Saab Automobile AB is a Swedish automobile maker, now owned by General Motors. Until 1990 the company was owned by SAAB, an acronym for "Svenska Aeroplan Aktiebolaget" (Swedish Airplane Company), which also included SAAB Aerospace and truck manufacturer Scania. General Motors bought half of Saab Automobile in 1990, with an option to acquire the entire company within a decade. Before exercising that option GM shared its ownership of Saab Automobile with Investor AB, the main owner of Saab.
Current models are the 9-3 and 9-5, both which are manufactured in Trollhättan, Sweden and the Saab 9-2X.
As of September 2004 there have been rumours that GM would move the production of cars away from Trollhättan to their Opel plant in Rüsselsheim , Germany or vice versa [1] http://autonet.ca/AutonetStories/stories.cfm?storyID=12987 .
Competition history
Some of the early cars such as the two-strokers, V4s and Saab 99 were quite successful in rally sport, notably the 96 in the 1960s RAC Rally and Monte Carlo Rally, driven by Erik Carlsson.
- In 1950 two Saab 92s (chassis numbers 7 and 8) enter the Monte Carlo Rally. The two cars are manned by Rolf Mellde and K G Svedberg in one and Greta Molander and Margaretha von Essen in the second. Greta Molander comes in 55th overall, 5th in her class and 2nd in the Ladies Class. In Rikspokalen in November Rolf Mellde winns and Saab becomes the best marque team with Mellde, Svedberg and Greta Molander, who also wins the Ladies Class.
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1952 Greta Molander and Helga Lundberg win the Ladies Cup in the Monte Carlo Rally.
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1953 Rolf Mellde wins the Swedish Rally Championship.
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1955 he lands on the roof, but still manages to win Rikspokalen in a Saab 92.
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1956 Bob Wehman and Louis Braun win the Great American Mountain Rally . Rolf Mellde comes in sixth and another Saab 93 in seventh place.
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1959 two Saab 93 are entered in the 24 Hours at Le Mans. The one driven by Sture Nottorp and Gunnar Bengtsson come in 12th overall and second in its class. The same year Erik Carlsson wins the Midnight Sun Rally .
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1960 Erik Carlsson wins the RAC Rally and Saab start competing in Formula Junior with the Saab Formula Junior.
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1961 Erik Carlsson enters the Monte Carlo Rally in a Saab 95 and finnishes fourth.
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1962 Erik Carlsson and Gunnar Häggbom win the Monte Carlo Rally.
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1963 Erik Carlsson again wins the Monte Carlo Rally, this time with Gunnar Palm as co-driver. They also finish second in the Spa-Sofia-Liege Marathon de la Route .
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1971 Stig Blomqvist wins the Swedish Rally in a Saab V4. Erik Carlsson retires from rallying and become Saab ambassador.
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1976 Stig Blomqvist wins the Belgian Boucles de Spa Rally in a Saab 99.
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1977 Stig Blomqvist wins the Swedish Rally in a Saab 99 EMS.
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1979 Stig Blomqvist wins the Swedish Rally in a Saab 99 Turbo. The first time a turbocharged car wins a World Championship rally.
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1980 Saab withdraws from all competition activities because of the high cost and that it is no longer possible to win with standard cars and competition cars have too little in common with production cars to be of value to the development. Some people from the competition department branch out and start Trollspeed aimed at producing competition upgrades for Saabs.
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2000 Saab returned to competition by sponsoring Swede Team Motor who compete with a Saab 9-3 Aero SportSedan, a Saab 9-3 Combi Coupe and a 1964 two-stroke Saab 96. The return to competition was to attract students to the auto-mechanic educations. The students get to work on the race cars before, during and after races to expand the students' knowledge and quality awareness.
Other highlights
Saab was also the first manufacturer to put turbochargers in production cars.
In order to increase production volume, Saab helped Valmet to start a car factory in Uusikaupunki (Nystad), Finland. From 2003 Saab no longer manufactures any cars in Finland, the production of the 9-3 Cabriolet was moved to Graz, Austria.
A common feature of Saab car types is the use of the figure 9 in the model numbers. Current models are the 9-3 and 9-5, both which are manufactured in Trollhättan, Sweden. The exception to this rule is the Saab 600, but that was actually a rebadged Lancia.
All modern (except Saab_9000 ) Saabs have the ignition key hole located behind the transmission selector lever - believing it is a safer position in case of an accident.
In 1986 The Long Run take place. Three standard Saab_9000 Turbo sets 2 World Records and 21 International Records at the Alabama International Motor Speedway in Talladega, USA. 100,000 km with an average speed of 213.299 km/h and 50,000 miles with an average speed of 213.686 km/h. In 1996, ten years after, three standard Saab_900 Turbo driven by factory test drivers and two standard Saab_900 (naturaly aspired) driven by journalists sets new World Records on the same speedway. Will the history repeat in 2006?
In 1987 Saab created TV advertisment called "Saab suite", subtitled "Ballet in 3 acts for 8 SAAB 9000 Turbos". In this movie the stunt drivers shows incredible creations with stock cars, like one wheel spinning, bumper-by-bumper driving and slalom, 2 pairs cars slaloming from oposite directions (passing by in the middle), two-wheel driving, sliding in full speed or jumping over passing car - all on airport runway with classic music on background.
Models
Experimental vehicles and prototypes
See also
External links
- Saab Automobile http://www.saab.com/ - Official site
- Yahoo! - Saab Automobile AB Company Profile http://biz.yahoo.com/ic/52/52961.html
- Saab Innovations http://www.gmcanada.com/ssi/static/english/vehicles/2005/saab/innovations/index.
html gives a detailed look at the technology and models produced by Saab since 1947.
- dmoz: Recreation: Autos: Makes and Models: Saab http://dmoz.org/Recreation/Autos/Makes_and_Models/Saab
- Östgöta SAABO Träff http://hem.passagen.se/ostgota_saabklubb/saabotraff.htm
- Saab enthusiast site http://www.saabmuseum.com/
- New Saab vehicle overviews http://www.autospectator.com/modules/wfsection/viewarticles.php?category=7
Last updated: 05-03-2005 17:50:55
