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NESA News - July 2003
-Wrap-up on SOG III
-Old Sturbridge Village passes still available – (please, somebody!)
-Web-site update, including member discounts
-Membership update
-Upcoming National Convention, Hershey, PA
-Calendar of Events
-Rally opportunity in ME
-Next club meeting – August 7th, Nashua, NH
The New England Saab Owners Gathering in Sturbridge, Massachusetts
Well over 100 people showed up for the 3rd Annual New England Saab Owners Gathering, and the weather could not have been better! The Gathering got underway Friday afternoon as cars began rolling into the Sturbridge Host Hotel from all over New England, as well as NY, NJ, and PA. The Sturbridge Host in Sturbridge, MA used to be a Sheraton way back when, and was actually the location for the National Convention back in 1990 when the West Mountain Saab Club hosted it.
The crowd of Saabs ran the range from Bruce Welch’s immaculate ’57 93, all the way up to Don Miller’s 9-3 Sport Sedan, and truly everything in between. There was at least one of every major type of Saab made since their introduction to the States back in ’56, and in most cases there were numerous examples. For the complete story, including winners from Saturday’s car show, log on to http://www.nesaab.org.
Thanks go especially to our generous donors and volunteers who made the event possible, and allowed us to stay in the black without any formal sponsorship. One highlight of the morning was the NESA raffle. Many great (and some very rare) items had been generously donated by our friends at SCNA (Garry Grimes and Dan Orzano) and Central Penn Saab Club (Marc Fails), as well as Bruce Billing, Bill and Joanne Clark, Creighton Demarest, Jeff Proposki, Lennie Veilleux at Dean Hill Motors, Pierre Belperron at Charles River Saab, and more. Many lucky raffle winners walked away with some great prizes, and the club did well enough to cover our expenses and then some. Thanks go as well to Wendy and Tim Boucher, Kimberly and Mark Gates, Cheryl and Todd Remsburg, Ed Lorenz, John Moss, Bruce Welch, Bill and Joanne Clark, Dirk Feather, Dave Hosmer, and Harry Davis for generously volunteering their time and energy to make Saturday morning such a success. THANK YOU!
Feedback from the event is welcome. A questionnaire has gone out to those who registered, but we would really like to hear from anyone and everyone regarding your thoughts on past as well as future SOGs. Dates and a location for next year’s SOG are still not set, and we could certainly use your input on deciding how future SOGs take shape.
Old Sturbridge Village passes
Because of our arrangement with Old Sturbridge Village, we wound up holding 6 adult passes at the end of the event, and we would dearly love to sell these at face value so the club can recoup its expenses. The passes are good until June 28, 2004, and they’re discounted $5 off the normal fee of $20. If you can use one or more, please contact us at secretary@nesaab.org. They make great gifts, and you’ll be helping the club tremendously!
Web-site update
The Web-site is undergoing a bit of a facelift. While the format is staying the same (for now), the content is all being updated and revised. For the time being, our “home page” is dedicated to the recent SOG and past SOGs. We would love to have more photos available from the last 3 SOGs, so if you’ve got a link to a web page, or if you just want to send us the photos or scans, we will do our best to get these available to all.
There’s also been a major update to the 2003 events page, and a brief account of our club's early history. Links to info and photos from the two previous SOGs are on the home page, and a streamlined membership form is now available with the option to join the club online.
Dealer discounts
Dealer discounts are also being updated and verified. Charles River Saab of Watertown, MA has consistently been quite good to the club and its members, offering 10% off parts and 15% off labor when you show your card at the service desk. Plus they sponsor Swedish Car Day and have offered us a major discount for the Stevens Driving School in Concord, NH. If you're near Watertown, MA, stop in at CRS and tell Pierre "Thanks!"
Gary Blake Saab in Exeter, NH has also extended a 10% discount on parts and 15% discount on labor to all club members who present their card. Gary Blake has some of the most experienced technicians in the business, and we’re happy to have them on board. Their history (on their web-site) is also quite interesting, dating back to a weekend road test in a 1972 99.
We’ve also got a 10% new and used parts discount at Ellis Imports in Southborough, MA. I recently had a great discussion with Chuck Ellis about getting the most performance out of V4s, 99s, and 900s. He’s enthusiastic about anyone wanting to get the most out of their Saab, so feel free to call him at (800) 405-1430.
Both Charles River Saab and Ellis Imports currently are offering internet discounts just by logging on to their sites. I don’t know how long these will last, but you might get a break if you check them out now!
We have a list of other dealers and independents we’re currently in the process of asking for discounts. As this list grows, you’ll see their links on the membership page. We would very much appreciate your help with this. If you have a preferred dealer or service center that you’d like to see offering a discount, explain our offer, or give us their contact info and we’ll take it from there. We basically can offer a full year of web-based advertising through rotating banners on our web-site, simply for offering a parts and/or service discount. Charles River and Gary Blake have set the standard at 10% on parts and 15% on labor, and this is what we’d like to shoot for, but with the concession that a smaller discount would still be very much appreciated.
