Oh thank God I don't live in Oregon...

PCH, anyone?

Paul's autobiography was one of the best things on TTAC.

Thanks for the great read Paul, and I'm still looking for the coffee table book form...

Sweet find. Man, SAABs used to mean something. I don't know exactly what it was, but I like it. I note that this one is a Deluxe V-4 sporting the Taunus V-4 engine also used in the lovely Sonnet.

Damn hippies

I had forgotten that Subaru did not in fact invent the flying vag grill on the ill-fated BeNign Tribeca.

You can go check it out, as it looks to be parked on or around the corner of 12th and Lincoln. (Across the street from The Cornucopia.)

There was a time, yes, when cars had personality.

*sigh*

I'd absolutely rock one of these if I lived in Oregon :)

How much do ya think it would cost to ship to Michigan? My last Saab dissolved in the driveway, somethin' about salt and winter.

Needs the two-stroke.

i thought about getting a Saab because a cute girl at work had one, and i trust cute girl car taste and the body stying is not bad. then i actually looked at one, and apparently they use a model of a sewer grate for the middle air conditioning vent. yikes! nevermind!

Ha! - Pretty sure the same vehicle was putt-putting around Eugene when I was at the U of O some 15 years ago (that blue fender looks familiar, and the "Q" plate would date it to the early 90's) Make mine a Sonett III.

Buy it!! It is for sale. It is not a tricky car to restore....And it has a lot of loony rally tuning potential. Lot of tuning goodies over here. Or whu not fit a Ford V6 in it. Will fit right in, espacially in the model above. It has the right front end. People still use this in rallys over here against more modern car, Double A-arms front and back. Really good handling and a differential to not loose speed in curves.

It has potential...you just have been V8 brainwashed for all your life, pour bastards..

+ Watch video

@abgwin: I think Alfa Romeo invented the Flying-Vag grille.

@abgwin: "inventing"? designing maybe.

@JantheMan: Bah - those cars are all too well driven. Where's the arse out hoonage? Nice sounds though.

How did they fit an entire Corolla inside that thing?

@wild zero:

+ Watch video

Murilee! Dude! The headline on the gallery is making baby jesus cry. It's a 96, not a 99.
Now if it were a 2 stroke instead of a v4 I might have to start planning a trip up north...

TTAC doesn't deserve such a great series of essays.

@anaxomander: Gah! I knew it was a 96, even... brain not functioning! I'll fix it... that is, if The System will let me.

WANTITWANTITWANTIT

Thanks for the compliments. There's a serious Saab-ophile living near there, because before this one, there was a later vintage 96 sporting Sonnet mag wheels, as well as a 95 wagon.

Eugene is where a lot of Bay Area expats (and their cars) ended up; it's the first sign of intelligent life heading north on I-5. Lots of DOTS Bonus material.

Yeah, the 2 strokes had 'freewheeling', that was so cool, what it is REALLY is an overrunning-clutch mechanism found on all the two-strokes, V4 96es, Sonetts, and some early 99s.

It works like the rear hub on a bicycle. You know how on a bicycle, you can pedal and it turns the back wheel via a chain... but when you're coasting, the wheel spins freely but the pedals don't turn...? The Saab freewheel does exactly the same. When you're applying power via the engine, the freewheel hub (inside the transaxle) locks up and transmits the power to the wheels. Once you've got some momentum, you can lift off the gas -- the freewheel hub spins freely, and the car will coast along just as if you had put the transmission in neutral.

Why did SAAB install this mechanism? It originated in the era of the 2-stroke engines, in which the moving parts were lubricated by oil mixed with the gas. Without freewheel, if you were coasting down a mountain with your foot off the gas, the engine could be turning several thousand RPM with the throttle completely closed, meaning almost no oil would be getting to the moving parts. With freewheel, the engine drops off to idle as you coast, reducing engine wear.

This was no longer an issue once SAAB introduced 2-stroke engines with oil injection, as well as the conventional 4-stroke engines in subsequent models. So why did they keep the freewheel? There are a lot of speculations on this. Saab had advertised freewheel as an advantage, so maybe they didn't feel they could back away from it. They claimed it improved fuel economy a bit (which it does, slightly.) Some customers liked the smoothness and quietness it provides -- lift off the gas and there's no jerk of engine braking, and the engine noise drops off. Best of all, it allows you to downshift without using the normal clutch -- when you lift off the gas, the freewheel disengages drive, so you can just move the lever into a lower gear and then bring up the throttle again. This is really convenient in city driving, where you're always having to slow down for corners and then pick up again.

