This is the same article that you may have read in some SAAB magazines.

Winter Drive with a SAAB Sonett III

--- Saturday 26.01.2002 ---

When Lennart Jarenbäck asked me if I would like to participate in the "Winter Drive" I was immediately interested. He told me more about the event that would probably be more like a "Scenic drive with veteran cars" than a road rally. Lennart generously suggested that we would use his 1974 SAAB Sonett III for the event. What could I possibly say? An interesting event with an excellent old SAAB along with a good friend. What more could one ask for...!? Of course I said that I wanted to participate. After a long wait for me and some minor tune-ups by Lennart to the trusty "race car", just to be sure about the technical details, we left on our journey early on Saturday morning 26.01.2002 from my place in St. Genis-Pouilly in France. (St. Genis-Pouilly is located just on the French side of the Swiss/French border, about 5 kilometres from Geneva.) Riding along in the orange 1974 SAAB Sonett through the sleepy village on our way out to the open roads we just could not stop smiling. And we had all reasons to smile. We were on our way to a great adventure. Let the story begin.

Cruising along in a legal and comfortable speed we swiftly drove through Switzerland, turning away just before Geneva onto the highway. Again passing the Swiss/French border we were back on French ground and heading in the direction of Grenoble. As the early morning was turning into day, there was gradually more and more traffic on the roads. After driving along for a while I noticed that the trip meter of Lennart's Sonett was stuck on twenty-something miles. Yes indeed, "Houston, we have a minor equipment failure". The speedometer was working well, indicating the correct speed in km/h, but our odometer and tripmeter (in miles) were not moving. Oh well, this was a quite minor problem anyway. Approaching Grenoble we were supposed to take an early exit from the highway but guess what? We missed this quite small exit. No problem, we had a fairly good map so we just took the next exit instead. Following the map we were going for the "straight way" to Alpe d'Huez. But, as you may know, a "straight way" on a map over here can include quite big, eh, altitude variations. But no fear, the trusty V4 of the Sonett purred like a happy cat and soon we passed the first mountain peak of the journey with a just a hint of snow on it. There were several more mountain passes to come later during the event, and much more snow waiting ahead for us... We were also in need for some fuel and so we asked some of the locals in a little village where there could be a place to fill up the SAAB. They simply instructed us to; "Look for the house by the road with a pump outside". Hmm, we could almost have guessed that by ourselves. We did find "the house" and it was really far from a "normal fuel station". It was just what they said, a house with a pump outside! Pulling over by the pump we got "fuel fill-up service with a smile" by the owner himself. Something tells me we are not in a big city anymore...

At more or less exactly the specified time in the invitation, 10:00, we arrived at the meeting point in St Pierre de Chartreuse. We were not the only SAAB team participating, there was also the 1968 SAAB 96 of Gerard Mourlot, the main organiser of the event and a friend of Lennart since a long time, there was a 1971 SAAB Sonett III of Henri Pontier and a 1994 SAAB 9000 CSE. The (actually too young) 9000 was the present means of transport for another GASE member, Daniel Grubenmann and his friend, since Daniel got some urgent gearbox problems with his 1971 SAAB Sonett III. It really was a shame that Daniel could not participate with his Sonett this time. It is a real racer, it is tuned to approximately 130 horsepower, and has most everything of the interesting go-fast-parts. But, there will be another time when Daniel can display his impressive racer. After talking with all the beforementionned people we went to put our light luggage in the hotel room and to pick up one of the most vital parts of the event, the "Road Book". Then in the best French way, it was time for some food with last-minute information from Gerard. Quite different pre-driving food from what one might think, aperitif, food with wine and coffee. But then again, there were only small glasses served, and we are in France...

At 13:30 the first car left for the first Saturday day trip, with 1 minute between the cars. We had number 38, so we started at 14:08. Following the road book without a working mileage meter (it broke on the highway while driving to the event, remember?) was a little bit more difficult but not impossible thanks to the outstanding preparations of an exact and informative "Road Book" by Gerard. And anyway, you can get an approximate feeling of 300 meters and 2 kilometres... We started with Lennart driving and myself reading out from the (french) Road Book; "Turn left in 1 kilometre from now, at the little narrow road with a sign towards 'Garage Mathevet' and look out for the wall on the right... After about 50 kilometres we saw flashing lights on the road ahead! Oh-oh, what has happened here? There was a quite modern car that had flipped around on its side! Sure, there was some slight snow on the road but it was not slippery... Anyway, there were some young persons by the side of the road standing by a police car, looking a little frightened but otherwise unharmed. Oh well, metal is always replaceable, especially new one...

