Bob Sinclair’s Drive in the California Mile – 1996

Posted on 13. Mar, 2008 by Ryan in 2000-2009, 93, Company

Since “Uncle Bob” Sinclair, the former President of Saab-Scania of America, has been living and enjoying the great weather out in California over the years, he has participated in a number of events since that time. I think it is important to not only highlight all of the recognizable accomplishments he has involved in, but to also showcase all of the “other” activities that he has been involved during and after his time with Saab.

I want to begin by including a wonderful writeup of his participation in an event in that region, called the “California Mile”, where he drove a 1959 SAAB 93b, which he donated and is on display at Sports Car Service in Wilmington, Delaware. This article was originally posted in the 1996 issue of Saab Soundings magazine (Vol 34 Number 2 — Winter 1996). Enjoy.

The 65 vintage cars parked in front of San Francisco’s elegant Fairmont Hotel awaiting the start of the sixth annual California Mille were drawing an admiring crowd. Amid the collection of “egregiously expensive” machinery, including a few Ferraris and rare Alfa Romeos that were valued at well over a million dollars, was a humble ’59 Saab 93B and its new owner, Bob Sinclair. Few of the passersby knew the significance of this little robin’s-egg blue Saab to the cordial bearded man who was performing last-minute preparations.

Bob Sinclair, former Saab president (below), and Dick Lague of Petersen Publishing, look forward to driving a 1958 Saab 93B in the 1996 California Mille. The Fairmont Hotel, San Francisco, provides an appropriately international backdrop for the start of the event.

In March of 1958, Bob Sinclair started his automotive career as a regional sales manager for the fledgling company, Saab Motors, in the Northeastern U.S. His first company car: a light-blue Saab 93B. Now, almost four decades later, Sinclair has a flash of deja vu every time he opens his garage. A snub-nosed 93B, in the exact shade of blue as the one he drove as a field rep, is a newly acquired treasure in Sinclair’s household. The two-stroke Saab, model year 1959, was imported from Saab’s headquarters museum in May, 1996, and is completely original, right down to the paint, three-cylinder powerplant and interior. The car was driven in Sweden for the first couple years of its life, before retiring to Saab’s historical collection in 1961. “It has normal wear for a two-year-old car,” Sinclair said. “The car is absolutely superb!”

Sinclair was an integral part of Saab’s growth and success in the U.S. market. In 1979, Sinclair was appointed president of Saab-Scania of America, until his retirement in 1991. The Saab National Dealer Advisory Council presented him with one of the first production Saab Sonetts, one of only 258 two-stroke models produced in 1967, as a retirement gift. “As much as I admired the car as an objet d’art, I soon realized that the Sonett really wasn’t the ideal toy for me,” Sinclair said. “It was, shall we say, a bit too ‘quirky’ and demanding for use as a transportation device, and too new for most of the vintage tours being run around the country.”

After receiving helpful technical advice via telephone from Sweden, Lague (left) and Sinclair have the Saab’s two-stroke engine running beautifully.

An ideal solution presented itself – an exchange with the Saab Car Museum in Trollhättan, Sweden. Sinclair explained, “With the blessings of Felix Bosshart of Charles River Saab in Massachusetts, who was chairman of the council at the time of my retirement, I worked out a swap with museum curator Peter Bäckström. Now the museum has a much more desirable car for display, and I have a more practical car for my own particular uses.” The Saab 93B was shipped from Sweden to Sinclair’s home in Santa Barbara, Calif., arriving on May 2, 1996.

What does one do with a mint-condition 36-year-old car? “Drive it,” Sinclair stated emphatically. “It’s a shame to hide classic cars in a private garage. It’s much more satisfying to use the cars as they are meant to be used.”

Sinclair is one of many collectable car owners who share the same attitude. The California Mille 1,300-mile vintage car tour, and other similar events such as Arizona’s Copper State 1000, the Colorado Grand, and New England 1000, each attract 50 to 75 auto enthusiasts with a taste for adventure and motoring in authentic examples of automotive history.

Organized by Martin Swig, owner of Saab San Francisco, a dealership established in 1976, the annual California Mille is more a social and cultural event than a competition. Styled after the historic Mille Miglia endurance race in Italy, today’s events place more emphasis on history, scenery and camaraderie than speeding. “The highest form of this car hobby is to drive these things,” Swig commented. “To be alive, they have to be driven.” Rules are designed to emulate the Mille Miglia and therefore stipulate that entries must have been in production in 1957 or prior. The Saab 93 began production in 1955; Sinclair’s ’59 model was one of the newest cars in the event.

The Mille started at the Fairmont on Nob Hill, crossed the Golden Gate Bridge and headed east on scenic two-lane highways into the Sierra Nevadas. The Saab, with its stock 33-hp, three-cylinder motor, struggled up the mountains and had to be stopped several times because of overheating. Sinclair called Peter Bäckström at the Saab Museum in Sweden the first night. “I had three different thermostats, three different carburetor jets and three heat ranges of spark plugs,” Sinclair explained. “The only problem was, not having driven a 93B since 1961, and never on such steep grades at such high altitudes, I had not the foggiest notion which combination would be right. Peter soon put us straight on that, and after Day One, the car ran beautifully!”

Sinclair’s 1958 Saab 93B is powered by a 750cc three-cylinder, two-stroke engine, rated at 33hp, with a three-speed manual transmission with steering column-mounted shifter. Front-hinged doors were not available until the following model year.

Sinclair’s co-driver/navigator was Dick Lague, senior publisher at Petersen Publishing’s Motorcycle Group of magazines, including Motorcyclist, Dirt Rider and Sport Rider. Both men share a common interest in motorcycles and Saab cars; Lague learned to drive in a 93B in Providence, RI, and took his driver’s test in it. Sinclair, who owns several vintage motorcyles, first met Lague in 1974 at a motorcycling event hosted by Cycle World magazine.

From the Mille’s starting announce-ment, “Gentlemen, try to start your engines,” to each of three overnight stopovers, the atmosphere was light-hearted, even jovial. The route skirted Lake Tahoe, wound through the forests of Northern California to Eureka and came back south along the coast and through Napa Valley. Other entrants included superb examples of Maserati, Aston Martin, Cord, Jaguar, Bugatti and a host of others. Each was a historic gem of its era, and each received admiring glances from fans along the way, and only a handful failed to reach the finish after 1,300 miles.

“We might have to push this little car up the mountain, but it sure goes like hell down the other side!” – Sinclair

After driving 1,300 miles through Northern California, Sinclair and his Saab catch their breaths overlooking the Pacific Ocean

“Along the way, the Saab’s pop-pop-pop exhaust note from the two-stroke engine made people look twice,” Sinclair commented, “and then look again when I dumped a can of oil in the gas tank at each fill-up.”

At the Victory Banquet in Corte Madera, just north of San Francisco, Sinclair was awarded a trophy as the “Driver Who Had the Most Fun on California Highway 88,” which was the first mountainous section encountered prior to Lake Tahoe. Several drivers commented to Sinclair: “Bob, are you aware that your inside rear wheel was inches off the pavement on hard downhill bends?”

“Of course I knew that,” he replied. “It’s part of the fun of driving a 93 ‘vigorously’ through the mountains. We might have to push this little car up the mountain, but it sure goes like hell down the other side!”

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