hello ....i'm Pantelis from Greece...i'm 51 y.o and that video made me so emotional (especially my father he's 84 y.o and we saw this video together!!!!) cause he bouth this car in 1964 and i was born inside this car in 1969 ....it was a Saab 94 construction in 1964 the older model from this car in your videiowith fuel and oil at the same tank...it was semi automatic by puting 1st-2nd and 3rd gear without pressing the clutch all you needed to do that is pulling a small lever low on the steering axle next to and above the throttle..now the car is in the experienced hands of a fanatical collector of these cars..car's counter has reset 3 times. the engine was never converted and was spotless inside out and mechanically excellent for over 30 years. thank you for this video sir....Thank you so much for this emotional experience....* sorry for my English but i;m Greek)
I'm sorry but it's not semi automatic. The had a thing called free well system. It disconects the engine from the gearbox in the same way as the clutch does. Thst allows you to change gears without the clutch.
I'm sorry but it's not semi automatic. The had a thing called free weal system. It disconects the engine from the gearbox in the same way as the clutch does. That allows you to change gears without the clutch. Also the SAAB 94 is not the same as the SAAB 93. The 94 has a four stroke engine normal doors and other things different.
Really respectful and interesting from you, Jay. As a swede, I'm happy that you honour an historic car from my country with this kind words and caring. You also have a giant knowledge that makes me impressed. Often I don't like american reviews (with music in background and people who don't know what they speak about) but you're interesting and serious. Respect from me to you, Jay.
Love your country and their cars. I have had a 2013 Volvo XC90, 1987 Volvo 740, 1990 Volvo 780, 2008 Saab 9-5 Sportcombi I am restoring now, Saab 9-3 SS 2007, 2003 9-3 Convertible, 2004 Saab 9-5.
If Saab would still exist, I would have owned one for sure. Sadly Saab disappeared due to mismanagement of GM . Managers who didn't understand this unique brand . Saab was a love brand .
@@johanweckx2439 Yes. With GM's takeover everybody were expecting Swedish quality American cars but got the exact opposite. There IS a reason as to why Europeans call a hammer "an American screwdriver". :0) The Chinese bought the 9-3 production line and are now making an electric version for the home market only, the so-called NEVS. Wouldn't mind own one, though.
The SAAB 93 was a fantastic car and I love the 2-stroke sound. She sounds so much faster than she actually is. I also love old Volvo models like the PV 444/544, the Amazon and the P 1800. In my opinion the latter is the most beautiful coupé ever build. If I had one I wouldn't swap her for any other car. Of course, this is my subjective point of view. The guys who designed those three Volvo models had a very good eye for shapes and how buyers would be attracted to those cars, but the same can be said about the designers of the SAAB 93. It's a shame what happened to SAAB. I hope Volvo won't share that fate. Greetings from Germany. :)
Tiny lightweight cars are amazing on winding roads, cause you can have fun without even breaking the speed limit, what's the point of 200 or 220mph top speed if you spend most of your time doing 20-40mph?
in sweden, that license plate GLF249 has now been recycled and passed down to a trailer, a -08 Thule D0750, owned by a contractor company located 30miles away from the very SAAB factory.
Boy, this brings back memories. I took my driver's test in a '59 Saab 93 in 1963. The examiner was completely baffled by the rear-hinged doors and I had to explain about the free-wheeling so he wouldn't get freaked out going down hill. I grew up in Maine (still live there) and would purposely go out on a snowy day and pass people stuck trying to go uphill. It was a fun car to drive.
Mainer here too. Dad's first Saab was a 60 93F (F stood for front hinged.) So it was the last year of the 93 and did not have the suicide doors. I took my test in our third Saab; a 66 96 with 850 ccs, 3 one barrel carbs, and 46 mighty hp.
It's just Saab's car division that went down, which has always been secondary to their main business -- building aircraft. SAAB is an acronym for the Swedish Airplane Corporation (Svenska Aeroplan Aktie-Bolaget). Saab went supersonic in 1955, and in 2006, one of Saab's "vehicles" (the SMART-1 moon satellite) crashed into the surface of the moon at a speed of 7,000 km/h after having circled the moon for two years. Saab Ericsson Space built it for the European Space Administration.
GREEDY SCUMBAGS THE OWNERS OF VOLVO & SAAB WERE!! wHAT AN INSULT TO SELL VOLVO FOR A $4.5 BILLION LOSS TO IGNORANT CHINESE GOVERNMENT WORKERS THEY WILL TOTALLY RUI N IT NOW
Someone once asked Carlsson how he managed to beat so many more powerful cars in one of these. He replied: 'I just never took my foot off.' Marvellous.
Also, he wasn't afraid to push the car to it's limits and beyond -- in Sweden his nickname was "Carlsson på taket" or "Carlsson on the roof" for his penchant of driving so fast that he occasionally flipped his Saab onto it's roof ;-)
@@davidsteving6528 Later on it was found out that Scandinavian drivers used two techniques unknown to others: left foot braking and 'Scandinavian Flick' The front wheel drive design only proved to fail when rally cars went over 200HP and Saab 99 Turbo ended up struggling and killing halfshafts. In the process Saab's rally team manager told Stig Blomqvist he's not expected to be loyal to the brand, and adviced him to get a faster car.
I remember filling up my 1959 at the gas station and watching the looks on the faces of other patrons when I would pour 2 stroke oil into the gas tank and bounce the little beast up and down with my foot on the bumper for a minute. Ordinarily, I would mix it with some gas in a separate can I kept in the trunk, but sometimes you just love to do something to burn your existence into the minds in a small town. Keep doing what you do so well.
@@johnburns4017 Only if you were on empty. Otherwise, you had to figure out how much oil to pour in. I was told to use chainsaw oil in mine. Filling up and adding a can for the ten gallon tank added 6 cents a gallon to the cost of the fill-up in 1974. That increased the cost per mile and adding the cost of the oil was like losing about 1/3 of the mpg I was getting.
Thank you so much for this Jay. My dad is Swedish and the first time he took me over there in the mid 80's, my grandparents drove this exact car! Their '58 Saab actually had a glass cylinder to help you mix the gas and oil! I'm a German sports car guy at heart, but this car is my family roots! Great stuff Jay!!!
Jay’s passion for cars goes beyond the hardware and gets into the backstory. It is what makes these “garage” stories so interesting. The shutter for the radiator was neat.
We drove Saabs in our family from the early 60's thru 2007. Every type...except the Sonnet. And we got our neighbors to also drive them. We lived on Main St in our town. We always had so many SAABs in the driveway that people in town thought we were a SAAB garage and occasionally someone would knock on the front door needing service for their SAAB. The other night I had a dream - I had dropped off my 2018 SAAB 9-5 Wagon at the dealer for service and was asking my good friend if she could give me a ride to the dealer to pick up my car..It'll be ready tomorrow morning by 11:00am. What a great dream it was! I miss the SAAB family. And it really was a family. Very special.
Jay captured the cleverness of Sabbs and his humorous take on who drove them was spot on. Plenty of Saab still on the road cause thoughtful people won’t let them die.
Thanks, Jay. Not sure if this was covered in all the comments, but the freewheel was there to keep from destroying the engine on deceleration. With premix, the engine relies on oil in the fuel for lubrication. The more fuel going into the engine, the more lubrication. But if you go down a long hill at 6,000 rpm's with your foot off the gas....no fuel, no oil, no lubrication, and...no engine! With freewheeling engaged, the engine goes to idle on decel and gets the right amount of oil. In my youth, I rode 2 stroke motorcycles using premix. I was taught to pull in the clutch going down hills or approaching a stop.
