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.