GTP Cool Wall: 1949-1956 Saab 92/92B

1949-1956 Saab 92/92B

  • Total voters
    101
  • Poll closed .
GranTurismo916

GranTurismo916

15,465
United States
Orange County, NY
GTP_GT916
Nii916
1949-1956 Saab 92/92B nominated by @Spacegoat
Saab-92-green.jpg


Engines: 0.8L I2 (Saab two-stroke)
Power: 25 hp
Torque: 51 lb-ft.
Weight: 805 kg
Transmission: 3-speed manual
Drivetrain: Front engine, front wheel drive
Body Styles: 2-door coupe
Additional Info: "Saab manufactured 1,246 cars in 1950 – all of them green. The cost of production was critical to Saab at the time and only 17% of the cost of the 92 was from imported materials. Hence the Henry Ford principle of any colour you like as long as it’s green in Saab’s case! It has been said that the reason that the first Saabs were available in this colour only was that they had a surplus of green paint left over from their wartime aircraft production"​
1024px-1955saab92b.jpg

1953-Saab-92B_Image-01-1680.jpg

Saab_92_1951a.jpg

Saab_92_1951b.jpg

1950ndash1956-saab-92-photo-393864-s-1280x782.jpg

W52HV_SB001.jpg
 
Among the very few genuinely cool Saabs. Mainly the earlier two-stoke compacts that looked like mini-Tatras.
 
Love these things.

However, not sure they're cool. They have that slightly austere, goofy vibe of something you might have once found behind the Iron Curtain. I don't mind that as an image - very early Beetles have it too, and they're probably cool - but combined with the blue cloud of two-stroke you'll be dragging behind you it just doesn't suggest coolness to me.

Later 96s are different. Similar shape, but a bit more brio to the details and the optimism of the 60s somehow ingrained in the design. Those are cool, and since I don't vote "meh", the 92 has to be uncool by comparison.
 
A quirky car, from a quirky company. Tricky to get the hang of due to its two-stroke engine, and somewhat rare. However, it is also a great example of simple equaling elegant, and when it comes to head-turning, a 1950's Saab rates very high on the attention scale.

Too bad Saab is dead now, but cars like the 92 show that at one point, we could have a simple yet funcional cheap car back in the old days. I'll say it's cool.
 
Made motoring possible for multiple Finns and has history in the early days of Rallying. But most importantly, it looks good in a small-quirky-post-WW2-people's-car kind of way. Cool.
 
It's hideous. I find it grotesquely ugly. Normally Swedish cars are cool but not this. Definitely not this. The only color option makes it even worse. My mower has more horsepower. If any car maker expects me to like a car with 25 horsepower it's gotta be go-kart sized. There are very, very few vehicles from the 50's that I would take this over.

I just can't see the appeal here. Seriously uncool.
 
I love that interior; simple, textural and elegant. They rarely make them like that anymore.
 
Wasn't this the one where, as James May pointed out, you have to blip the throttle to make the brakes work or something? Didn't fully understand that but it seemed terrifying. But anyway SZ, just look at it.
 
Tyger
Wasn't this the one where, as James May pointed out, you have to blip the throttle to make the brakes work or something? Didn't fully understand that but it seemed terrifying. But anyway SZ, just look at it.
Click to expand...
I can't remember him saying that, but he may have been referring the freewheel system common to Saabs of this age.

Two-stroke engines don't like running on the overrun because when the throttle isn't open there's no pre-mixed oil entering the combustion chambers. Spinning an engine with no oil to lubricate it is a bad thing.

The freewheel disconnects drive when you come off the throttle (like when you stop pedalling on a bicycle) so the engine can idle instead, and avoid oil starvation.
 
Tyger
Wasn't this the one where, as James May pointed out, you have to blip the throttle to make the brakes work or something? Didn't fully understand that but it seemed terrifying. But anyway SZ, just look at it.
Click to expand...

Actually, I just rewatched that tribute, you actually have to blip both the throttle and the brakes to keep the 2-stroke engine working correctly (because you wouldn't be pumping oil into the engine if you weren't accelerating, IIRC).

And I got tree'd, never mind that. :lol:
 
D'aww, it's so cute! It thinks it can scare us with its angry looks. It's simple, has decent reliability... It's a dog of a car, really. Whooooeeeeesagoooodcar? Yeeeshyoooouuuuare!

It's a solid cool for me. Not as cool as a 93 or a GT750 (or a 96), but it's the car that started it all with its cutesy looks and useless two-stroke engine.
 
homeforsummer
Have to take issue with that, unless you still consider it "useless" despite winning the RAC rally in 1960, 1961 and 1962 in the 96...
Click to expand...

By "useless" I mean, "comically underpowered by today's standards". I am quite aware of the successo of the 93 and the 96 in rallying, but still, most people associate two-stroke engines (and especially engines of such small displacement) with Trabants and the like.
 
I voted a Tatra similar to this one cool, this is no exception. And even the brand itself is as cool a Tatra.

Solid Cool
 
If a certain German endorsed the Beetle (the car that made the 'little pretty cutie' genre a massive hit in the days to come)..

Wow. I'm gonna regret voting already.
 

Latest Posts

Back