You brought back lots of memories of my '67 SAAB 96 two stroke. I got to know every cop in San Diego County on a first name basis due to the smoke. Once I was pulled over because the cop wanted to tell me about a new two stroke oil he'd found at Fedmart.
This was a real blast from the past fpr me. Growing up my mom had a green 1960 Saab 93 and that engine sound is embedded in my brain forever. And now 30 years later a guy moved in down the street from me who drives one, same year same colour. Ah memories.
I had a '62 93, in 1972, when I was 20. They had done away with the suicide doors, but everything else was the same. It came standard with the 4 spd on the column, which was a hoot to drive. The manual suggested when parking, while camping, find a suitable sized rock to put under a tire to keep the car from rolling away. The small door from the trunk folded down and the seats folded also to make a bed. As a 20 year old guy, this was a chick magnet car, girls loved riding in it. It smoked when you didn't get the mixture just right, it went like a tank through snow, etc. It got good gas mileage on long trips. I ended up hitting a Torino, parked in the middle of the street, and put a big U in the hood. It drove fine and I was able to sell it like that. I still miss that car!
um that ford Torino BBF ( orderd in / new not a used at the time of sale ) may have been in my moms ( and she was near or in the car at thee time of the insurance claim my uncle/gramps was driving ) family do you remember more about it? as my grandparents weren't the "hot car" buying type so it stands out of the rest of the list they've had and a black fox-body ( grandma's pride ) that lasted less than 90-day's ish and was replaced with a 90's coupe devile north star push-rod weird as well as generally striper model pick-up's and deluxe 4-door luxury barge's for tastes my uncles on the other hand well typical younger 20's boys had to have hot cars like a 1971 440-6 SE sunroof ect. charger in metal flake gold and purle white interior wow 😲almost want to find it but i already have a 69 so thats a terrible idea if mine
Finally! I'm one of those SAAB "guys" you refer to. My whole family is. The German Ford Taunus 4-strokes are killer too. Sweeden had the strongest steel w/the highest Boron content, and these were the strongest car bodies to ever have wheels. Thanks!
@@judethaddaeus9742 Yes, and Canada had them up until 1975. My brother has a black '74 95, but it's rough. Black was VERY rare. The one problem w/post '73s are the heinous giant bumpers that all cars had to get.
UberLummox I didn’t realize you lucky Canucks got the 96 for 2 extra years! I like the big fat lip bumpers. They’re a SAAB trademark for the era. I also like how SAAB kept refining the styling through 1980, with the new grille design for 1974. They pulled a similar trick as Volvo did with the 240-Series in the 1980s painting the pillars and door frames black to give the illusion of more glass area and a black-painted decklid area between the taillights. It’s hard to make a bodyshell that was designed in the late ‘40s look good enough to market in 1980, especially with the tiny budget SAAB had at the time. But they were creative and pulled it off!
As a Swede and as a SAAB owner I got a big smile on my face while i was watching this video. My dad had a Saab 93, also 2 stroke but a newer model (1973) It’s really sad Saab went down.
Growing up in NYC I had a neighbor that lived down the street who had two of these, both bright robin's egg blue, and with consecutive VINs. These were some of the first cars I ever worked on as a kid, helping that neighbor do things like oil changes, setting points (one of his was a 4-stroke 4-cyl, the other a 2-stroke 3-cyl), changing filters, etc. He was a college professor and drove them to work regularly during the school season, changing over to his Vespa scooter for summer. He also owned a Citroen DS that I loved. Many years later, when I had my own service station, I was one of the few mechanics in NYC who could/would work on Citroens and Saabs. One client even gifted me a gently used 1970 Saab 99 hatchback that I fell in love with. Saab's are really great cars. A driver's car for sure.
My father use to have a Saab 900 from 95, sadly he got rear ended at a traffic light and the back was totaled so he got a new car which I am sure he would have someday anyway but it was a nice car and I loved it.
Poorly shielded spark plug wires, most likely. My Dad restored a 1929 Model A Roadster. Flathead 4. The spark plugs were connected by brass sheet material. So...no shielding.
That's the car! My father owned a 1958 Saab, the only one in our neighborhood. This was he car we had when I was born and he drove this until I was about 8 years old, then he gave it to his nephew, who drove it for another 8 years or so until he was rear ended and it was "totaled." I haven't seen one of these since I was a child. Thanks Jay! I can still smell it and see my dad adding oil to the gas tank, to the shock of those around him at the gas station.
Really good stuff ! Right; I recall the sandvik saws, and the specially tough durable files that my boss in industrial supply business had me test, as to whether he should sell them. I had strongly approved of the highly quality steel compared to US product. Fortunately we improved in time for WW2,
My Swedish neighbors had one, a 1964. The dad was a christian movie producer. I'd be a passenger in it as a kid, and I loved the sporty way that he drove it, and the sound, and the smell of the 2 stroke engine! ..Jay, you should have stopped by my hamburger joint, (Carl's) pictured from 11:10-11:13 for a burger!!
I have owned 2 - Model 99 Saabs and a 96 Saab with German Ford V4 engine. A friend had the 93 Saab with the 750cc 2 stroke engine. The 750cc & 850cc engines were German made by DKW and the engine was used by several European car companies. Being an aircraft company Saab was following a tradition of building the body & chassis only and purchasing the engine from other companies. The 99 Saabs that I owned were a 1970 and 1972 models which used a slant 4 inline engine from British Leyland. I put over 250,000 miles on the 1972 and when sold it was still running great with no major engine repairs.
Wilmer, you are right (says this Swede). However, those are modern Swedish plates. Pre 1973, they had a letter followed by a number (not like today, three letters followed by three digits). The letter indicated the region ("län") of Sweden. Also, there was no black rim: sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Registreringsskyltar_i_Sverige#/media/File:SE_license_plate_before_1973.jpg
My mom had an 82 Turbo 900! The engine was a 2.0 liter I4, but it was backwards; the clutch was in the front and the belts were against the firewall. The Borg-Warner 5 speed tranny did double duty as the oil pan on the bottom of the engine!! It was pretty zippy and handled good! The parking brake worked on the front disc brakes, so when you replaced the pads you had to rotate the pistons back into the calipers to reset the parking brake!
@@StrangerHappened They did try, but the swedish government wasn't willing to subsidise, most countries with car industries do this but unfortunately not our.
Rally driver Erik Carlsson said in an interview that the trick to win with these underpowered cars, was to always keep the gaspedal to the floor. Then shift without clutch, (possible thanks to the freewheeling) and through the bends, put the inner front wheel in the ditch to keep the car on the road. Most often this technique worked fine. But sometimes he lost control and rolled. So.. After rolling a few times, he got the nickname "Carlsson on the roof" after the children's book. 😊 He was a big idol to us kids here in Sweden back in the days.
When I moved to my new house I was cutting the hedge and the hedge cutter hit something, It was the crankshaft/ conrod and piston assembly from a two stroke saab, The pistons looked like they had been damaged by seizure and had some prety deep gouges in them but I loved the way that it looked like whoever had stripped the engine had just thrown the whole crank assembly into the hedge in a rage where they had remained until I found them years later. It now makes a great garden ornament :-) Love the vids
a fun fact about those early saabs , and a shame you didn't mention it , was the bottom of the car . It's allmost completely flat .In the year 63 they won the Monte Carlo Rally. That year the weather was terrible , most teams got stuck in snow and had to dig the car out again and again. but because of the flat undercarriage , on bad downhill stretches , they just let it freewheel and they allmost used it like a sled , just gliding over the snow . wasnt hard to push out either , and because of the freewheeling , they didn't dig in fast. So front wheel drive and 2 crazy swedes , and you got yourself a winning combo.