After 54,4 kilometres (according to the road book) we arrived at the first stop, a ski resort. There was time to stretch our legs for a while and there was some warm "chocolat/chartreuse" for everyone. After the break I took the next turn at the Sonett's steering wheel. We proceeded down the mountain, and after approximately 8,5 kilometres we turned down on one of the narrowest roads with the highest free falls down on the side of the road that I have ever seen! 10 kilometres impressive road and also with a great view, but this very small road also called for a bit of respect. Continuing on we drove through several of the small villages and there it was fun to see many people by the side of the road waving at the veteran cars. It really must have been one of the greatest happenings in some of the small villages for a long time! It was great fun. Then we started climbing up again on the next mountain. After a total of 111,1 kilometres winding roads from the start we arrived at the finish of the first drive of the day. This was up at the ski resort of Alpe d'Huez, where we were (of course) treated with more refreshments. After that Lennart and myself went down to the ice track where we were going to do some fast laps later. Then we were surprised by the cars suddenly starting to line up for the drive! So, back to the Sonett and get in line! But, we were almost the last car to exit from the parking to line up for the icetrack "race". While lining up for the track we noticed that "the slow cars" were supposed to start first in order to have the most time to get back to the hotel for the evening dinner. And, this meant that "the fast cars" were starting last... So, there we were, lining up with at least 4 Renault Alpinas, one Renault 5 turbo and one MG in full rally trim. ...And one standard SAAB Sonett III...! As we were waiting, Lennart asked me if I was a good driver on snow/ice. Well, at least I have been driving on icy roads many times before I said, driving both sideways as well as in the normal direction. "OK" Lennart said, then you are driving. "Sure" I said. It will be fun. Finally it was our turn to start with the other "fast cars" that I already mentioned. We all entered the track in one row of cars, and then we were off! We entered the track as the first car, and I managed to keep away from all the so-called-fast cars! Actually, after some laps we saw the other cars again, but this time they were in front of the Sonett! In fact, I overtook them all. The MG even twice! It was quite a victory for the Sonett! While driving past the crowd they started to cheer more and more for us as we passed, and Gerard was making comments about the cars with a megaphone as they passed the crowd. When we passed once he said; "Et voila, le champion Finlandais!" -And here we have him, the Finnish champion! ...Kind of makes you proud... After a great victory for SAAB on the icetrack we started the evening drive back to the hotel. This time it was Lennart's turn to drive.

The road back to the hotel for the evening dinner took us through Grenoble. At one place there were many turns coming up quickly and we missed one turn. Argh. Well, no problem, we just turned around and we were back on track. It was now dark and even if equipped with a little "Keyring MagLite" it was not so easy to read all the (French) instructions in time. Apart from this little mistake the drive back was very nice. But, with the darkness and a couple of icy patches on the winding mountain roads, the ride was probably about as exciting for me as the icetrack must have been for Lennart. Especially once when the apparently slight right bend around the side of a mountain turned out to be a quite sharp bend. Everything went just fine but it felt a bit close... As we arrived to the hotel we had to wait a little while and then we were served a very nice evening dinner. During the dinner there were some rumours that one of the participants had crashed on the mountain road! At least the good news were that nobody was hurt but anyway a very sad way to end the day.

After a busy day with an early start, lots of inspired driving, some good food, wine, coffee and entertainment from a quite good (French) stand-up comedian it was not very difficult to fall asleep in the small hotel. …Gathering strength for the next day and dreaming sweet dreams of a SAAB Sonett going slightly sideways in a bend with a pack of Renault Alpinas trying to keep up behind the SAAB but not being able to go as fast...

--- Sunday 27.01.2002 ---

Another morning waking up with big expectations for the day. With a good friend, a SAAB Sonett and some winding mountain roads they were sure to be met. After a nice breakfast the participants starting to line up for the start of the "timed driving". This was not meant to be any kind of road race, the objective was to arrive at the goal in the correct time. We were told that the time and distance (23,6 km) corresponded to a mean speed of 38 km/h. The cars started with one-minute intervals and exactly on 08:38 Lennart and I were on our way. Since we did not have any working distance meter or any Halda Speedpilot's or Halda Tripmasters or Heuer's (except for the one I am wearing) we just thought that we take a good guess and try to drive a steady speed of just above 40 km/h. That should compensate for the lower speed in the tight corners and give us an average of about the optimum, 38 km/h.

