Tag Archives: sweden

meditations.

holograms-meditations

For the past few years—my favourite bands have all come from Sweden.  This week i’ve been listening to a lot of Holograms.  Their new record, “Forever”, was released this week.  Their 1st album was sort of a simple, straight forward affair—while the new album is darker, more complex, and dare i say Broder Daniel-influenced? (Broder Daniel is one of my favourite bands of all time).  They even titled the album “Forever”, just like Broder Daniel titled one of their records “Forever”. Hmm.

Holograms are playing 285 Kent Ave. on December 6th in Brooklyn.  you will find me there, lurking in a dark corner.

holograms-forever-front-cover

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foto of the day. VW 911.

well not really….but this 911L racing in sweden circa 1969 has a big fat VW sticker right on the bonnet!

src: Early911Registry

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video of the day: weird 80s swedish man and his Urraco.

this video cracks me up…..but the sound of the Lamborghini Urraco is all types of wonderful.  Beautiful car too, one of my favourite 70s supercars.

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SAAB DRAMA: Spyker places last-minute bid for SAAB!

“Dec. 20 (Bloomberg) — Spyker Cars NV today said it has submitted a renewed offer for General Motors Co.’s Saab unit.

“An 11-point proposal had been submitted to GM, addressing each of the issues that arose during the due diligence process” which will “remove each of the obstacles that were standing in the way of a swift transaction,” Spyker Chief Executive Officer Victor R. Muller said in a statement.

GM last week said it will shut the money-losing Saab unit after talks collapsed on a sale to Spyker, the second failure in less than a month to keep the 72-year-old Swedish brand alive.

GM and Spyker decided there was “no point in carrying on” after encountering issues that couldn’t be resolved, GM Vice President John Smith said on a conference call on Dec. 18.

“We have made every effort to resolve the issues that were preventing the conclusion of this matter and we have asked GM and all other involved parties to seriously consider this offer,” Muller said in today’s statement.

“We are very confident that our renewed offer will remove the impasse that was standing in the way of an agreement on Friday, and this would still allow us to conclude the deal prior to the deadline of Dec 31st”

READ!

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601209&sid=aPAUHW8aHK3c

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more SAAB: Saab 99 Turbo promotional video.

An original 1977 promotional film outlining the (at the time) new Saab 99 Turbo.

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saab is on fire.

not in a good way. in a bad way.

Koeniggsegg announced today that they are NOT going to purchase Saab….those supercar making bastards have changed their mind—–AGAIN.

So SAAB is really on it’s last life now.  Will it burn and fade away like Pontiac and Saturn? Is there something else that’s gonna save it?

VOLKSWAGEN? Imagine that.

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SAAB will be cool again! KoenigSAAB is born!

 

koenigsegg_saab

Well i gotta say i was very happy when i learned today that Swedish supercar maker Koeniggsegg appears to be the buyer of the troubled GM-owned SAAB brand.

saab_99_front_1970

I had been pretty harsh on Saab a few weeks ago in my post about their direction, but it’s really nice to see them escaping the diseased hands of GM.

This is gonna be a fascinating combination.  So will SAAB go back to being a smaller niche company?  Or will K-Segg try and turn them into a higher volume, money-making swedish trickster?  My suspicions tell me that they’re gonna keep SAAB very specific, very swedish, and bring some of the soul back that’s been lost.  Whether they go retro or they go futurist—-i’m pretty sure that Koeniggsegg is really gonna put some good time and effort into resurrecting one of the cooler brands of cars around today.  It’s also REALLY nice to see Saab going back to Sweden….and not being sold to some rubbish Chinese carmaker….

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Good Story: Ola and his 1982 Audi Quattro Coupe.

eurp_0906_22_z+1982_audi_coupe_quattro+ola.jpg

What a cool story this is! 21 year-old swede Ola Johansson bought a 1982 Audi Quattro Coupe for 150 Euros, with the dream of turning it into a replica 1987 Pikes Peak S1 Quattro.  He had no previous experience in designing/building/engineering, and not much money to start off…..so basically he got to work!! Several months later he had a working (but dirty) version he showed at a local car show.  Certain people were very impressed by his work—including people working at Koeniggsegg, who offered him a job there (!). A transformation of his car from a rusty junked Coupe to a serious Pikes Peak replica—-complete with a modded-by-koeniggsegg Porsche-sourced Audi RS2 engine!

click here for the full article at EUROTUNER: http://www.eurotuner.com/featuredvehicles/eurp_0906_1982_audi_coupe_quattro/index.html

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Saab: the dumbest company of all.

79saab900turbo.jpg

I loved Saabs growing up….I always used to wish my parents would buy one.  Eventually my mum bought a 1999 Saab 9-3 with my pushing, however overall it was a dissappointing car.  By that time, Saab had already disintegrated into a puddle of poo laid by General Motors.

How can a company, which built the utterly charming, classic, and timeless original Saab 900s of the 70s and 80s LOSE THE PLOT like Saab has?  Was it puretly GM screwing it all up? Or did Saab, as a company, just give up!  I’m not sure of the truth, but I am sure that this company has all but gone down the tubes completely.

There is one solution, in my opinion. Saab needs to get back to their roots.  Abandon all this 9-3, 9-5 crap….and start focusing on the 900 line of cars again.  BRING BACK THE SAAB 900, YOU FOOLS!!!

If i had the money, i would buy this infected company, fire all the useless designers who keep believing that the rubbish 9-5 design is great and should be ‘tweaked’ every 2 years to try and reinvent the car—–and come up with a young, fresh, design team who loved the old 900 growing up…..and GO RETRO.  Yeah, i know lots of people hate that word; “retro”, but in a case like this—-the 900 should have been to Saab what the 911 was to Porsche. It should have become an evolving design with evolving performance.

Shame on you, Saab—-for screwing it all up. I AM ALSO LOOKING AT YOU, Volvo!

Here’s a rendering i found online, not exactly what i’m thinking of—-but a good start!

saab900turbosmallow1.jpg

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