The web-site also happens to be the club’s biggest annual expense, despite our getting a generous discount from our host, Rubberneck.Net. Although I’m not particularly fond of the advertising banners flashing on the web-site, they do provide us with the option of soliciting sponsorship from a number of sources. If we’re successful, we’ll have the whole web-site operation paid for through sponsorship, leaving membership dues to more directly benefit the members, through events, resources, etc. So far, we’re about half way there. If you have any ideas on how to make this happen more effectively, or if you know a dealer, garage, or parts source that would like to help out the club and have their banner up on the site for a full year for a small annual fee, let us know.
Membership update
The club is now up to over 190 members with more applications arriving each month. We’ve been pretty generous with extending expiration dates for a variety of reasons in the past, so no one has actually come up for renewal yet… But, the first renewals will start coming due in January of 2004, and this will provide the ongoing funds the club will need to sustain itself. We’ve been putting expiration dates on the mailing labels of our various mailings recently (printed newsletters, brochures), so if you have a recent mailing from us, check the label and see if you’re coming due. A pre-emptive check before the due date would mean a lot of time and unnecessary postage saved on our part, and in the long run, that helps the club a lot.
Don’t forget to bring your card when you ask dealers for discounts – and let us know if the expiration date on your card doesn’t match the expiration date on your mailing label. Parts and labor discounts will increasingly become one of the most valuable membership benefits, and we want those businesses to know we support them as well.
National Saab Owners Convention
The Saab Club of North America and the Central Pennsylvania Saab Club will be hosting this year’s SOC in Hershey, PA. This is perhaps the best-publicized and well thought out SOC in years. Coming into this SOC we have a newly restructured SCNA that’s been hard at work since last year, pulling together the best of what a national club can give us. Many of our members will be making the road trip to Hershey this September, and should anyone wish to caravan down, we have the perfect forum in the saabnet bulletin board: http://saabnet.com/tsn/bb/NESA/
You can use this BB to find drivers in your area who’ll be making the trip as well, or maybe someone in CT could hook up with a caravan heading down from ME as it passes through. There’s the Attendance Challenge as well, and if any club member wanted to take up the lead on this and get things going through the BB or by email, you’re more than welcome. Let us know, and we’ll help you get the word out to all 190 members. See more below.
NESA 2003 Calendar of Events
The following is an abbreviated list of upcoming events. For the full list, check out our events page at http://www.nesaab.org/events/2003/index.shtml
July
26th Dublin Days - Dublin, NH. This just in from member Jeff Powell -
SAABisticatos! Here in lovely Dublin, NH, Dublin Days are coming!
SATURDAY, JULY 26TH 9 AM to 7 PM - There's an "Antique Car & Specialty Car Display". Lot's of pre-WWII cars [20-30, which are very cool - for some reason the Monadnock region is filthy with really, really old cars]. There's another spot for post-WWII cars, mostly 'merican iron show up. The last couple of years, the local Miata club and Viper clubs show up [bout a dozen of each].
I was thinking that this would be a nice place for a bunch of SAABS to spontaneously show up - the older the better. I'm planning [ha!] on bringing the most-done Sonett... It's right on Main Street [Rte. 101], so it's very easy to find.
Hope to see you there. Jeff
Details at: http://www.townofdublin.org/pages/dublindays.html
August
2nd - The New England Sonett Club will be holding a meeting and tech session at the home of club VP, Bill Trench. The topic will be MIG welding on vintage Saabs, and if you've ever considered giving this a try, you won't want to miss this get-together. See additional details including directions at the NESCs web-site: http://www.home.earthlink.net/~sbprods/
9th - The VT100 - NESA member Dirk Feather is pulling together an exciting drive for all who want to take place. The first annual Green Mountain Saab Run - VT100, is sure to become a favorite amongst drivers of all capabilities. Dirk is mapping out an adventure that you won't want to miss. Questions can be sent to Dirk at dirkfeather@hotmail.com. Event details at: http://www.featherlink.com/vt100/index.html
30th - Labor Day - Vintage Saabs at Lime Rock Park - The New England Sonett Club will hold its Annual Meeting at the Lime Rock Park Vintage Festival, Lakeville, CT. As in years past, the meet will be during the lunch break and we’ll be sitting in the infield spectator area, above the esses, under the big shade trees. Look for a Saab sign or Swedish flag attached to a tree. Don’t forget folding chairs and a well-stocked picnic basket.
