A big thank you to my brother and photographer extraordinaire Tyler Stender for his help capturing some seriously nice shots of these Saabs. Be sure to check out more of his work at Stender Vision. Hint: they’re the good ones.
A Discovery Of Saab Cars
One day, while browsing the Craigslist car ads for anything pre-2005 – as one does, I discovered a pair of Saab cars – gems among the usual riff raff. A 2001 Saab 9-3 Viggen…convertible….with the 5-speed. WHOA. My brain harkened back to Car and Driver write-ups praising its Scandinavian weirdness and ludicrous torque steer. All that boost! Rarely seen in the wild, the Saab Viggen practices the classic German automotive art of subtlety. You’d have to be one of those strange rangers – such as myself – whose brain (for reasons unknown) can spot the Viggen’s triangular yellow and blue fender badge, neat wheels, and ground effects from a thousand paces.
Point being, this Viggen jumped off the staid Craigslist pages and spoke to me. Not to buy of course, but because it’s a cool car and because I am now a card-carrying member of the Saab cars mafia. Reading the listing, it was immediately obvious the seller was an enthusiast. Sidebar: those of you who get excited to prowl Craigslist for unusual cars are well-versed in the spectacularly awful ad copy typically associated with this pursuit. Noting this Viggen as Of Interest, I continued perusing.
Only to find ANOTHER cool Swedish sled in the 1996 Saab 9000 CSE Turbo for sale. Clean as a whistle, sporting the most glorious tri-spoke wheels, it was an eye-catcher. Reading up on its juicy details – and examining the images like a forensic vehicular archaeologist – it was clear these two Saabs were being sold by the same person. That, and the map at the bottom indicating the same general west of Portland location. Though I desperately wanted to buy both of these cars, I reached out instead to find out if the seller was the gearhead I anticipated.
The Consummate Car Guy
Not only is Ken Aldrich a serious car guy, he’s also an incredibly nice guy with more fascinating car stories than I can put down on digital paper at the moment. Pulling into the driveway of his property which dates to 1780 and contains a 200-year-old barn, my car nerd senses were going haywire. A newer multi-bay garage had one door open revealing the Viggen, a glorious Saab convertible specimen, and some other vehicles cloaked in darkness. Over at the barn, a massive door had been slid aside, the better to lay eyes on the Saab 9000 Turbo and..something else behind it.
On the barn’s exterior is a sign declaring this place “Idlenot Farm” in a nod to the same-named real farm Ken’s grandparents started in 1918 with the goal of never having an idle day. Ken’s father took over as he grew up and ultimately, Ken ran the farm. He turned it into a major dairy production facility that was sold for, shall we say, a tidy sum to HP Hood – as in the milk company – down the road. After exiting agriculture, Ken decided it was high time to replace the task of raising cattle with the joy of raising horsepower.
Saab 9-3 Viggen: The Torque Steer Monster
All of which led to what he so generously shared with me and my brother one chilly Maine day in January. A fascinating car collection he manages for others. The Saab Viggen that caught my eye in the first place is the definition of rad. Its 2.3L inline-4 huffs on 20 psi of boost – at least when it was new – to crank out 225 horsepower and 252 torques. All of which gets routed up front, hence its reputation for wild and wooly torque steer. A 4-speed automatic was available, but Ken’s Viggen had the 5-speed stick. Yes please. And it was a drop top!
Re-reading a Car and Driver comparo of the Viggen, a C43, an M3, and S4 from 1999, notes about surging boost pressure and the challenge of mastering its foibles stand out to me today. Odd as it may sound, I’ve come to appreciate the strangeness and imperfect aspects of older cars. Modern cars are objectively impressive, but a bit too much sanitized sameness for my liking. Which is part of why the Saab 9-3 Viggen is one of my many siren songs. But I digress, this was not a car for me to buy…though I really wanted to.
