Have you guys talked about Saab's possible return to WRC?

[A.F.F.]

In case you haven't, here's more fuel to the bonfire:

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/85860

I think it would be great marketing :up: Saab enjoy the same glory as Mini in rallying. Hopefully we'll see it happening :)

[Allyc85]

I think its mentioned in the news thread but I think it deserves one of its own seeing as official manufacturers are such a rare bread these days!

Would be great to see them in the WRC, im guessing it would be the 9-1 they will be using as the only pics I can find of a 9-2 are of an estate!

9-1

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_FoXyvaPSnVk/RwU05kyMEMI/AAAAAAAAWM8/xp3EA_zck6k/s1600/saab9

[Zeakiwi]

Has Stig Blomqvist been cloned ?

[Red bull]

this one can be an ideal saab wrc :D :s mokin:

[I am evil Homer]

So Saab, a company bought out realtively cheaply but with borrowed money from its dealer network and still making a loss is going to join the WRC? Hmm...

[Sulland]

http://www.autospies.com/images/users/Agent00R/main/saab9_2_render.jpg

http://www.carmagazine.co.uk/upload/22788/images/Saab9-2scoop02.jpg

[RicKT]

So Saab, a company bought out realtively cheaply but with borrowed money from its dealer network and still making a loss is going to join the WRC? Hmm...

Thats my thoughts......

[Rally Power]

I was also sceptic about a Saab return, wich would be great to Rally Sport, but there are some interesting news that can be linked and validate the swedes plans:

http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/news/autoexpressnews/254998/saab_bmw_to_build_92.html#ixzz0vRp5l99f

http://www.autocar.co.uk/News/NewsArticle/AllCars/251815/

Perhaps an hipotetic BMW/Prodrive support would make easier the Saab WRC entry...

[Sulland]

There are enough rallycar builders in Sweden to pull this off, if SAAB said they would support homologation of it.

[navtheace]

Yes Sulland, I agree

If the road car is designed and made as a 4wd 2 litre turbo. Saab could homologate that for R4 and then let the specialist motorsport companies take charge with their own finance.

That's my vision of how rallying should be, in that the manufacturer can design and make the road car, then let private customers take it from there.

[danon]

Pics and more -> http://carscoop.blogspot.com/2010/07/saab-91-concept-dreamed-up-by-brand_23.html

[Motorsportfun]

There are enough rallycar builders in Sweden to pull this off, if SAAB said they would support homologation of it.

1) SAAB is a dead brand in the car market, they sell few cars against many competitors.

2) SAAB needs a new 'image', and a sporting activity could be the ideal way to do it.

3) Spyker, although is a small manufacturer, was involved also in F.1 a couple of years ago, but an involvement in WRC could be much cheaper.

4) BMW and SAAB are developing two cars in joint-venture.

Who knows...

[A.F.F.]

Interesting article in the newest Veikkaaja magazine... more hype the hype of Saab's return. The model they're planning to use is indeed 9-2 and the head of Saab-Spyker Victor Muller has shown green light for the project. BMW has a contract of delivering 1.6l turboengines for Saab 2012. That also would support the possibility.

Well, fingers crossed I guess....

[OldF]

Well, IMO the world engine was not a bad idea because it makes it easier for new manufacturers entering WRC. Saab would be the second make using the same engine in rallying. The rest is “only” to have a good suspension with good setups and good drivers.

I would really welcome Saab back to the rally because in my point of view Saab is one of the pioneers.

[Rallyblog]

First target for Saab: making profit.

Read Spyker's latest Press release about Saab results Q3 2010 (http://www.spykercars.nl/download/artikel/Saab_Spyker_Q3_results_final.pdf).
34% sales increase in Q3 compared to Q2.

If Victor Muller pulls off this trick I see Saab returning to WRC, no doubt about it.

[AndyRAC]

Well it would be great if they came back - one of the names from the 'Golden era' of the sport!!
The more the merrier - more cars, more drivers, more interest, etc

[J.Lindstroem]

Saab is not going very well at the moment so i dont see them competing in the Wrc anytime soon... Maybe with some help from the russian maffia!

[Sulland]

SAAB was down with a back broken at least in two places, but it has grown back together, and it can move again !

But it will take some time more, and 1 or 2 completely new cars to see if it is completely healed.

SAAB need to wake up from their wet premium dream, and to produce new volume sellers, and by that they can make a rally car from one of those, getting rally fans to buy it.
It does of course help that the top brass, and the big rich bear from the east are passionate rally lovers, so it might go quicker.

Trollhettan has a lot of splendid engineers that could match anyone, if given the chance !

[Gard]

Saab is not going very well at the moment so i dont see them competing in the Wrc anytime soon... Maybe with some help from the russian maffia!

So you are just saying that WRC is not a good place for marketing? to go well, they need to sell more cars. To sell more car, they need good marketing.

[DonJippo]

Maybe with some help from the russian maffia!

Well there is some Russian money behind Saab's WRC project but don't think it's from maffia ... :s mokin:

[Brother John]

So you are just saying that WRC is not a good place for marketing? to go well, they need to sell more cars. To sell more car, they need good marketing.