New England Sonett Club info at http://www.home.earthlink.net/~sbprods/
Lime Rock Park info at http://www.limerock.com/LRP-Events/vintage.html
September
3rd-7th - SOC '03 Another national convention is upon us. Hosted by SCNA and the Central Penn Saab Club, the event is taking place September in Hershey, PA. Marc Fails, CPSC President, is heading up planning on this event. The Business meeting will be Thursday morning for all interested.
http://www.saabconvention.org
13th - The 2nd Annual Picnic at the Billings' Farm - Washington Maine. Last year was a great informal get-together of old friends and new. Clyde and Harriet Billing go as far back in New England Saab history as Saab itself. Overall a fun fall outing for all, and a chance to see one of the oldest Saabs in the country - the Model 92! (Plus we got to do a little Swedish flicking on the Billings' jetskis on a nearby lake!) Follow up the next day at the Viking Challenge in nearby Augusta.
14th - 2nd Annual Viking Challenge Autocross with the Cumberland Motor Club – Augusta Civic Center, Augusta, Maine. Last year was a highlight for Saab motorsports in New England, as 96s, Sonetts, Viggens, and even the 2-stroke Quantum V raced around the course! Each driver got a good 5-6 runs, and many of us had never autocrossed before (but became instantly hooked!). If you like driving a little on the edge sometimes, or want to see just what your car is capable of, you won’t want to miss it this year!
If interested, please see http://www.cumberlandmotorclub.com
or email Chris Moberg at cmoberg@vintagesaab.com
28th - Stevens Advanced Driving School with Charles River Saab - Concord, New Hampshire - 8:30AM-4PM
Pierre Belperron, Charles River's Service Manager, has opened up the registration for this exciting driving school to NESA members at the discounted rate of $225 for the day - regularly $350. If you'd like to hone your driving skills, or learn some new ones, this is a chance to do so, at an incredible price. PLUS, you'll be doing it all in Charles River's 9-3s and 9-5s. From the Stevens site: "Since 1979, we have been teaching average drivers how to handle a car the only way it can be done: hands-on, at highway speeds. It is a difficult, demanding day that will show you your worst, and bring out your best."
For details, check out their site at: http://www.mv.com/ipusers/sadt/
Take a look at the exercises of this all-day program at http://www.nesaab.org/skidagenda.shtml
If interested, email Pierre at pierre@crsaab.com
Charles River Saab can be found in Watertown, Massachusetts
October
18th-19th - Swedish Car Day, Museum of Transportation, Brookline, MA
This year we'll start the festivities Saturday afternoon with a driving tour through Cape Ann, then a SAAB USA hosted dinner cruise in Boston Harbor. The big event will be at the Museum Sunday morning. Cars start arriving by 9AM or earlier. More details coming to this page as they develop. Or check out the Museum's web-site at: http://www.mot.org/
November
1st - The 6th Annual Tech Session at Saab Training Center, Wallingford, CT. The legendary John Moss will take us through yet another in what has become an annual tradition in do-it-yourself hands-on instruction. No specific topic has been decided on yet - your suggestion could be the winner. A tip of the hat to Larry West for organizing these great sessions.
Please email Larry at viggen@mac.com if you are planning to attend, as an accurate headcount is appreciated. Also, mail him your suggestions for topics - previous topics have included trannys, brakes, water pumps and electricals.
http://www.saabturbo.com/njsoc/moss.html
December
TBA: Our end-of-the-year Holiday Dinner. Date and location to be announced, but the Publick House in Sturbridge may prove to be our annual gathering place. Join us in celebrating the events of the year and the growth of the club, while we start to chart the course for the next year of events. Stay tuned to http://www.nesaab.org for more info.
As always, we're looking for volunteers to help with any of these events, and of course, any additions to further fill out the calendar. All events and dates are tentative unless otherwise noted. Please email us at secretary@nesaab.org if you have any questions or comments
Rally opportunity in Maine
This just in from Bruce Howe up in Wiscasset, ME – home of Red’s Eats if like a good lobster roll!!
If this turns out to be a go, we may make a club pilgrimage up there to see his new shop and support his sponsorship efforts. Our current rallying club members, Mike White, James Fox, and Geoff Clark are all aware of this. If you know anyone else who should be counted in, let us know.
“Do you rally a Saab?
My workshop, Atlantic Motorcar Services, in midcoast Maine, is interested in sponsoring a rally car. The vehicle must be a Saab, any vintage. We will provide service support, parts and other services as needed for the right candidate. You must be serious and have a background in the hobby. Give me a call (207) 882-9969, email me at bruce@atlanticmotorcar.com to discuss details or visit http://www.atlanticmotorcar.com.
Thanks!
–Bruce”
Next club meeting – August 7th, Nashua, NH
Just a reminder, we’ll be meeting Thursday, August 7th, 7pm, at Bertucci's Restaurant on Amherst Street in Nashua, NH. All are welcome to join us! We’ll be going over club finances, restructuring of the Officers’ roles, progress on membership benefits, and charting the course of the upcoming events, including SOG IV. Let us know if you have any other items for the agenda at secretary@nesaab.org. Hope to see you there!
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