An aspect of rally racing that keeps me interested in the series, year on year. Speed/HP is important, but many other factors. Especially? Durability and clever engineering. Who is impressed by building the biggest engine that can go fastest in a straight line? Not me.
My daughter always loved the jelly mould saab.s. I rebuild one for her 18th birthday. She is now 48 and still has it. Now fitted with the rally front end. But standard engine.
The British did combine water and electricity in one unit. The distributor in a classic Mini, right up against the grille, just waiting for a rainy night. I didn't say it actually _worked_ when that happened. :-P
Actually, the SAABs under those conditions also had distributor problems. Always carried a can of spray lube to disperse the condensation on the dist. cap in soggy weather. New York state, lots of soupy, cold days.
Great video Jay. In 1968 I purchase a white 1963 Saab from a dealer in Highland Falls, NY with about 85k miles on the odometer. Previous owner was the chaplain from West Point Military Academy. The ‘63 version Had 4 speed on the column, freewheel, fold down rear seat, no suicide doors though. Being 18, I beat the hell out of that car and probably added another 80K miles to it. For every eight gallons of gas I added a quart of oil to the tank and never had an issue. I miss that car.
Back in the late 60's I worked at Slingsby Sailplanes/Engineering and one of my collogues rebuilt a Saab, probably a 96, and had an old bonnet (hood) left over, so when it snowed he used to swap the bonnets (he used pip-pins for quick release) and drive to the local hills, take off the bonnet, and use it as a sledge. We never found out what others thought of him using part of his car as a sledge but he had plenty of strange looks when he'd finished and put it back on and drove off.
Love these little cars. A buddy had one in college. Starter cable went and he hooked up an outboard motor cord with a pull handle hanging down. Was hilarious starting it. Such fun we had with it.
I LOVE these Saab's, I had a Saab 96 back in the day which is a four-stroke with an old Ford engine but the design was still teardrop so its looks were preserved, fantastic looking car
I have a model 96 Saab, somewhat similar looking in body style to this 93. It has the stock Ford German V-4 engine. It's absolutely indestructible. I used to have a 1957 DKW also a two-stroke 3 cylinder with the radiator behind the engine and also with suicide doors.
Holy cow, Jay -- I remember that comic with the Corvette and the Saab on ice! Man, it must be 50 years since I read that comic book, but I remembered it as you started talking about it. Amazing to think that's stayed in my memory all those years, just waiting for a cue.
Yup, why the 96 with the V4 Taunus four-stroke still had it is another story, lol. I shat a brick the first time a drove a 96 which had the freewheel active.
@@kathyflorcruz552 Only extremely marginally if at all. When you freewheel the engine goes into idle which require fuel to tick the engine over. When you engine brake the throttle is (almost) completely closed which draws little air through the carburettor and hence little fuel to the engine. In practice the difference is basically negligible. More modern fuel injected engines shuts off fuel completely when engine braking, so it's "free".
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Bingo, like going downhill on a moped. The piston would start to seize.
@ It was common for big American cars of the 1930s to have freewheeling. I think it was to save fuel considering the depression but the lack of engine braking does affect safety so that's why they stopped equipping cars with it. A question for anyone- do two stroke bikes have freewheeling? I honestly don't know.
Fun, simple video highlighting the quirky brilliance of SAAB. Well done, Jay. The SAAB community is probably the kindest, most supportive auto community. SAAB owners are quirky like their automobile counterparts but always friendly and helpful.
I learned to drive in a 1968 V4 Saab. My friend had an older 2 stroke. Fun cars and good with the Wisconsin show. Saab did not update the transmission for the V4 so mine had the free wheeling knob too. I would usually pull it out for engine braking. The 2 strokes needed the free wheeling because it there was no fuel there would be no lubrication. If the engine was at high RPMs rolling down a long hill the engine would seize up if there was not free wheeling. Same is true for a two stroke motorcycle so I would pull in the clutch while going down a long hill on my Suzuki T500.
Dad's '60 93f (last year of the 93) did not have suicide doors, but all the rest of this brings back memories. In 61 my older sister totaled that great little car and walked away from a serious crash. (The windshield popped out-as designed.) Dad then bought a new 61 Saab 96, with the new back end (big taillights, big backlight, flip out back windows, 40 horsepower, new instrument panel, key starter) We used that for 5 years, then he traded it for a new 66 96 (new front end, radiator in front...then the engine, 3 carbs, 850, (46 hp.) 4 on the tree). -I used that car a lot. it topped out at 86 mph. -BTW, even our 60 had MPH on the speedo, not KPH.
I wish cars now would require four separate steps to start, in the right order. The traffic would have been so much easier since half the drivers in my area would never get out of their driveways.
Recently I have seen two drivers (OK, both women, both possibly foreign born) in my neighborhood trying to parallel park with no clue whatsoever. One had their car parallel to the curb, in the space, and about three feet from the curb and couldn't figure out how to get closer despite turning the wheel left and right and going back and forth.
That engine really put a smile on your face! Much more joy than all these Ferraris. I have driven cars with alot of horsepower but this one is pure fun and character
Yep even in the 90's when I was in middle school the old bat librarian who also went to my church owned I believe it was a 75 or 76 Saab, so yeah he nailed it. lol!
I was the first one in my family to buy a Saab, a 1984 900 turbo. Good car. Then my father bought a 2000 9-3 turbo manual and drove it until he was 89. "I'm not old enough to drive an automatic." Then my youngest brother bought a 2003/4 9-3 and my middle brother bought my father's car in 2012. 12 year old 9-3 turbo with 6,000 miles on the clock :-) My current Saab is a 2007 9-3 aero 2.8V6 turbo manual. Slightly modified. My previous Saab was a 1989 900 aero that I sold in 2012 with 315,000km on the clock. It was still being used as a daily driver at age 23 and did Melbourne to Queensland drives, around 1,800km of spirited driving each way, every summer in 40C+ temperatures. My two brothers and I have engineering degrees. I worked in IT. Number 2 is a chartered accountant and number 3 is a recently retired civil engineer. Our father had a physics degree and was an army officer. Our mother did maths at UNI and was a rocket scientist at the end of WW2. Could there possibly be a trend here :-)
My friends mom had one. Not this one, we would have rolled it lol. He called it, excuse spelling, "Keemo Saabee". He used to smoke the Devil's Lettuce in it. I would watch.
‘93 was the last year of the real Saab. I’ve owned 4 from ‘99-06 but I want a real one like my brother’s’93 which he drove 200k miles on the original clutch and very few repairs. As good as any Toyota.
I had a slightly later model that didn't have the suicide doors. My dad bought it for me for $850, with 92,000 miles on it. Such odd features. Major flaw was that the distributor was right behind the front grill where it would cake with ice when you drove in a snowstorm. At 100,000 miles it needed a new transmission, so my garage in Woodstock, VT swapped out a good one for $200. Another flaw was that in the summer heat, the engine would get extremely hot unless you ran the heater. My sneakers would nearly melt from the hot air blowing on my feet. Had to sell it when I planned to drive across country, knowing that it wouldn't make it over the rockies. Bought a new, '70 VW bug convertible for $2700. Drove that across the country and back twice. Fun times with those cars.
