Saablog

I thought since I had driven the BSOS race car, I'd put in my own saablog entry! I recently vacationed in the Pacific northwest, and had two of the coolest "loaner" cars available: The BSOS 900 racer, and the Volvo V70R. I didn't get to town in time to participate in the Track Day festivities in the V70R, but I'll make sure to next year!

My week started out in the V70R Sportswagon. It is an enjoyable car to drive, with 300 HP, AWD and a 6 speed manual transmission. The down side to driving this car, is that my brother got it new, and is still very protective of it, so I am afraid to have much fun with the car, lest I somehow damage it, spill something in it, or get a door ding by parking in the wrong spot. So far I've been lucky and none of those things have happenned. We took the car to Roslyn, and we were going to have out road bikes with us, but they were somehow delayed by FedEx, so we didn't have them available to put onto the roof of the Volvo. It was a fun drive over the pass thru rain and drizzle at 80mph plus. Then in Roslyn we drove on some gravel roads and I was quite nervous about the poor off-road characteristics of the car. It has AWD, but very poor ground clearance, and I was plenty nervous driving around potholes at 5 mph! So we Hiked and mountain-biked in Eastern WA, then returned to the west side. We drove into Seattle and collected a parking ticket at the University of Washington (don't worry, we've paid it already) and then drove it up to Everett to see Nana. It is wonderful on the freeway and has plenty of power and is very confident on the road. The next day we traded it for the BSOS 900.

After five days in the V70R, the 900 was a positive joy to drive! With all the windows and the sunroof open there was a feeling of being very in-tune with my surroundings (maybe that is not the right word for it when you are cruising thru the I-90 tunnel at 60 mph--drowned out is more correct!). But there is a certain joy of driving that comes with the Saab. Some of it is related to the fact that I don't feel the need to be so uptight when driving an $800 car, and some of it is the view over the hood with the stripes and the "vintage" feel of the interior. You can feel like you are pushing a lot harder and using more driving talent when cruising around in the BSOS 900. To display the same amount of talent in the V70R, you, have to be exceeding the speed limit by a good percentage, and I am generally too risk-averse for that!

So now I'm back to the 855 T5, and it is a combination of the driving experiences in the BSOS 900 and the V70R. It is probably the least agile of the three, with power and acceleration closer to the R. It is equipped with interior features and accommodations somewhere in between the other two, and provides a joy-factor somewhere below the other two, but still holds a high-enjoyment factor for me. As much as I wish it was, it is not the BTCC wagon pictured here!

Thanks brother!!!