So here's "The Old Girl", 1984 saab 900 turbo classic 8 valve APC (fuel injected), Left Hand Drive. She was a one-off custom build by Saab so is the only one of her kind in the world. Her full story can be seen here: www.ukshires.net/saabstory.htm
My dad bought her new when we lived in Oman, she came to the UK in 1988, went out to France in 2008 (when most of these photos were taken) and in 2016 she came back to the UK and was signed over to me as an early christmas present. I want her to continue to stay in the family so one day hope to be able to hand her down to my niece.
The above photo was in 2008 after I had her resprayed prior to taking her out to France. I'll add photos of her when she arrived back in the UK last week later.
this one was taken by Coggers at a Hartlepool classic car show we went to just before taking her out to France, as was the pic below:
These two were taken in about 2004, before a "friend" who promised to garage her for a while until she could go to France, lied and parked her under a tree on a farmyard for 4 years, which is why she needed the respray in 2008. The side stripes were the original (rare) saab side stripes, with the beige top stripe and tapering thick black stripe at the back. When I had the respray done I couldn't get them replicated exactly, so had to compromise with the flat gold top stripe, and the guy who measured up and photographed the old stripes before they were removed, messed up and didn't do them properly, forgetting to taper the thick stripe at the tail end. He messed up in many ways on the stripes though, so some time I'll have to get them redone.
After the respray:
These ones were taken when she arrived back in the UK from France the other week:
Unfortunately it's been difficult for my parents to keep her maintained over in France due to lack of parts, and garages who refuse to work on any car that isn't French, so some things have started so slide and I've got some work to do on her which is frustrating after how mint she was when I took her out there.
A chimney fell on her roof in a storm so I've got some dents and paint damage to deal with, new cv boots and brake lines to fit (fortunately I've got those already) a bit of welding underneath (it was only an advisory not a fail thank goodness), a new RHD headlight as the offside RHD head light had a hole in the lens, and water has got in and delaminated the silver reflector backing. She will also need the roof lining doing (again!) and some other minor things, like getting the original inca alloys back on her that she had when new - I'm trying to find a replacement set as dad sadly got rid of her original ones, but that's cosmetic and not essential right now. It's pretty much the only change from when she left the factory - she's not for modifying but getting back to concours due to her rarity.
Of course I've also got to get her re-registered back in the UK again so am currently working on that. She had her controle technique (French MOT) just a couple of weeks ago and only got the couple of advisories on CV boots, brake lines and the welding underneath, so hopefully, as the French MOT is known to be far more stringent than the UK one, she should still be ok for her UK MOT to get re reigstered.
Kirsty
My dad bought her new when we lived in Oman, she came to the UK in 1988, went out to France in 2008 (when most of these photos were taken) and in 2016 she came back to the UK and was signed over to me as an early christmas present. I want her to continue to stay in the family so one day hope to be able to hand her down to my niece.
The above photo was in 2008 after I had her resprayed prior to taking her out to France. I'll add photos of her when she arrived back in the UK last week later.
this one was taken by Coggers at a Hartlepool classic car show we went to just before taking her out to France, as was the pic below:
These two were taken in about 2004, before a "friend" who promised to garage her for a while until she could go to France, lied and parked her under a tree on a farmyard for 4 years, which is why she needed the respray in 2008. The side stripes were the original (rare) saab side stripes, with the beige top stripe and tapering thick black stripe at the back. When I had the respray done I couldn't get them replicated exactly, so had to compromise with the flat gold top stripe, and the guy who measured up and photographed the old stripes before they were removed, messed up and didn't do them properly, forgetting to taper the thick stripe at the tail end. He messed up in many ways on the stripes though, so some time I'll have to get them redone.
After the respray:
These ones were taken when she arrived back in the UK from France the other week:
Unfortunately it's been difficult for my parents to keep her maintained over in France due to lack of parts, and garages who refuse to work on any car that isn't French, so some things have started so slide and I've got some work to do on her which is frustrating after how mint she was when I took her out there.
A chimney fell on her roof in a storm so I've got some dents and paint damage to deal with, new cv boots and brake lines to fit (fortunately I've got those already) a bit of welding underneath (it was only an advisory not a fail thank goodness), a new RHD headlight as the offside RHD head light had a hole in the lens, and water has got in and delaminated the silver reflector backing. She will also need the roof lining doing (again!) and some other minor things, like getting the original inca alloys back on her that she had when new - I'm trying to find a replacement set as dad sadly got rid of her original ones, but that's cosmetic and not essential right now. It's pretty much the only change from when she left the factory - she's not for modifying but getting back to concours due to her rarity.
Of course I've also got to get her re-registered back in the UK again so am currently working on that. She had her controle technique (French MOT) just a couple of weeks ago and only got the couple of advisories on CV boots, brake lines and the welding underneath, so hopefully, as the French MOT is known to be far more stringent than the UK one, she should still be ok for her UK MOT to get re reigstered.
Kirsty
