Förfina Free online magazine for SAAB owners and enthusiasts around the world • Autumn 2019 Welcome to the third issue of Förfina. It is almost impossible to tell you what to find in this issue, as like the previous versions, the content evolves over time, depending upon the input from fellow SAAB owners from around the world. But what I can tell you is, we start this issue with a fascinating article on the Sonett range by well known SAAB author, Lance Cole. To those who take the time to view Förfina, many thanks. To those who submit an article or photo, my deep gratitude. To those who have yet to do either, I await your input with anticipation. As with the previous issue, we will compile SAAB articles and photos from owners around the World, which will be added to this publication over Summer period. This may be how they bought their SAAB, how they repaired their SAAB or how much they enjoy their SAAB. So if you are reading this and have a story or photo you would like to share simple email me at [email protected] Until then, happy SAABin’ David Dallimore Out of all the quintessentially ECU, a higher flowing exhaust system, a Getting inside a Saab reminded me how performance clutch and pressure plate, absolutely different these cars were from weird cars that wore the Saab stiffened and lowered suspension components anything else in the late nineties and early The badge, this one has to be among as well as reinforced CV joints and driveshafts. 2000’s. The dashboard and windshield are as flat as a plank of wood, and the dash Saab claimed a 0-60 acceleration time of the most eccentric. is high, filled with buttons and a large air roughly 6.5 seconds. That’s about the same as vent, presumably to look like an airplane I took one out for a drive, a convertible one too, some current front-wheel-drive hot hatchbacks Last cockpit. which technically makes it more of a hot coupe like the Ford Focus ST. But unlike the Ford, the than a hot hatch. Plenty of Saabs came after Saab came with its own training program video Nothing really happens below 4,000 RPM. this one, but this one was one of the last true hosted by a professional jet fighter pilot. That’s when the insane boost pressure Great great weird examples from the brand. shoves you hard into the immensely Fundamentally, what makes this Viggen so comfortable seats and emits cool All that factory-tuned 20 psi of boost (that’s a special is that during Saab’s 67-year run of jet-like air swirl sounds along the way - lot for a factory setup) building quirky and unusual aircraft-derived pssssttttssshh - boost gauge all lit up and went straight to the front wheels via a five- automobiles, the Viggen stands out today as True everything, quickly running out of puff at speed manual gearbox. one of the fastest production Saabs ever built. Other mechanical modifications over a around 6,000 RPM. standard turbocharged 9-3 included a higher It’s an unusual way to put down power, but Saab capacity intercooler, a performance-tuned it definitely works. Many thanks to Paul Petherick of http://saabvsscepticism.co.uk and https://jalopnik.com “Poorboys Black Hole glaze cleans and fills light swirl Square marks to leave a brilliant, glossy, slick show car shine. It can be applied any time to hide minor imperfections and to enhance gloss on black, red, and all dark vehicles.” SAAB Ease of use. Very straightforward. Squeezy bottle allows you to apply a small amount at a time and you do not need a lot. Recommend applying using a polishing pad, covering an area at a time. Allow it to dry to a haze spotted before wiping off, which again is very easy to do. Put to the On dark paintwork there is a noticeable difference in colour depth and a decrease in light swirls. It does not work on scratches or larger imperfections. Remember, this is a show glaze and as such will require a sealer or Queen Square is a Georgian square in the wax to protect it from the elements. centre of Bristol, England. In 1622, it was re- modelled and the first house was built on the £12-15 UK from online stores south side of the square in 1699 and in 1700, iiiii A good additional for dark coloured cars. the square was laid out in its present form, testPoorboys Black Hole and named after Queen Anne in 1702. & Natty’s Paste Wax The first American Embassy in the UK, was “Poorboy’s Natty’s Blue Paste Wax is a located here. high quality carnauba wax for dark cars, providing patented UV light absorbers to keep your