About 1961, UpState New York, having to drive back roads to get to work. Finger Lakes area, cold heavy snow, unplowed roads at night with ice on inside and outside of the windshield with big wet flakes coming down. Though not much fun at the time can look back at that 59 Saab with affection today. We went through many an adventure together and as a not too smart 21 year old managed to survive. Mountainman Carl.
good story, like your self I kept my Angels very busy helping me out. I still remember going out at night when nobody would go out today , just to visit or get a coffee at the local shop, course there would be other kids there too and the bright lights on the snow at midnight would make the place seem like an oasis of quiet and warmth. nowadays kids just text each other and sadly the snow storms dont slow down anything, every body and there brother has 4 wheel drive. I remember going for miles down the mostly level Old Post rd thru CT with nary a car around, the heater on full blast ,the window open. and not a worry in the world.
My gf owned one of those but a bit newer model from the 60s. This was in the late 90 though. Thanks for the nice show and kind words about our Swedish icon.
Hi Jay! I need to tell you some more details about the 93! My parents had two of them when I grew up here in Sweden. Not only is the radiator mounted behind the engine, making it easily overheat when a family of 5 persons and a roofrack etc making summerhollidays in hot weather... But then if we had some rain it would suffer from the fact that the ignition distributor was mounted right up in the front where all the rain hit... :-/ I remember that my father tried to protect it with a rubber glove with tiny holes on the "fingertips" where the cables passed through. The car has no window flushing, only the wipers, but an old bottle of Heinz Ketchup with water squeezed by the steering column was the solution for that! :-) WE LOVED THE SAAB hehe! :-D
I had a '67 Saab 96 and encountered the same problem during a late winter snowstorm in Arizona-- distributor got soaked and we had to wait a few hours while it dried out. A plastic bag shroud with ignition wires poking out were my low-tech solution. Loved it with all its quirks but not without its challenges-- sheet metal separating from body due to rusted clips; and as much as I loved the looks of gas station attendants when they saw me pouring oil into the tank during a fill-up, in retrospect the two-stroke engines were absolute disasters environmentally-- magnitudes worse pollution-wise than 4-stroke engines.
My dad bought a red 1958 model back in the days. I loved this car, never any problems or issues. Only remember to fill the correct oil in the gasoline, ..but if Im not wrong there was fuel pumps with oil mix to use on these or similar cars. - Absolute great car story. Thank you Jay Leno.
I'm sure somewhere in the 2500 comments it was pointed out.. but i didn't see it. Volvo invented the 3 point seat belt. They didn't charge anyone else to use it though.
Volvo designer, owns the patend. But gives no license fees for using. Meaning everybody can use them. Make them. And produce copies. Truly the best idea
I had a older Suzy 750 GT Water Buffalo .In the late 70s and 80s Suzuki made a Water cooled 3 cylinder 2 stroke 750 cc street bike. It self metered oil and had a place for 3 spare spark plugs under the seat. However this thing due to its weight would scream it had the same snap the big motor cross dirt bikes have but 750ccs of it. I forget the year but. At the time the first Ninja bikes were coming out. And they used to get so pissed.This street bike no fairings no rear sets would eat them up. But it sounded like a swarm of bees or a weird F1 car coming down the road. Id love to have a Saab like that.
I have heard some of these in full rally trim at races in Sweden. 850 cc triple, built by Saab's rally department with 100+ hp, screaming through the forest at 10.000rpm. It's a very special sound.
Grew up in northern New York in the sixties and rural mail carriers loved these cars to traverse snow covered country roads. I love the simplicity of engine compartment. Great car for skiers.
When I was a kid living with my grandfather I went with him too the Saab dealership in Brunswick Maine and watching the P3 Orions land at the naval base, I miss him
@@GlamStacheessnostalgialounge i don't know what kind of 2 stroke you have seen, but it was either wrongly adjusted or sat for a long time. Otherwise they mostly don't smoke
+crazyyoutubeuser24 I had some hands-on experience with old Trabants and tiny 2-stroke scooters and all mechanics say the same, that these smoke like mad.
@@GlamStacheessnostalgialounge i have experience with both 2 stroke mopeds and cars. And when the engine reached a certain temperature it should'nt smoke
Last year I drove from Stockholm to Gothenburg and, while passing the SAAB airplane factory just outside Linkoping, saw that they had examples of all their famous planes, the Viggen, Gripen, etc mounted on poles, so you can see them while driving along the Motorway. It's a shame they don't make cars any more but they're still making airplanes
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Their aircraft are legendary, hid them under overpasses and used the highway to take off. They could fly from primitive forward bases for weeks.
Wonderful video - brings back lots of memories - had a 1958 93 like this one which a friend of mine and I raced with the Grumman Sports Car Club on Long Island NY in the 60's. Stripped out the seats, removed the exhaust resonator, took off the hubcaps and raced in the gymkhana circuit on Long Island. Also got me to work in the snow because my TR-4 was awful in bad weather. Thanx Jay !!
An old swede in good hands. I had the 4 stroke one, a dream in winter to drive. Sometimes they were called "sne fyra" (crooked four) as the pedals was not in the middle of driver position. People who walked crooked did so after driving that saab :-)
You sat centered to the pedals! By the way.... SAAB 96 and winter. When i was in the army we lads from our neck of the woods carpooled. One of my friends had a 96 v4 and seating five not so small guys in that car! As it was then the temperature could drop down to -40 c. It was really really cold. Especially in the back seat! The heat distribution were almost non existent. Hot feet in the front seats and the inside of the glass almost entirely covered with ice. The passenger in front did have to scrape the windows so the driver could see out!
The 4 stroke motor was a Ford V4. I remember one that PD Elrod had that ran rather roughly. Turned out that the center main bearing journal was broken! The break was at an angle, so the crankshaft still worked! For several years and tens of thousands of miles!! Ran rough but it ran!!
The reason for the freewheel is that when the driver backs off the throttle, the engine's not getting any fuel. But the wheels and the drive train will cause the engine to turn over, possible at revs e.g. when going down a hill. Turning over the engine in a two-stroke, without fuel, would be catastrophic as the engine is lubricated by fuel.
Sounds accurate, but an interesting fact is that Saab kept the freewheel when moving to the V4 engine (a four stroke) in Saab 96. Does not sound as good as the 93, though.
Another reason for the freewheel is that the 2 stroke engine would cause a lot of bucking when the car was coasting with the engine engaged. With the freewheel the car was smooth as glass and nearly silent when it was coasting.
@@olbill70 I'm surprised it hasn't been mentioned, that i saw, but in Freewheel you can shift up without touching the clutch. I owned a V4 Sonett with freewheel and it was a lifesaver in heavy traffic.
It also allowed you to change gear without using the clutch, and with a slight right tilted pedal and steering wheel (because of the front wheel well), me and my friends annoyed many people by driving from the right seat of the car!!
I believe the freewheeling system was because of an inherent problem with using a 2-stroke engine - when you back off the throttle, the engine doesn't get enough oil. Not really a problem in motorcycles, as they slow down fairly quickly, but with the better part of a 1/2 ton of car, the car speed (and therefore the engine speed) didn't drop quickly enough just with compression to slow it.
I'm a former owner of a SAAB 96. The freewheeling system was also intended to prevent "snatching" on the overrun. Lifting off the throttle would cause the engine to buck.
I don't know if it's really a problem with motorcycles or just perceived to be a problem, but I always heard never to just let off the gas on a 2 stroke to slow down. Especially when decelerating from high revs, I ALWAYS pull the clutch in. The freewheeling feature on the Saab 2 strokes was probably put on there so you don't have to hold the clutch in or put it in neutral when coasting. I would LOVE to have that car, I'm a 2 stroke guy from way back!
The owners manual clearly describes the need to change the three spark plugs to cooler burning plugs when you drive at highway speeds for long distances.