The relatively minty-fresh shape was because this old Saab convertible was kept under Ken’s watchful eye for 10 months annually. Its owner, a lady from Brooklyn, only drives it while summering at her camp in Maine. Ken keeps it running and then delivers it to her for use in the warm weather. My wife will not be thrilled to know that Ken’s job is more enticing to me than using the word summer as a verb. I mean, getting paid to store cool Saab cars – like this Viggen with its sweet slotted rotors and enough torque steer to, in Ken’s words, “climb the telephone pole” if you’re not careful. Who wouldn’t want this gig?
Saab 9000 Turbo FTW
But, if the Viggen was clean, the Saab 9000 Turbo was IMMACULATE. Another client car that Ken manages, this wonderfully understated Swedish saloon still has the Elmo Leather seat tags from the company that upholstered these cars and provides hides to Sweden’s royal family. With a sunroof and not a touch of rust, this 9000 is cool as a moose. A Citrin Beige Metallic finish, rubberized rear spoiler with nary a hint of discoloration, heated front seats, and less than 100,000 miles!
Did I mention the wheels? 15 inches in diameter and fitted with fancy Vredestein rubber! And that boosted engine. Making 200 horses and 244 torques – at just 2000 rpm – here is an old Swede that can scoot. This particular Saab 9000 has a 4-speed automatic. Would I prefer the 5-speed? Of course. But that’s just fine because a cool old Saab car in this kind of condition doesn’t come around every day so that lack of a third pedal can be forgiven. Plus, Ken made the effort to swap out the black DI cover for the “correct” red one. Nice.
Beyond The Saab Cars In Ken’s Garage
There are other cars under Ken’s care. A big blue ’55 Chevy, a compelling 3 Series under cover, and a GMT800 Silverado that for the uninitiated would appear to be any old pickup. But this white beauty, a lifelong New England truck, had not a speck of rust on it! The owner just likes the simple pleasure of driving it and Ken keeps it as such. Of course, these vehicles do not represent Ken’s first rodeo.
Growing up on a 150-acre farm, he wanted to drive the family “doodlebug” pickup like his older brother. But at 10 years old, was deemed too young. So, a 9N Ford tractor became Ken’s first taste of automotive independence. A favorite of his was the 1963 Oldsmobile F85 Jetfire, one of the first turbocharged production cars in the country. And not a turbocharged four like we’re so accustomed to these days, but a boosted V8 that hit the coveted 1 horsepower per cubic inch of displacement metric.
A cool car no doubt, but one made even better by the story behind it. Circa 1988, Ken flew to San Francisco to buy it – driving it home to New Hampshire in just 4 days. Putting in 13-hour days behind the wheel, he made the journey with a broken speedometer – instead timing himself off highway mile markers to avoid being pulled over. I love it.
Monzas and Vegas and Eagles, Oh My!
Over the years, Ken’s general approach to cars has been to buy interesting vehicles – like a 1964 Corvair Monza with the 2.7L “Pancake-Six”, a Chevy Vega Kammback, and a Renault Eagle Premier – at below market values, tighten them up, enjoy them for the summer, and then sell for a profit. He’s been doing so since 1962 and though this method is far from unique, it is nonetheless a method that all but guarantees a life of good stories.
Like the time in 1990 when he needed a car for his newly licensed daughter. Some in this position would consult the local classifieds or dare to step foot on a random used car lot. The path Ken chose is one any car-crazed enthusiast would agree was the right one. Discovering a perfect 1978 VW Beetle convertible in Iowa, he convinced the seller to meet him with the Bug in Chicago. That way, he and his daughter could fly in, buy her new ride, and drive it home to New Hampshire.
Ken Aldrich is a car guy through-and-through with car stories that are as fun as they are inspiring. As in, I’ve been inspired by his tales of deliberately flying somewhere far-flung to buy a car for his kids and have them drive it home. It’s an ideal way to create an adventure and inspire a love of cool cars. It is also one I fully intend to shamelessly copy as my own kids are rapidly approaching driving age. My wife may not find this idea quite so exciting, but I’m already ginning up a plan…
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