps another list of the most active members of the Club.
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Jerry passed around a sample seat belt system, which is the current subject of a recall from GM for a number of the convertible models, 2009 and earlier. The driver side seat belt on 2003 through the last convertibles made un- der GM. These seatbelts have been found to not be re- tracting properly, especially in warm humid areas. The
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seat belts also have a detonator that tightens the belt in the event of a collision. If the passenger seat belt is also non-functional, Saab will replace that also, but it is not
part of a recall.
Tom brought a copy of a book that he has had called ‘Saab Cars, the complete story’ which he has found to have the most complete history he has found. The 1959 Saab 93B on the front cover is very similar to the one that he recently purchased from Portland, OR. Tom’s car was repainted white, as Saab did not offer a white paint until the middle of the 1961 model year. The car that Tom bought was totally converted from a 93B to 93B GT 850, via power train, and interior. Tom will be taking all of the GT 850 parts of the car, and place it in Project Red Bull. The remaining shell will be available for restoration as a 93B.
Paul talked about the book ‘A Man Called Ove’ that he was put on to by a friend. Ove is a consummate Saab owner, and the story is about him and his car(s).
The January meeting will have a Power Point presenta- tion on the Saab Parts system that Mile High is part of.
The convention next year will be held in Atlanta, GA, and be held August 4-7, which slightly earlier in the year.
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Chuck Andrews is closing his shop in Princeton, Minne- sota that he has operated for 42 years. The last day is November 13, 2015. His shop was 50 some miles out of Minneapolis, and he drove a car hauler to run down to the Twin Cities to pick up cars, bring them back to ser- vice, and then return them to Minneapolis for the own- ers.