Decades ago I commuted on an Italian scooter with a two-stroke engine, and on long downgrades when I used the engine for braking, I remember having to periodically activate the clutch and twist the throttle grip a couple of times to rev the engine, to make sure the piston rings continued to get enough oil. I hadn't thought about it in years until you mentioned it here.
The 58-59 Sports had oil injection (and triple carbs) - but so much for your theory on frugality. Jay's used premix, so it does not have oil injection.
Its really great to see Jay enjoy his cars. He is so passionate, and knowledgeable. Saab were great eccentric cars. I would love to see a whole series covering all the Saabs and Citroens.
In Sweden we call them " oljedriven djungeltrumma" oil driven jungle drum". My neighbors is still driving one of these, as theirs only car. Perfectly served and rust protected with linseed oil.
Mine's a 1967 Saab V4, one previous owner, a retired Colonel of Artillery, who drove it to Lebanon from Sweden to take command of a UN battalion. I remember well the first time I met a two stroke Saab, though, just after I moved to Sweden. Love them.
No, Jay, this car looks familiar to me because I am really, really old. My father had several 93s and 95s. I bought my first car when I was 21: a 1967 Saab 96. Later there was a 99 (great car) and then a 900. But you live in the wrong part of the country to truly enjoy a classic Saab. Snow and twisty steep back roads that are the same as they were 250 years ago, except with some asphalt on them. One spring morning on my way to classes at the University of Virginia (all male in those days) from Mary Washington College in Fredericksburg (all female in those days) I had the great pleasure of running a Plymouth GTX off the road that hadn't changed since the Civil War. I just kept pushing him and pushing him with the little Saab and he put his foot into that 440 and flew off the road at the next curve. The Saab clung to the road like it was on rails. Does yours have freewheeling? My 96 did. No engine braking. Take your foot off the gas going downhill and the tach dropped to idle and the speed kept climbing until panic sat in. Fold down the rear seat, not common in those days, and who needs a motel? This was a fantastic brand, conceived by ingenious Swedes, and perfect for a young man wanting to stand out from the crowd. I got 32 to 36 miles per gallon. In 1967! Too bad GM destroyed it. Oh, and my 96 had a magenta high beam indicator jewel light. Never seen anything like it.
Thanks for a great story...this is why i like these old cars...Working on New cars nowadays is not the same...Greetings younger car mechanic from Norway
think simo lampinen was greatest seller of saab,once back fast,break and try to make turn,it took over,simo came out of car and start to tell bottom of that saab...and this is not a story,it is so true,,
Haha! That was a nice story indeed. But well, i can't picture americans from GM having a proper talk with those sweden guys that engineered and built the 99 & 900. Seems like they must've had way too much of a different idea about how cars should be made.
I had this car in the early 60s. Freewheeling was fabulous (scared the crap out of me when I took it out for a test drive). I had it for years. I once drove from London to St Tropez fully loaded with 4 up for a holiday and got 65 to the gallon! I loved it!
10:45 - My sister took a trip to Germany in high school (then "West Germany,") and when she got back, "It was amazing, we got on the Autobahn, and were doing a hundred! And that was kilometers, so we were going *REALLY* fast!" I didn't have the heart to tell her she had her conversions backwards. (She thought the was doing over 160 MPH, not 62.)
I was almost borne in a car like this. However in 1956, I was carried home in A Lloyd, but my first car memories appeared in a white Saab 93, like this. As you say, it was a well built car, created by an airplane company, that manufactured aircraft for The Swedish Air Force. The logo is a stylized front view of the medium class bomber B18, as was one by the last designs before the jet-era. I remember the car as a very pleasant vehicle. The entry through the suicide doors eased the entry to the back seat. It managed the tough mountains in Norway without troubles. Engine sounds were never disturbing, and the motor wheeled happy in the worst of uphills. Downhills, it could tear the brakes, however, but they never let us down. I have seen Norway by lying upon a pile of luggage in the backseat. Eh. Seat-belts did not suit kids by that time anyway, and I survived. The back storage was full, as well as the backseat. The problem was the roads by that time. Very few were covered by asphalt, and at the gravel roads, the wheels hammered the fenders with a massive throw of pebbles that made a terrible sound inside the car. They had also lots of deep holes, as well as bumps, and after some time I felt ill, and sometimes wanted to puke. These roads would not qualify for tough rallies at these days. I will never claim the car for my illness, but the roads were horrible, and very dangerous with kilometer scarps on one side, and rock walls on the other, and no protection walls, except some stone here and there. It was however worth some danger, though the views of the three-dimensional landscape from above was adorable, at least. I can assure everyone, that after day-trip of this kind, it was awsome, to make up the tent, and get on the food cook. Such easy dinners are better than anything. However, we were teared sometimes, but the Saab 93, never protested, and ever delivered any requirement. 33 horses. Would such a span fail three people, and luggage over a hill? Nope, never if they were not insane, and Saab's horses never went insane. Saab's Two stroke horses were of full blood arab's, that never let someone down. They were always awaken. Nowadays the horses in a car, is asleep until calling up, but sleepy things are not happy to deliver at once. Otherwise you are cheating against the envirionment rules. The old twostroker is always awake, and uses a great part of maximum all the times. The engine is a pollutioner, of course, but its 33 Hp of 750 cc made our day by honours at the time. Cheers to Jay Leno, and all two stroke lovers.
Beautiful restoration, love the way Jay chucks the oil bottles in the boot, hopefully they won’t leak all over the boot carpet 😉. I also cringed when the photocopied paper was stuck to the original manual. Fantastic car as usual with these Mr Leno. I’m a 49 year old engineer and I look forward on a Sunday night to what will be up on a Monday morning, you didn’t disappoint.
Had a 1985 900S. Great car. Very comfortable, solid, smooth, quiet and reliable. Big hatchback and with the back seat folded down you could haul about anything. Loved the ignition switch in between the front seats and the curved front windshield.
hello ....i'm Pantelis from Greece...i'm 51 y.o and that video made me so emotional (especially my father he's 84 y.o and we saw this video together!!!!) cause he bouth this car in 1964 and i was born inside this car in 1969 ....it was a Saab 94 construction in 1964 the older model from this car in your videiowith fuel and oil at the same tank...it was semi automatic by puting 1st-2nd and 3rd gear without pressing the clutch all you needed to do that is pulling a small lever low on the steering axle next to and above the throttle..now the car is in the experienced hands of a fanatical collector of these cars..car's counter has reset 3 times. the engine was never converted and was spotless inside out and mechanically excellent for over 30 years. thank you for this video sir....Thank you so much for this emotional experience....* sorry for my English but i;m Greek)
That's fantastic!
Dude if you still had the car and someone asked you when you got the car you can say "It's actually the opposite:the car got me the day I was born!"
I'm sorry but it's not semi automatic. The had a thing called free well system. It disconects the engine from the gearbox in the same way as the clutch does. Thst allows you to change gears without the clutch.
I'm sorry but it's not semi automatic. The had a thing called free weal system. It disconects the engine from the gearbox in the same way as the clutch does. That allows you to change gears without the clutch. Also the SAAB 94 is not the same as the SAAB 93. The 94 has a four stroke engine normal doors and other things different.
Finally an episode where it's just Jay talking about a cool old car. No guests. No gimmicks.
Always great episodes, because you can feel his love for the cars expressed in the video.
No guest whom might not know anything about the vehicle
Or who might know more than Jay, but be boring.
Yep. Love the original cars
Yeah, my favourite format too.