We started with Lennart driving and I was reading the roadmap. Lennart did a good job driving, but I missed a turn and we made about 500 meters extra. Aargh. Sorry about that. Time for plan "B" then, we drive a little faster to compensate that mistake and just follow our instinct on what the mean speed could be. We saw many cars going quite fast indeed so either they had made some big mistakes or were planning to have some margin when they were going to take a bad turn later. As usual the scenery was very nice but now I was even more concentrated on the roadbook to not make any more mistakes. The rest of the timed part went fine and when we passed by the house that marked the end of the timed part it felt like we might have made a quite good average speed after all. We just had to wait and see later how it went.

After another 14,1 kilometres we arrived at the next stop. It was by a little old church in a small sleepy village with a river from the mountains. Time for some more chocolat/chartreuse and then we were off again. This time it was my turn to drive and Lennart took care of the navigation. There was one scheduled stop at a gas station that was quite familiar. Oh yes, this was the little house by the road with the pump outside! A quick stop for a "stamp" on the roadbook and we were off again. The rest of the trip was quite undramatic, beautiful scenery and a Renault 5 that could not keep up with the Sonett. Hehe. After 73,8 kilometres from the start (according to the roadbook) we arrived at the next stop of the journey. This was a place for two quite different local craftmanships. One place was where they make the local cheese "Chartrousin" and the other place was "Jacques Point" that makes rollcages for racing cars. Both places were nice but especially the roll cage shop was interesting. They also make tubular frames for some really hardcore open-class racing teams. Not so bad for a little shop in the deepest of France.

After 22,1 kilometres more we arrived at the final finish back at the hotels. (95,9 km total) Now it was time for an aperitif followed by another good lunch with the official prize ceremony. Even if Lennart and I did not have any working road measuring equipment in the SAAB we were hoping that our "fingertip feeling" of distance and time would be somewhat OK when Gerard started to read out the results from the timed driving... The winning team had GPS navigation in their car (cheating?) and they were off with +2 seconds. Hrm. The second best team had their dashboard more or less covered with Halda's and Heuer's. They were off with –4 seconds. The third best team also had some nice and working timing equipment and they were off with +9 seconds. And the fourth best team was Lennart Jarenbäck and Magnus Björk in the SAAB with a time of +18 seconds! Wohoo! We had won over 50 other teams! Not so bad even if I say it myself. But our winning streak was not over, we were also mentioned for "great driving on the icetrack"! Well, a SAAB and a Finnish driver on ice is not such a bad combination I guess... After tasting the sweetness of achieving a good place and getting looks that seemed to say; "Hmm, that funny-looking little SAAB was not so bad…" it was time to say our goodbye's to all the familiar people around and head back for home. Our way back home was a relaxed cruise with the SAAB Sonett III and on the road we saw some other "Winter Drive" participants too, happily greeting us as we passed them on the highway. The exiting weekend was over and Lennart and I were already thinking back on all the good memories from some nice driving with a great car in the beautiful scenery.

So as all fun things come to an end eventually we can only look back to remember the fun days of the "Winter Drive 2002". But this particular fun can be experienced again, since the "Winter Drive" is an annual event. Gerard has promised that next year's Winter Drive will be longer, harder, more difficult and even better than the 2002 edition. Lennart has been preparing another "race car" for the "Winter Drive 2003" edition, a 1976 SAAB 96V4. We will use this SAAB next year since my car-candidate for the Winter Drive, a 1979 SAAB 99 Turbo, is still too young. The cars have to be 25 years or older to participate. So, in the "Winter Drive 2004" we will use one of my cars for a change. …And I think Lennart will like that... ;-)

To enroll for the "Winter Drive 2003", dates; 24-25-26 of January, you should contact Gerard Mourlot or me.

Yours, SAABfully,
Magnus Björk
magnus.bjork@cern.ch
http://www.cern.ch/mbjork

Here are some pictures from the event. You may have seen them in B/W if you read the article in any of the SAAB magazines that published this story.

Cruising on the highway.

This was one of the slightly smaller roads leading to the event.

Here is a little part of the parking outside the hotel, Lennart is standing by the Sonett III.

This is what it usually looked like. Not always much snow, but some really good driving instructions and nice views.
Some inspired driving, picking a nice line and really enjoying the Sonett III...

This was on the other hand not such a nice wiev. Poor (new-ish) car. But at least nobody seemed hurt.

And this was one of the “pitstops” during the driving. (This was by the ski resort.)

And here we are at the parking close to the icetrack. The second Sonett III was a yellow 1971.

Here we are lined up with the “fast cars” for the icetrack.

Here we are at the icetrack in full speed. See any Renault Alpina’s? ;-) They were all overtaken by one lap...

Passing by in front of the crowd.

Moving on, enjoying the ride. :-)

This was a page in the roadbook for Winter Drive 2002. Quite nice indeed.

This was the invitation for the Winter Drive 2003. Welcome!