From: DLylis@aol.com
> Oddly, the worst car I ever owned, I loved. 1968 SAAB 96. It started
> poorly in the cold weather and eventually left me stranded in New England on
>a
> cold December evening with a seized engine. I still loved it. It was rare
>for
> those times and "intellectuals" drove them. OK so I'm not that bright.
> I talked a friend of mine into buying one as I liked it so much. As you may
> recall the car was a four on the column.
I had several of these Ford-V4-powered cars. The one that was the original of
the bunch was a 1968. Loved them. Ran away from Jeeps in the snow. Lowered
and decambered the 1968 known as "Inga" and autocrossed it for years. Finally
rolled it at an icekhana in Wisconsin. The next day we put studded tires on it
and I let Flip Shockley run the whole three-hour race. He was so much more
talented than I that it would have been wrong for me to hold him back by
driving my shift. Stock engine, full street trim, he finished 4th overall and
third in his class against actual race cars. He awarded me the trophy.
The two years I raced, it was in two-stoke SAABs.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pethier/102447656/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pethier/102701242/
My last one was the newest of the lot. My brother had bought it new and had it
delivered in Amsterdam when he was doing post-grad work in Paris. It finally
died when the ring & pinion failed when my wife was backing out of the
driveway. I sold it to legendary SAAB mechanic Dan Jones. Thus ended my SAAB
career until I bought a Sonett in 1987.
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