So if it was so great, why did they drop it? Well, it did add cost, without being seen by most potential buyers as a big benefit; it confused some drivers; and, well, it was one more thing to break, and occasionally it DID break -- immobilizing the car and requiring removal of the engine and transmission to fix. In fact, you find a lot of cars now on which the freewheel failed and was permanently locked.

If you have a choice of buying two cars in generally similar condition except that one has a working freewheel and one doesn't, buy the one that does! (thanks to [www.saabnet.com])

@anaxomander: You know, a Saabing baby Jesus doesn't really sound that bad.

@gp5548: The biggest reason it was eliminated was safety: no engine braking on long down-hills. Saab put relatively bigger brakes on the 94, but it can be a hazard. The freewheeling is also an integral part of the BW Overdrive that was common on US cars from the forties through sixties. My '66 Ford pickup has it, and it's great for around-town clutchless driving. But I have to disengage it whenever I see a long hill coming.

I live in Eugene. Yup, you can find lots of sano old cars here because, I guess, we don't get snow so the streets never get salted. Sure, lots of rain in the winter but the summers are sunny and dry. So cars just don't rust. I have seen a lot of 50's and 60's era cars on the road that have never even been within shouting distance of a restoration shop. Lots of VW's, Volvos, and SAAB's (SAAB = Swedish All Around Buggy). Even a few old British cars as well. Come and get 'em!

Yes!

Yes yes yes yes yes yes!

Thank you.

SAAB, from Sweden, where traversable roadage doubles in winter.

My Dad's freewheel went kerflooey one fine summer, and his solution was to tie it back with a length of twine. When we sold that car eight years later, the twine was still there.

The SAAB was the ultimate winter roading vehicle. 9" of snow and 4x4s in the ditches everywhere, and our SAAB trundling along between them as if it were just another day. Which, for the SAAB, it was.

We would drive around with shovels and sand in the trunk, doing E-brake turns and trying to get it stuck. That didn't happen often.

@JantheMan: Awesome video. The Taunus' exhaust note sounds somewhat agricultural, but kind of like an airplane, too. I guess it sounds like a cropduster.

As I recall, something to do with that freewheel required that the vehicle be towed four wheels up. My folks could only get a two-wheel dolly when we moved from IL to ID in '76, and the poor little 96 sat quite a spell while Dad tried to find someone who could fix it.

My dad has three of these....2 '67s and a '65 (I think) bullnose. All three are two-strokers...

I just wish he'd stop running that Sentra and use one for his rally car....

And yes, I'm in Oregon. Apparently we breed old Saabs. Go find Garth Ankney over at A&T Tire in PDX to get everything Saab.

Hey, while I'm here, if anyone knows of a '96 2-stroke with a factory sunroof running around, my dad would really like it back. Seems he traded it in back in the '70s, and has been kicking himself ever since.

@JantheMan: Thanks, trust the Finns to hoon something.

I thought Edsel invented the Flying Vag grille design?

$800? STEAL!

@FreeMan: I agree, that was one of the best things TTAC's done. His storytelling is great.

Also: old SAABs are amazing.

Is this the Hermes edition??

Eugene's an intresting place (my cousins live there) Sort of a mix of hippie/leftist types and wealthy, not particular libral people. And lots of soobies and Saabs. Thoes two seem to go together well.

Wait, wait wait...they have cars in Eugene?

Must be for those days when the bicycle's in the shop.

My grandmother had one of these back in it must have been about 1962 and I still remember the weird 2 stroke engine sound. I think I was sitting in that car when I spoke my first word, "CAW" (Serious. She's 95, and she'll tell you).

@pauln:

The "safety advantage" isn't really... the V4 cars at least had a big knob on the dash (think it was even yellow), and this would lock the freewheel when pulled out.

@graverobber:
Comment on Looking For Old Saabs On The Street? Head To Eugene! > a Deluxe V-4 sporting the Taunus V-4 engine also used in the lovely > Sonnet... It's Sonett, S O N E T T Ford V4 only in the Sonett II-V4 and in the Sonett III. -- MH