:up: That´s the point, to sell more cars in the future, they really need to build a smaller car which is payable for the normal people and for private rally teams

[janvanvurpa]

:up: That´s the point, to sell more cars in the future, they really need to build a smaller car which is payable for the normal people and for private rally teams

Yeah, but since the 60s Saab looked to USA as big export market. People i know at Saab Sweden said during the 70s thru the 90s the US importer always pushed for more "goodies" and of course higher prices....

Saab USA of course claimed that Saab customers "demanded" "fully loaded" cars with power everything....

from the very early 80s to 2000 I ran a small business heavily specialised in rebuilding Saabs---mostly, maybe 90% of my work was on 96 V4s owned by very loyal, long term, enthusiastic Saab owners. Most had owned multiple Saabs before and multiple Saabs at any given time...
And most bought 900s as their kids gree up---but kept their old cars..

Repeatedly, endlessly, constantly customers would ask me---as if I could answer---"why does Saab put all this expensive extra CRAP on every single car? I want a 900, and I want similar power like the 96 (I built motors close to Saab's old rally specification but with normal final drive ratios---and of course a bit quieter exhaust system and they had normal simple interior---but that's a hell of a lot quieter than an empty rally car!) But I don't want air conditioning, electric window lifts that die, electric sunroof, bloody climate control that never works right, or even power steering, but all that junk is standard on every car---and I'd never get a turbo without all that extra junk. Why?"

Saab USA was constantly crapping all over their core customers and dishonestly claiming "the customers want" newer and fancier cars, and that drove Saab Sweden to try and make Saab USA happy----despite evidence that Saab customers, like Volvo customers, wanted simpler STURDY safe---and in contrast to Volvo owners---FUN cars..

Saab USA stopped importation of the 96 at the end of 1973---but made them and sold them to Feb 1980. Saab USA bullshat claiming "the V4 can't meet the stricter emissions standards" but we all knew the EXACT same engine with 2 more cylinders ---the Ford V6---was sold in various forms until 2000.
Saab USA stopped importation of the 99 just when the damn thing was finally acceptably reliable (with the introduction of the chaindrive primary gearset) at the end of 1980, yet built and sold them in one form or another 9the rationalised 90) for another 8 years.

It could be argued that Saab's problems can be palced on the poor decisions at Trollhättan "bank" so much on Saabs USA sales, when Saab USA was so consistent in mis-guessing what their actual customers--core, traditional customers---wanted.

When I saw in the late 80s that more and more utterly clueless yuppie scum were buying fleets of Saab turbo 900s having come out of other mainly "consumer" cars, and that the car was becoming just another "consumer" car with sales based on hype and promotion, I knew they were doomed..

Sure there's smart designers at Saab, but like so much of the car business, management can sink a product line as much as anything else..

[A.F.F.]

Yeah, but since the 60s Saab looked to USA as big export market. People i know at Saab Sweden said during the 70s thru the 90s the US importer always pushed for more "goodies" and of course higher prices....

Saab USA of course claimed that Saab customers "demanded" "fully loaded" cars with power everything....

from the very early 80s to 2000 I ran a small business heavily specialised in rebuilding Saabs---mostly, maybe 90% of my work was on 96 V4s owned by very loyal, long term, enthusiastic Saab owners. Most had owned multiple Saabs before and multiple Saabs at any given time...
And most bought 900s as their kids gree up---but kept their old cars..

Repeatedly, endlessly, constantly customers would ask me---as if I could answer---"why does Saab put all this expensive extra CRAP on every single car? I want a 900, and I want similar power like the 96 (I built motors close to Saab's old rally specification but with normal final drive ratios---and of course a bit quieter exhaust system and they had normal simple interior---but that's a hell of a lot quieter than an empty rally car!) But I don't want air conditioning, electric window lifts that die, electric sunroof, bloody climate control that never works right, or even power steering, but all that junk is standard on every car---and I'd never get a turbo without all that extra junk. Why?"

Saab USA was constantly crapping all over their core customers and dishonestly claiming "the customers want" newer and fancier cars, and that drove Saab Sweden to try and make Saab USA happy----despite evidence that Saab customers, like Volvo customers, wanted simpler STURDY safe---and in contrast to Volvo owners---FUN cars..

Saab USA stopped importation of the 96 at the end of 1973---but made them and sold them to Feb 1980. Saab USA bullshat claiming "the V4 can't meet the stricter emissions standards" but we all knew the EXACT same engine with 2 more cylinders ---the Ford V6---was sold in various forms until 2000.
Saab USA stopped importation of the 99 just when the damn thing was finally acceptably reliable (with the introduction of the chaindrive primary gearset) at the end of 1980, yet built and sold them in one form or another 9the rationalised 90) for another 8 years.

It could be argued that Saab's problems can be palced on the poor decisions at Trollhättan "bank" so much on Saabs USA sales, when Saab USA was so consistent in mis-guessing what their actual customers--core, traditional customers---wanted.

When I saw in the late 80s that more and more utterly clueless yuppie scum were buying fleets of Saab turbo 900s having come out of other mainly "consumer" cars, and that the car was becoming just another "consumer" car with sales based on hype and promotion, I knew they were doomed..

Sure there's smart designers at Saab, but like so much of the car business, management can sink a product line as much as anything else..

:up:
I had absolutely no clue of this point :eek:

[Magnus]

Very interesting reading janvanvurpa! Thanks a lot!