UR Saab & the early years

July 15, 2026 Eleven

The UR Saab is an absolute privilege to see in person. When you stop and consider, just for a moment, the genius engineers and designers at Saab, created this exceptional prototype back in 1948, that's nearly 80 years ago. Heavily inspired by their military aircraft and aerodynamics, the original prototype (Project 92001) looked like a sectional profile of an airplane wing, this highly aerodynamic shape gave it a drag coefficient of just 0.30, years ahead of the automotive industry.

I know there's far more detailed histories and facts on these early models, but as I walked around possibly the finest ever collection of Saabs, I wanted to include a basic overview of them (please correct me if any information is wrong).

As the exhibition begins, the glorious UR Saab prototype greets you at the door, Saab only ever built four of these, but a year later, they evolved in to the 92, the first ever Saab production car and a spacious family vehicle. These early models used tiny 25 horsepower, two-stroke engines and pioneered front-wheel drive which enabled them to conquer the harsh Swedish Winters. Also, a fact I didn't know, was that Saab had a huge surplus of cellulose-based camouflage paint from wartime aircraft production, so all early 92s were painted in a dark Military Green.

After a long and successful production run of 7 years and some 20,000 vehicles sold, Saab once again evolved their creation, and the 93, 95 and 96 models were born. The 93 was first introduced with a three-cylinder engine, whilst the later 96 eventually gained the mighty Ford V4 engine producing an impressive 68 horsepower in its final configuration. Saab enjoyed global sales success with these generation of cars, and decided to enter into Swedish motorsport, later gaining fame on the world motorsport stage. Victories in world rally events and a second in class finish at the 1959 Le Mans 24 Hours gave this small Swedish firm their huge reputation for reliability, endurance, speed and handling.

Almost 550,000 of this early generation Saabs were built over an incredible 20 year production run, which took them in to the 1980's and the birth of their mighty 99 series cars.

What the Saab Car Museum Box exhibition manages to do, is guide you through a collection of some of the finest examples, from early rally cars, to rare prototypes and gloriously renovated examples, I could spend an entire day just admiring them. I haven't ever had the pleasure of owning or driving one, but the history and promise they hold is inspirational.

Saab 900 SVO Concept Coupé

July 1, 2026 Eleven

Another gem in the Saab Car Museum's collection, is this wonderful 900 SVO Concept Coupé. Sometime in 1994, Saab Special Vehicle Operations (SVO) lead by Peter Leonard began the process of creating an absolute masterpiece of automotive design. Working closely with Oxfordshire based Tom Walkinshaw Racing (TWR), they set about creating a high performance focused Saab.

It took almost 2 years of initial development before the Monte Carlo Yellow SVO Concept Coupé was first revealed at the 1996 Geneva Motor Show. This was quickly followed by its second showing at the New York Motor Show, where it shared centre stage with a Lightening Blue convertible SVO version, both received huge praise.

A further period of development continued and in collaboration with TWR, the SVO team worked on perfecting the concept Saabs, they finally became reality, and moved in to full production in 1999. However, by that time, the 900 SVO have become the foundation for the mighty Saab Viggen, aptly named after the 37 Viggen jet fighter plane.

Although the 900 SVO Coupé had morphed in to the 9-3 Viggen, it was this beautiful Yellow concept that first featured all of the original styling. The design team at TWR, headed up by Ian Callum were responsible for the iconic body kit, creating a more aggressive aerodynamic package. This signature kit included a deeper, more aggressive front bumper, side skirts and a deeper, distinctive rear bumper and spoiler, the concept also got a dramatic set of 3 spoke alloys, on the 9-3, these would be replaced by the exclusive Viggen alloys.

Walking around the Concept SVO, you begin to notice subtle design touches that sadly didn't make it to the final production cars. The front grille for instance, it had the more refined, narrower chrome framework, the depth of the intakes were far more purposeful, and it had a performance mesh at it's core, the lower graphite bumper cover also featured some wonderful aerodynamics, with a more defined gape between that and the grille - features I'd have loved to have seen on the Viggen. I also personally loved the centre, colour coded blanking panel between the rear lights, it somehow gave the car a cleaner aesthetic and really suited the rear profile. It also had a rather distinctive, rectangular, satin tailpipe with rounded corners, a feature that also enhanced the cleanness of the design, and, of course, the wheels, I imagine inspired by the iconic 900 3 spokes, the design kept the Saab aesthetic, but modernised them with larger diameter, wider stance and profile details between the spokes for superior aerodynamics.

Saab 9000 Ecosport

June 30, 2026 Eleven

Last week, I finally got to travel to Trollhättan to visit the Saab Car Museum and the Box - it lived up to every one of my expectations.

Considering my love of Saab, this has been a long awaited trip, it's been on my wish list for many years, but the limited time period of the Box, made me take action and visit. This will be one of many posts related to the collection, as I found so many of the Saabs shown inspirational , and being a 9000, this particular car just ticks all the boxes so to speak.

'The Saab Ecosport is a high-performance car that has been evolved to reflect Saab’s regard for the environment. The Saab Ecosport illustrates the vast development potential on the Saab concept.'

'This concept car was showcased at the Geneva Motor Show in 1992 and demonstrated a range of innovations primarily in the powertrain and environmental areas. With the new Trionic engine management system, Saab set the standards in terms of performance, exhaust emissions and fuel consumption. Additionally, it could run on alternative fuels such as methanol and ethanol. A heat storage unit connected to the cooling system stored heat for the next cold start and reduced exhaust emissions. The Sensonic automatic clutch, in combination with 17” Super Aero wheels and low-profile, low-rolling-resistance tyres, added to the driving pleasure.'

The more you study this very special 9000, the more innovation you notice, the sunroof for instance features solar cells that would power the interior ventilation, technology that eventually appeared in the early Audio RS6, and later, the Fisker Karma. It had a thermo accumulator to improve cold Winter starts, heat absorbing windows, UV headlights and a low emission, high performance engine, capable of running on various fuels. Of course, the visibly wonderful Super Aero alloys had me completely fixated, with their larger 17" diameter and more purposeful form to cater for the large, 4 piston calipers and uprated front vented discs.

Not content with just the museum's explanation of this amazing Saab, I did a little more research and discovered that Saab Héritage in Paris can recreate an almost perfect replica of the Ecosport model, with some beautifully considered details, and of course, the all important 17" Super Aero wheels, 35 000,00 €.

Apologies if you see a few too many posts related to the museum, but I found it exceptionally exciting, also managing to talk to some of the volunteers who shared wonderful memories or their time working at Saab was an absolute privilege, thanks to all the wonderful people in Trollhättan who've made this collection possible for all of us to enjoy.