Really respectful and interesting from you, Jay. As a swede, I'm happy that you honour an historic car from my country with this kind words and caring. You also have a giant knowledge that makes me impressed. Often I don't like american reviews (with music in background and people who don't know what they speak about) but you're interesting and serious. Respect from me to you, Jay.
Love your country and their cars. I have had a 2013 Volvo XC90, 1987 Volvo 740, 1990 Volvo 780, 2008 Saab 9-5 Sportcombi I am restoring now, Saab 9-3 SS 2007, 2003 9-3 Convertible, 2004 Saab 9-5.
If Saab would still exist, I would have owned one for sure. Sadly Saab disappeared due to mismanagement of GM . Managers who didn't understand this unique brand . Saab was a love brand .
Johan Weckx Bought an Alfa. It has the same emotional connection
@@johanweckx2439 Yes. With GM's takeover everybody were expecting Swedish quality American cars but got the exact opposite. There IS a reason as to why Europeans call a hammer "an American screwdriver". :0)
The Chinese bought the 9-3 production line and are now making an electric version for the home market only, the so-called NEVS. Wouldn't mind own one, though.
The SAAB 93 was a fantastic car and I love the 2-stroke sound. She sounds so much faster than she actually is. I also love old Volvo models like the PV 444/544, the Amazon and the P 1800. In my opinion the latter is the most beautiful coupé ever build. If I had one I wouldn't swap her for any other car. Of course, this is my subjective point of view. The guys who designed those three Volvo models had a very good eye for shapes and how buyers would be attracted to those cars, but the same can be said about the designers of the SAAB 93. It's a shame what happened to SAAB. I hope Volvo won't share that fate. Greetings from Germany. :)
"you don't need a Ferrari or McLaren to have fun." This is more fun. These types of videos are way cooler too. Thanks Jay and team.
Tiny lightweight cars are amazing on winding roads, cause you can have fun without even breaking the speed limit, what's the point of 200 or 220mph top speed if you spend most of your time doing 20-40mph?
The smaller the vehicle the bigger the fun.
I had a Henry J , std car w/ 3spd 4 cyl. The top line Henry J had chrome around Windows and oh yeah, a 6 cyl and an overdrive!
Yes, please MORE of your collection!!! So much more interesting. Also, how about a "restoration update" video! Thanks Jay and your team!
Ferrari? Meh.
in sweden, that license plate GLF249 has now been recycled and passed down to a trailer, a -08 Thule D0750, owned by a contractor company located 30miles away from the very SAAB factory.
Holy 🐄!
I was just about to look it up so you saved me 30 seconds! 🥳
I didn't save the 30 seconds because I looked it up :-)
That Cool
@G Michael Leonard 😂
Boy, this brings back memories. I took my driver's test in a '59 Saab 93 in 1963. The examiner was completely baffled by the rear-hinged doors and I had to explain about the free-wheeling so he wouldn't get freaked out going down hill. I grew up in Maine (still live there) and would purposely go out on a snowy day and pass people stuck trying to go uphill. It was a fun car to drive.
Amazing! I just bought a 1963 saab 96 I frequent Maine and mine is the same color scheme as jays 93
Mainer here too. Dad's first Saab was a 60 93F (F stood for front hinged.) So it was the last year of the 93 and did not have the suicide doors. I took my test in our third Saab; a 66 96 with 850 ccs, 3 one barrel carbs, and 46 mighty hp.
As a Swede I got a big smile on My face right now. These cars are bullitproof and it’s really sad Saab went down.
It's just Saab's car division that went down, which has always been secondary to their main business -- building aircraft. SAAB is an acronym for the Swedish Airplane Corporation (Svenska Aeroplan Aktie-Bolaget). Saab went supersonic in 1955, and in 2006, one of Saab's "vehicles" (the SMART-1 moon satellite) crashed into the surface of the moon at a speed of 7,000 km/h after having circled the moon for two years. Saab Ericsson Space built it for the European Space Administration.
The heavy truck division Scania is doing rather well. The plant in Zwolle Netherland responsable for 60% of total production can't crank out more.
Originally sold with a lifetime warranty
Förstår din kärlek till dessa vackra bilar, men SAAB gick ner sig rejält de sista åren.
GREEDY SCUMBAGS THE OWNERS OF VOLVO & SAAB WERE!! wHAT AN INSULT TO SELL VOLVO FOR A $4.5 BILLION LOSS TO IGNORANT CHINESE GOVERNMENT WORKERS THEY WILL TOTALLY RUI N IT NOW
I enjoy most of the guests but it’s a treat to see Jay on his own, in his element.
Yeah, as long as a camera is around, he’ll get that close to an engine compartment.
Someone once asked Carlsson how he managed to beat so many more powerful cars in one of these. He replied: 'I just never took my foot off.' Marvellous.
🤣😆
Also, he wasn't afraid to push the car to it's limits and beyond -- in Sweden his nickname was "Carlsson på taket" or "Carlsson on the roof" for his penchant of driving so fast that he occasionally flipped his Saab onto it's roof ;-)
''Carlsson på taket '' was his nick name in Norway as well, cause he often turn around on the roof ;-)
He didn't have too. These handled so well. Just stab the brake and settle the suspension, chuck it in, and keep going. Full throttle all the way.
@@davidsteving6528 Later on it was found out that Scandinavian drivers used two techniques unknown to others: left foot braking and 'Scandinavian Flick'
The front wheel drive design only proved to fail when rally cars went over 200HP and Saab 99 Turbo ended up struggling and killing halfshafts. In the process Saab's rally team manager told Stig Blomqvist he's not expected to be loyal to the brand, and adviced him to get a faster car.
I remember filling up my 1959 at the gas station and watching the looks on the faces of other patrons when I would pour 2 stroke oil into the gas tank and bounce the little beast up and down with my foot on the bumper for a minute. Ordinarily, I would mix it with some gas in a separate can I kept in the trunk, but sometimes you just love to do something to burn your existence into the minds in a small town. Keep doing what you do so well.
That’s amazing. I’ve always wanted a 2 stroke Saab to go with my other Saabs
You pour the oil in first. The turbulence of the gasoline entering the tank mixes it.
That made me laugh out loud, with considerable force. Thank you.
@@johnburns4017 Only if you were on empty. Otherwise, you had to figure out how much oil to pour in. I was told to use chainsaw oil in mine. Filling up and adding a can for the ten gallon tank added 6 cents a gallon to the cost of the fill-up in 1974. That increased the cost per mile and adding the cost of the oil was like losing about 1/3 of the mpg I was getting.
@@jaydee3046 BUT ... No Oil & Filter changes for the engine! So subtract that back out.
Thank you so much for this Jay. My dad is Swedish and the first time he took me over there in the mid 80's, my grandparents drove this exact car! Their '58 Saab actually had a glass cylinder to help you mix the gas and oil! I'm a German sports car guy at heart, but this car is my family roots! Great stuff Jay!!!
Jay’s passion for cars goes beyond the hardware and gets into the backstory. It is what makes these “garage” stories so interesting. The shutter for the radiator was neat.
We drove Saabs in our family from the early 60's thru 2007. Every type...except the Sonnet. And we got our neighbors to also drive them. We lived on Main St in our town. We always had so many SAABs in the driveway that people in town thought we were a SAAB garage and occasionally someone would knock on the front door needing service for their SAAB. The other night I had a dream - I had dropped off my 2018 SAAB 9-5 Wagon at the dealer for service and was asking my good friend if she could give me a ride to the dealer to pick up my car..It'll be ready tomorrow morning by 11:00am. What a great dream it was! I miss the SAAB family. And it really was a family. Very special.
