YODELLADIHOO!

It is 2002 and that the Saab 9-5 is the second most sold new car in Sweden is no surprise to any knowledgable person. Finally, an alternative was offered to those Saab enthusiasts seeking an even better design and more brutal performance. A special from Switzerland. Hirsch!

TEXT & PHOTO GUSTAF SJÖHOLM

The rev counter shows 2500 revs in fourth gear when I floor the go pedal. The turbo gauge reacts immediately and the speedometer needle almost explodes. The engine noise stays rather subdued but takes on a new, almost explosive verve. My smile gets broader and I feel truly elated being pushed back in the super comfortable seat. I realize that we just passed 100 mph so I quickly change up to fifth. Turbo boost is quickly restored – 110 mph, 120...

– People don’t fully understand Saab Turbos until they have driven one, Erik Punt says just a minute after I let off on the accelerator. Only then are they able to grasp the whole essence of what Saabs are all about.

Erik’s eyes are shining when his Saab is taken all the way up to the its limit. The car is a 9-5 Hirsch Sports Combi of the very first model year. Time to pause for a while and turn time back 17 years, or preferrably 22 years to get to June 16, 1997. That’s when the very first Saab 9-5 rolled off the assembly line at the Trollhättan works. The successor to the Saab 9000 was a large and

Spoiler alert in the rear view mirror. Real Saab fans always recognize the special front spoiler unique to the Saab 9-5 Hirsch...

impressive long distance tourer rapidly rising in the Swedish sales statistics.This applied not least to the estate version – Saab’s first since 1978 – that soon become the family first choice.

The long awaited Aero version was introduced two years later and featured the nerve and sharpness lacking in the standard versions. Most important was the new turbo with its over boost function increasing turbo pressure for 20 seconds in cars with manual transmissions. Different chassis calibrations as well as stiffer bushings made the 9-5 Aero significantly safer and easier to handle on winding roads. This was in clear contrast to the visually impressive 9-3 Viggen that suffered severe criticism for its soft chassis settings and low acceleration powers.

Without doubt the best model ever built in Trollhättan and the most prone to make you lose your driver’s license were some of the comments by the magazine Teknikens Värld in September 1999. But the story didn’t end there. Far from it. At the time when the Saab Turbo models enjoyed record sales in Sweden, there cropped up many tuning firms dedicated to make them run even faster while still staying glued to the most undulating roads.

It didn’t take much to drastically increase the performance of any Saab model and at the same time improve its fuel consumption. Saab owners were offered everything from chip tuning to complete turbo kits as well as suspension upgrades. This writer has in fresh memory the joy of tearing off the cover of just arrived fan magazines to read about the latest tweaks to keep the Saab Turbos running away from competitors on the tracks. This was around the year 2000 and the most admired driver was probably Thomas ”Gullabo”Jansson. Tuning companies at the time were Speedparts, BSR, Nordic Uhr and Maptun. They all had their tricks to tweak engines and supply various go-faster bits and pieces.

Officially, Saab never commented on third party tweaks and improvements, but in the spring of 2002 there was a response – Saab acknowledged in a press release that many Saab drivers desired improved performance. Hence, Saab would offer tuning parts developed by the Swiss tuning company Hirsch Performance AG

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