Report: Saab 9-2 plans proceeding, design influenced by brand's '50s teardrop models

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Filed under: Saab, Design/Style


You wouldn't know it by looking at Saab's current automobiles, but once upon a time the Swedish marque was known for crafting almost impossibly rounded bodywork. Victor Muller, CEO of Spyker Cars, which just completed its acquisition of the Saab brand, plans to reintroduce such teardrop-shaped emotion back into the automaker's line with a new vehicle codenamed 92, or in more modern parlance, 9-2.

Don't expect to see the small, premium 9-2 before 2013 or so, when it would theoretically go up against machines like the Mini and Audi A1. According to Autocar, Saab would likely borrow a suitable set of underpinnings from GM's Opel division, as is the case with the new 2011 Saab 9-5.

If Saab is able to get this new entry-level model into production as planned, its inclusion would no doubt go a long way towards reaching Muller's stated goal of hitting 100,000 total sales per year for the newly acquired automaker. That's not too big a stretch considering that the brand sold 93,220 cars as recently as 2008. We wish him, along with the rest of those with a stake in Saab, lots of luck.

[Source: Autocar]Report: Saab 9-2 plans proceeding, design influenced by brand's '50s teardrop models originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 26 Feb 2010 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.


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[SaabxSpyker88]

Wooohoo!!

[TunnanXWD]

The Ur Saab is an incredibly beautiful car. It is soooooooo slick and smooth and as I just commented in another post, it is the TRUE AERO. I also have a C-5 stock Corvette and some days I can just sit and marvel at the lines of the car. It was done to have and does have one of the best if not the best "drag co-efficient" numbers in the history of production cars.

Funny thing ... I used to sit and look at the photos of the Ur Saab ... only to find out that it too was the product of extensive wind tunnel testing by the aircraft division of Saab way back when. It had the best numbers in it's day and I read another article that indicated that it still, after all these years is way up there in terms of true aero ....

Trivia ... if you look at the roof of the Corvette from C-5 and on ... there are two slight bumps on the driver and passenger sides of the car with a slight indentation down the center. The original wind tunnel design did not allow drivers to wear helmets so they raised the roof profile keeping the center lower. To keep the weight down a 'weak spot" is the floor seat attachment points since balsa wood and foil were used so if a 250 pounder ... you have to tell your beer enhanced pals to take it easy getting in ... and the weight of a windshield in a C-5 Z-06 is a few pounds lighter cause' it has thinner glass to save weight.

Rain Man ... Tuesday is pudding night, always pudding on Tuesday ..