My family still all drives saab
@ That’s awesome.
Jay captured the cleverness of Sabbs and his humorous take on who drove them was spot on. Plenty of Saab still on the road cause thoughtful people won’t let them die.
Thanks, Jay. Not sure if this was covered in all the comments, but the freewheel was there to keep from destroying the engine on deceleration. With premix, the engine relies on oil in the fuel for lubrication. The more fuel going into the engine, the more lubrication. But if you go down a long hill at 6,000 rpm's with your foot off the gas....no fuel, no oil, no lubrication, and...no engine! With freewheeling engaged, the engine goes to idle on decel and gets the right amount of oil. In my youth, I rode 2 stroke motorcycles using premix. I was taught to pull in the clutch going down hills or approaching a stop.
You brought back lots of memories of my '67 SAAB 96 two stroke. I got to know every cop in San Diego County on a first name basis due to the smoke. Once I was pulled over because the cop wanted to tell me about a new two stroke oil he'd found at Fedmart.
This was a real blast from the past fpr me. Growing up my mom had a green 1960 Saab 93 and that engine sound is embedded in my brain forever.
And now 30 years later a guy moved in down the street from me who drives one, same year same colour. Ah memories.
I had a '62 93, in 1972, when I was 20. They had done away with the suicide doors, but everything else was the same. It came standard with the 4 spd on the column, which was a hoot to drive. The manual suggested when parking, while camping, find a suitable sized rock to put under a tire to keep the car from rolling away. The small door from the trunk folded down and the seats folded also to make a bed. As a 20 year old guy, this was a chick magnet car, girls loved riding in it. It smoked when you didn't get the mixture just right, it went like a tank through snow, etc. It got good gas mileage on long trips. I ended up hitting a Torino, parked in the middle of the street, and put a big U in the hood. It drove fine and I was able to sell it like that. I still miss that car!
um that ford Torino BBF ( orderd in / new not a used at the time of sale ) may have been in my moms ( and she was near or in the car at thee time of the insurance claim my uncle/gramps was driving ) family do you remember more about it? as my grandparents weren't the "hot car" buying type so it stands out of the rest of the list they've had and a black fox-body ( grandma's pride ) that lasted less than 90-day's ish and was replaced with a 90's coupe devile north star push-rod weird as well as generally striper model pick-up's and deluxe 4-door luxury barge's for tastes
my uncles on the other hand well typical younger 20's boys had to have hot cars like a 1971 440-6 SE sunroof ect. charger in metal flake gold and purle white interior wow 😲almost want to find it but i already have a 69 so thats a terrible idea if mine
Finally! I'm one of those SAAB "guys" you refer to. My whole family is. The German Ford Taunus 4-strokes are killer too. Sweeden had the strongest steel w/the highest Boron content, and these were the strongest car bodies to ever have wheels. Thanks!
Back in the Days the Taunus was everywhere, nowadays I never ever see one, sometimes a Granada if I am Lucky !
I’d love to have a later 95 or 96 V4 with heated seats. The US got them through 1973, but I love how they stayed in production in Europe through 1980.
@@judethaddaeus9742 Yes, and Canada had them up until 1975. My brother has a black '74 95, but it's rough. Black was VERY rare. The one problem w/post '73s are the heinous giant bumpers that all cars had to get.
UberLummox I didn’t realize you lucky Canucks got the 96 for 2 extra years! I like the big fat lip bumpers. They’re a SAAB trademark for the era. I also like how SAAB kept refining the styling through 1980, with the new grille design for 1974. They pulled a similar trick as Volvo did with the 240-Series in the 1980s painting the pillars and door frames black to give the illusion of more glass area and a black-painted decklid area between the taillights. It’s hard to make a bodyshell that was designed in the late ‘40s look good enough to market in 1980, especially with the tiny budget SAAB had at the time. But they were creative and pulled it off!
As a Swede and as a SAAB owner I got a big smile on my face while i was watching this video. My dad had a Saab 93, also 2 stroke but a newer model (1973) It’s really sad Saab went down.
I had no idea you could get a 2 stroke in one that late. I thought they were all running the German Ford Taunus V4 by then.
No 2 strokes after ‘67
GM killed Saab, what a pity.
I rewatch this episode just to hear the "It's like a hive of bees coming at you" line. Makes me smile every time. Thanks Jay.
Im from sweden and these bullets are superrare here too. Love them really.
The model after this has the v4 engine. Also a rare sound.
Korrekt !
Margo Newman
Saab på 50 talet,🤔😔😅
Yep. The Ford Taunus V4. The same engine that SAAB used in the Sonnet.
2 stroke v4?
@@ronaldreed7698 4 stroke V4 engine. Basically a V8 with 4 cylinders cut off.
The best site on UA-cam. If you are having a bad day, Jay will always put a smile on your face with his whit and passion for the automobile.
Growing up in NYC I had a neighbor that lived down the street who had two of these, both bright robin's egg blue, and with consecutive VINs. These were some of the first cars I ever worked on as a kid, helping that neighbor do things like oil changes, setting points (one of his was a 4-stroke 4-cyl, the other a 2-stroke 3-cyl), changing filters, etc. He was a college professor and drove them to work regularly during the school season, changing over to his Vespa scooter for summer. He also owned a Citroen DS that I loved.
Many years later, when I had my own service station, I was one of the few mechanics in NYC who could/would work on Citroens and Saabs. One client even gifted me a gently used 1970 Saab 99 hatchback that I fell in love with. Saab's are really great cars. A driver's car for sure.
Proud owner of a Saab 900 from 1995. Still kicking and getting close to 190,000 miles
My father use to have a Saab 900 from 95, sadly he got rear ended at a traffic light and the back was totaled so he got a new car which I am sure he would have someday anyway but it was a nice car and I loved it.
I remember whenever a Saab 93 passed by our home.the two-stroke engines would cause the TV reception to scramble .
@Robby Dey I'm guessing too noisy. The Trabant was too smokey.
LOL
Interference from the ignition system
Poorly shielded spark plug wires, most likely. My Dad restored a 1929 Model A Roadster. Flathead 4. The spark plugs were connected by brass sheet material. So...no shielding.
We used to call these corn-poppers!
That's the car! My father owned a 1958 Saab, the only one in our neighborhood. This was he car we had when I was born and he drove this until I was about 8 years old, then he gave it to his nephew, who drove it for another 8 years or so until he was rear ended and it was "totaled." I haven't seen one of these since I was a child. Thanks Jay! I can still smell it and see my dad adding oil to the gas tank, to the shock of those around him at the gas station.
The two-stroke rap cracks me up. I appreciate the good old cars like this. Volvo and Saab made really good stuff.
Really good stuff ! Right; I recall the sandvik saws, and the specially tough durable files that my boss in
industrial supply business had me test, as to whether he should sell them. I had strongly approved of the
highly quality steel compared to US product. Fortunately we improved in time for WW2,
My 1968 Volvo 142 was a tank! Roomy. Great in N OH snow!
yes for a country of just 10Mio people (actual) it is extraordinary, and those 2 are not the only ones!
My Swedish neighbors had one, a 1964. The dad was a christian movie producer. I'd be a passenger in it as a kid, and I loved the sporty way that he drove it, and the sound, and the smell of the 2 stroke engine! ..Jay, you should have stopped by my hamburger joint, (Carl's) pictured from 11:10-11:13 for a burger!!
That smell = air pollution. 2-stroke engines are a scourge on air quality, plus the noise.
Love those car stories from childhood. It felt so much more dramatic..