paint fresh and protected throughout the life of the wax. “ Ease of use. Again very straightforward. It is a hard wax, so you have to rub your polishing pad firmly in to get transfer. You only need a light coating to seal the paintwork - using a damp applicator helps with the application. Leave to dry to a haze, then simply wipe off, which is very easy to do. It needs no additional buffing but some say an additional layer does give an even better shine. One of the best waxes I have tested. It gives a lustre and depth to you paintwork. But remember, this is a wax and as such it’s longevity may not as great as a sealer. £15-18 UK from online stores iiiiieasy to apply and wipe off, an excellent shine - what’s not to like. A tricolour of turbos The Sonett actually started life in 1954 as one of were bonded together to form a stiff, aviation-style, stressed hull. Over the next three spreads, Lance Cole recalls the the most revolutionary and advanced examples of SAAB Sonett, that never quite made it to epic status. It would be years later that Colin Chapman created the original post-war car design. It was a uniquely constructed Lotus Elite’s fibreglass unitary monocoque body, and decades open-topped two-seater that looked like a before a car-maker made an aluminium car. cross between an MG and an Alfa Romeo. Yet it was years before this stillborn wild child of a The original Sonett 1 was dreamed up by Rolf Mellde - SAAB’s Scandinavian design group actually became the suspension and engineering genius. Along with Sason, the SAAB SAAB Sonett. team included Lars Olov Olsson and Olle Lindkvist and Gosta Svensson. With them, Mellde created an alternative SAAB to the In Swedish “Sa natt” means “How nice”, which is firm’s teardrop-shaped 92-93 range of steel-bodied family saloons. what the legendary Swedish car-designer Sixten They cooked the car up in a barn at Asaka, half an hour’s drive from Trollhattan, mostly in their own time. SAAB management SAAB Sason is supposed to have said when his first body for the car was finished and mounted on its chassis let the geniuses get on with it, without actually being officially with a smoky two-stroke engine. involved. On seeing the Sonett, SAAB whisked it off to become an official motor-show prototype of their new sports car: the ultra- SONETT 1 Unlike its 1950s contemporaries, the original light Sonett could do 130mph from 57bhp. If you think the SAAB Sonett is a late 1960s-to- Sonett did not have a tubular steel fabricated body nor a floppy monocoque with more shake Despite various plans and projections, and despite a great 1970s fibreglass-bodied coupé that embodies a than a jelly. Instead, the Sonett boasted a unique reception from press and public - including in America - SAAB’s body made from a blend of aluminium sheets and exquisite little car never made it to production life. Only 6 were forgotten, sportier side of SAAB, think again. plastic moulded panels weighing only 70kg, that made before the idea died. By this time Sason had designed another Premiered at the 1966 Geneva motor show, pretty, fibreglass, Italianate coupé - the the two-stroke-engined car had a steel chassis Catherina - that showed the world a lift- with conventional tubular reinforcements. out, stowable, targa-style roof for the first Draped over the top was a delicate looking time. SAAB decided to push a coupé into fibreglass shell with an early use of a large, production, yet the Catherina design was not wraparound, glazed rear window. chosen: instead the work of Bjorn Karlstrom with another Swedish aircraft company named From 1966 through to 1970 the pert little SAAB Malmo Flygindustri was taken up by SAAB’s Sonett II evolved with typical SAAB product- management. development. In 1968 it gained the V4 engine SONETT II from the SAAB 96. But, by 1970 the car was Karlstom’s car was called the MFI 13. Given looking odd, with scoops, engine bulges and In 1966 the idea of a sporty SAAB coupé that it had a plywood rear floor, the “MFI” tag stylistic fiddlings: only 4,000 were sold. came to the fore again. seems apposite, but it became the Sonett II. SAAB did however get its own in-house artist In the USA Sonetts scooped up many Gunnar Sjögren to style much of the new Sonett’s sports-car racing wins in the 1980s, with plastic body-details. Jack Lawrence and his tuned V4 injection Sonett proving that the it might not have The spec included moulded seat-pans, and trim items rallied, but it could race.