Great Scott—The President Writes

by Scott Hutchings, President

It is August and that brings us to SOC 07. By the time you get this in your hands, some of you will have spent the evening listening to Paul Stephenson talk about (and show pictures from) previous SOC events. He has been to quite a few of these in the past and has entered his 1992 900 Convertible into many competitions and I don’t think there are many people more qualified to talk about SOC than he is.

I will be heading down to SOC on Thursday, hopefully early in the day but that is going to depend upon how early we hook up with the folks driving in from Ottawa and Quebec. I’m hoping that we can collect those folks together with everyone from the GTA that is going and then grab those in the Hamilton/Niagara area and then pick up everyone else along the way … that would be quite a sight to see a large group of Canadians all show up in Troy together!

The SOC will also be the first chance that most of us will get to see the 2008 9-3 in person. I for one can’t wait!

Update at Saab Canada

August also brings other changes. Closest to us is that Magnus Hansson will be leaving Saab Canada and going back to Sweden. As of this moment, I don’t know who his replacement will be or exactly what their background is, but I do know that they will be coming directly from Sweden.

Hopefully we will see someone else with Magnus’s passion for the Saab brand in place.On behalf of The Saab Owners’ Club of Canada Inc, we wish Magnus and his family the best of luck and a safe trip back to their homeland.

Magnus will be once again working for Saab in Sweden in product development. I think Magnus will bring a Saab-ers perspective to the product team like few others could possibly do given that he has spent the past 2 years talking not only to customers (and a lot of new ones at that), but also given the amount of time he has spent with the fanatics like us. ;-)

EDS Update

We are also fully engaged in preparing for the October 5 Enhanced Driving School at Shannonville. But there is still a lot of work to be done. If you would like to help out, even if it is just a little, we would be happy to welcome you on-board our little team. There will also be lots of help needed the day of the event at the track, so if you are looking for an excuse to take the day off work, you’ve got one – just don’t tell them about all the fun you will be having, hanging around with other car people, taking about your hobbies all day long, sitting around over (free) lunch talking about how the students are improving … you get the idea. ;-)

Let myself, Fred, Ken, John B, or Patrick know if you are interested and we’ll set you up. Who knows, we might be able to set up the volunteers with a couple of laps around the track in one of the instructors cars (as a passenger of course).

Club Update

I would like to take a moment and welcome all of the new members to the club. Our numbers have been steadily climbing over the past 12 to 18 months and I attribute this to the existing club members letting others know about SOCCI. Please continue to spread the word … the more members we have in the club, the more activities we will be able to have and participate in and the less work it would be for those involved (yes, we are always looking for more help – I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned that before).

I would also like to encourage all of the members to keep their eyes open for businesses that you think might be interested in working with the club, either by providing our members with discounts at their businesses or by advertising in the Gryphon/on the web site. Please contact Martin directly at discounts [at] saabclub [dot] ca or any of the Directors and we’ll be happy to look into it further.

SOCCI Sponsorship

I would like to wish Ken Pavri and John Burnet best wishes and good luck as they embark on another adventure in Newfoundland in September. They are participating in their second Targa event. This year brings a different approach to their competitive thoughts.

For those that don’t know, they are B&D Racing (as in Blind & Deaf – yes, that is correct, John is blind and Ken deaf). Last year they drove a black Acura Intergra with B&D Racing across the windshield. This year, they are running a bright orange and red Intergra with Blind & Deaf Racing very clearly spelled out (they are the attention seekers in the club afterall). The idea is simply to attract as much attention to themselves as they possibly can.

Another change for 2007 is that SOCCI will be one of their sponsors. That’s right, we will have our name and club logo on the side of the car for the whole world to see … and I can’t think of a more fitting car (well, a Saab would be great, but I digress) to have our logo on than one driven by a couple of our long standing members.

On behalf of the entire club, I wish you good luck Ken and John … I’m sure you will make us all very proud.

Until we meet again, Happy Saabing!

Scott