It's been a few weeks since my last post, but there's plenty to share, some good, some bad.
Let's get the bad news over with first. My long standing dreams of rescuing the 9000 Carlsson have now been lost. It became obvious that my plans, based around a certain Saab mechanic helping me through the arduous journey, were not going to happen. This ended with me having to urgently get the Carlsson collected. In a happy turn of events, the long time Saab fanatic who collected the car for me, had always wanted to own a Carlsson, so rather than deliver it directly to me, he bought it and will now hopefully be able to work on saving this amazing Saab. I wish him the best of luck and maybe one day, I'll get the opportunity to own another; one that I can actually drive.
Moving on to the reason I had to have the Carlsson collected so urgently; my long term Saab mechanic has hit a few hurdles lately, which have slowly built up and sadly ended in the business no longer being accessible for me. I'm truly hoping he manages to sort the issues out and begin again, as he's a wonderful mechanic and rarely let me down on numerous past Saab rescues.
Now for the good news, for the past 6 months or so, one of the Malcolm Miles team who left the business, has been helping me with various jobs on the 2 current Saab 9-5's. Over the years, we've done a lot of the Saabvs builds together, he's a brilliant mechanic, and what he doesn't know about Saabs, possibly isn't worth knowing. He does however, have another full time job, so access is more limited and rescue projects will have to be on the lighter side from now on. It does mean I can continue finding interesting Saabs and giving them the Saabvs treatment for now though.
Although we have a short list of works for both 9-5's still to tackle, and the Nocturne Blue currently residing elsewhere, it's the Graphite Green Aero I turn to for my regular Saab fix. It's covered a few thousand miles since the final engine rebuild, and besides a few niggles to iron out, it's a Saab that ticks all of the boxes for me, and I find myself getting withdrawal symptoms if I have't driven it for a few days.
We returned home from a few weeks in Italy to some absolutely glorious English weather; 24 degrees, cloudless, deep blue skies and the beginnings of a beautiful Autumn. The Graphite Green Aero with its warm tan leather interior is the perfect Saab for a season of road trips and exploring our changing countryside before Winter sets in.