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, Mon, 25 Mar 2002 17:04:12
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Having read through all the previous posts now, I'm sort of amused to see any of us taking aim at each other. The only reason I do anything with my fleet of rusty old Saabs is because I enjoy it. Life's too damn short to pursue stuff we don't enjoy. So for the record, the relatively "new" club on the block is the New England Saab Association - we've been at it since September of 2000. Our current membership is 92 people (a nice number, but it'll probably hit 93 by the end of the week, which is still fine!) Our main goal is to enjoy our cars, and enjoy getting together with fellow Saab enthusiasts, and we welcome all, whether they drive 2-strokes or 9-5 Aeros, or even if they just aspire to have a Saab one day - we don't seek to exclude anybody. That's not to say that the vintage crowd is diluted by multitudes of NG and 9-3/9-5 owners. Clearly the vintage and classic Saab owners are some of the most enthusiastic, and at least a few of each model is represented among our members (except the 92, 94, and 98 - we're still working on those, but I got leads on at least the first 2!)
One of the club's biggest annual events is an "owners gathering" - last year it was in August, this year it'll be June so as to not conflict with the SOC. To use last year as an example, we had probably 40 or more cars on the field Saturday. Of those, we had 4 2-strokes(1963 96, 1964 GT 850, 1965 Quantum V, and a 1966 95), 5 V4s(2 95s, a 96, and 2 gorgeous Sonett IIIs), 4 99s, a slew of SPGs and convertibles, and a fair amount from '94 up. Take a look at the photo:
http://clubs.hemmings.com/nesa/events/2001/august/photos/concours/281.jpg
Would we have liked to have more 99s? Hell yeah. But we'd also like more Sonetts, more 93s, 95s and 96s, more classic 900s, 9000s, even more NG900s, 9-3s, and 9-5s. And not just the cars, but their owners - their drivers.
These days it seems that for every 100 Saab owners on the road, only a handful see their car as anything else than basic transportation. I wonder how many 9-5 owners I wave at even know my 99EMS is a Saab! But even with just those handfuls of enthusiasts, that's still a helluva lot of Saab enthusiasts in and around New England. Hopefully this club will be a way of bringing and keeping us together. As for specialized events for 99s - yeah, we'd like to do that, or at least be a part of it. When we recently had a weekend wrencher to rebuild carburetors, it could be seen as kind of limiting in that not too many Saabs in the last 25 years have had carburetors. But still, we would have welcomed anyone driving up in a 9-5 aero as much as someone in a '69 Sonett. It's about enjoyment.
To anyone who's read this far, thanks. If you want to start something new, that's great - it means there's a lot of enthusiasm out there, and THAT is what's going to keep these cars from winding up in the crusher. Get as many people enthusiastic about these great cars as possible - it's better for the whole Saab community that way. Maybe we, as a club, can't be all things to all people. But we're trying, and if you read what we're putting out there, you'll see that we'd like to at least be involved, help out, promote whatever else is happening around the area. Let's face it - a handful of people can't do it all. We'd rather each member look at what interests them, and then maybe offer something specific to that interest. That's how the carburetor thing took off. There's an endless assortment of similar "events" we all can organize and host. It'd be awesome if we had a huge group of Saab enthusiast friends to bring along each time!
All the best,
Chris
Chris Mills
Secretary, NESA
http://www.nesaab.org
secretary@nesaab.org
posted by 198.204....
, Mon, 1 Apr 2002 16:22:54, Mon, 25 Mar 2002 17:04:12, Tue, 26 Mar 2002 11:43:23, Tue, 26 Mar 2002 07:42:19, Wed, 27 Mar 2002 02:53:13, Sun, 24 Mar 2002 04:34:40
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