The Saab 92 - Their first production car
#Blogpost

This weird looking car, produced from 1949 until 1956 was Saab’s very first production car.
The 92 looked like no other car due to its very aerodynamic shape, this wasn’t just purely for the looks though, because the car only had a 764cc two stroke engine with just 25bhp it needed to have a very low drag coefficient. They definitely succeeded since the 92 has a drag coefficient of just 0,30.

The entire body of the Saab 92 was stamped out of just a single sheet of metal, after which holes were cut in the body to accommodate for the doors and windows. Early 92s were only available in a colour similar to British Racing Green, some sources say this is because Saab had a surplus of that specific colour from the time they still made airplanes. In the beginning Saab advertised with a standard version of the 92, but due to the low interest they only made a Deluxe version.

Specs
Alright, so lets talk about the specs. The 92 is powered by a transversely, front-mounted, two-cylinder, two stroke 764cc engine, producing just 25bhp. It has a 3-speed manual gearbox and its aerodynamic design allowed it reach 105 km/h (65 mph).

The Ursaab prototype

The Ursaab was on of the first four prototype cars Saab made, before this they were solely known for building airplanes. This is the car the 92 is based of.
The car was designed by just 16 engineers, none of them had any prior experience in making cars and most of them didn’t even have a driving license.
They needed information on how to build a car, but they also needed to keep to project secret, so they made a couple visits to the Nyköpings Automobilfabrik. Unfortunately they weren’t able to gather as much information as they wanted, and all the books they could find only described how cars were made before the war, so this meant they had to learn the entire process on their own.

Motorsport

Saab’s Rally career started just two weeks after the introduction of the 92, when Saab’s head engineer Rolf Mellde finished second in the Swedish Rally and a slightly modified 92 driven by Greta Molander won the Monte Carlo Rally in 1952.

That’s all for now, thanks for reading and have a nice day :)

Marijn M.