Waaaaaaaaa Waaaaaaaaaaaa some people are a waste of oxygen >>>@@geot4647
no, as a matter of fact no as a matter of fact
He should have stopped at your hamburger joint - and ordered mashed potato as a side order to his hamburger.
I have owned 2 - Model 99 Saabs and a 96 Saab with German Ford V4 engine. A friend had the 93 Saab with the 750cc 2 stroke engine. The 750cc & 850cc engines were German made by DKW and the engine was used by several European car companies. Being an aircraft company Saab was following a tradition of building the body & chassis only and purchasing the engine from other companies. The 99 Saabs that I owned were a 1970 and 1972 models which used a slant 4 inline engine from British Leyland. I put over 250,000 miles on the 1972 and when sold it was still running great with no major engine repairs.
as a swede I found it really interesting that this saab has a swedish plate :)
Incidentally that plate now belongs to a 2008 trailer that's failed MOT due to non-functioning brakes.
Wilmer, you are right (says this Swede). However, those are modern Swedish plates. Pre 1973, they had a letter followed by a number (not like today, three letters followed by three digits). The letter indicated the region ("län") of Sweden. Also, there was no black rim: sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Registreringsskyltar_i_Sverige#/media/File:SE_license_plate_before_1973.jpg
@@HB45175 Wasn't just me that just had to check that license plate then :)
Vart också tvungen att kolla upp den, gissar att bilen vart importerad till USA nån gång innan 2008 när släpet tillverkades..
Me too :-)
@@pierreb967
I had an uncle who drove different SAAB models for 40 years, he got invited to the factory in Trollhättan :) I had one myself a 1978 SAAB 99 Turbo.
Great
My mom had an 82 Turbo 900! The engine was a 2.0 liter I4, but it was backwards; the clutch was in the front and the belts were against the firewall. The Borg-Warner 5 speed tranny did double duty as the oil pan on the bottom of the engine!! It was pretty zippy and handled good! The parking brake worked on the front disc brakes, so when you replaced the pads you had to rotate the pistons back into the calipers to reset the parking brake!
Why the Swedes did not save Saab's car business? It was a charming part of the national culture.
@@StrangerHappened They did try, but the swedish government wasn't willing to subsidise, most countries with car industries do this but unfortunately not our.
@@GurrasGarage I like Volvo, Ikea and PewDiePie, but the more Sweden things to love the better. Maybe Saab will re-emerge after some years.
Rally driver Erik Carlsson said in an interview that the trick to win with these underpowered cars, was to always keep the gaspedal to the floor. Then shift without clutch, (possible thanks to the freewheeling) and through the bends, put the inner front wheel in the ditch to keep the car on the road. Most often this technique worked fine. But sometimes he lost control and rolled. So.. After rolling a few times, he got the nickname "Carlsson on the roof" after the children's book. 😊
He was a big idol to us kids here in Sweden back in the days.
When I moved to my new house I was cutting the hedge and the hedge cutter hit something, It was the crankshaft/ conrod and piston assembly from a two stroke saab, The pistons looked like they had been damaged by seizure and had some prety deep gouges in them but I loved the way that it looked like whoever had stripped the engine had just thrown the whole crank assembly into the hedge in a rage where they had remained until I found them years later. It now makes a great garden ornament :-) Love the vids
a fun fact about those early saabs , and a shame you didn't mention it , was the bottom of the car .
It's allmost completely flat .In the year 63 they won the Monte Carlo Rally. That year the weather was terrible , most teams got stuck in snow and had to dig the car out again and again.
but because of the flat undercarriage , on bad downhill stretches , they just let it freewheel and they allmost used it like a sled , just gliding over the snow . wasnt hard to push out either , and because of the freewheeling , they didn't dig in fast. So front wheel drive and 2 crazy swedes , and you got yourself a winning combo.
Actually, Eric Carlsson and SAAB won the Monte Carlo Rally both 1962 and 1963!
An aspect of rally racing that keeps me interested in the series, year on year. Speed/HP is important, but many other factors. Especially? Durability and clever engineering. Who is impressed by building the biggest engine that can go fastest in a straight line? Not me.
My daughter always loved the jelly mould saab.s. I rebuild one for her 18th birthday. She is now 48 and still has it. Now fitted with the rally front end. But standard engine.
The British did combine water and electricity in one unit. The distributor in a classic Mini, right up against the grille, just waiting for a rainy night.
I didn't say it actually _worked_ when that happened. :-P
Yes, and 'Prince of Darkness' light switches on 1960/70s British motorcycles!
Or a Stag with the water pump inside the engine!
@@ldnwholesale8552 Or a Lotus twin cam engine with a water pump so inaccessible you had to take the timing cover off.
@@whitefields5595 same as a vq nissan
Actually, the SAABs under those conditions also had distributor problems. Always carried a can of spray lube to disperse the condensation on the dist. cap in soggy weather. New York state, lots of soupy, cold days.
Somehow I am certain that Jay does his goofy foreign accents while giggling softly to himself when he is alone driving this car. Guaranteed.
Practice
When he drives an Italian car he probably sounds like Topo Gigio.
I was waiting patiently to hear the Swedish Chef make an appearance.
snmthecloser he’s has to no one else does
snmthecloser I think Jay does a lot of things when he’s alone.
Great video Jay. In 1968 I purchase a white 1963 Saab from a dealer in Highland Falls, NY with about 85k miles on the odometer. Previous owner was the chaplain from West Point Military Academy. The ‘63 version Had 4 speed on the column, freewheel, fold down rear seat, no suicide doors though. Being 18, I beat the hell out of that car and probably added another 80K miles to it. For every eight gallons of gas I added a quart of oil to the tank and never had an issue. I miss that car.
It's wonderful to see old SWE-classics in US and outside of Sweden.
Also 2-stroke = 100 % music & love for me.
Back in the late 60's I worked at Slingsby Sailplanes/Engineering and one of my collogues rebuilt a Saab, probably a 96, and had an old bonnet (hood) left over, so when it snowed he used to swap the bonnets (he used pip-pins for quick release) and drive to the local hills, take off the bonnet, and use it as a sledge. We never found out what others thought of him using part of his car as a sledge but he had plenty of strange looks when he'd finished and put it back on and drove off.
Love these little cars. A buddy had one in college. Starter cable went and he hooked up an outboard motor cord with a pull handle hanging down. Was hilarious starting it. Such fun we had with it.
I LOVE these Saab's, I had a Saab 96 back in the day which is a four-stroke with an old Ford engine but the design was still teardrop so its looks were preserved, fantastic looking car
I have a model 96 Saab, somewhat similar looking in body style to this 93. It has the stock Ford German V-4 engine. It's absolutely indestructible. I used to have a 1957 DKW also a two-stroke 3 cylinder with the radiator behind the engine and also with suicide doors.
Without disappointment, without boredom and without leftover words. Simply Jay Leno.
Holy cow, Jay -- I remember that comic with the Corvette and the Saab on ice! Man, it must be 50 years since I read that comic book, but I remembered it as you started talking about it. Amazing to think that's stayed in my memory all those years, just waiting for a cue.
true it is crazy the stuff you remember. so be careful out there kids.
The freewheeling was not intended as a fuel saver, it avoided the engine being dragged at high speed with low fuelling and lubrication ;-D
Yup, why the 96 with the V4 Taunus four-stroke still had it is another story, lol. I shat a brick the first time a drove a 96 which had the freewheel active.
But didn't that save fuel then?
@@kathyflorcruz552 Only extremely marginally if at all. When you freewheel the engine goes into idle which require fuel to tick the engine over. When you engine brake the throttle is (almost) completely closed which draws little air through the carburettor and hence little fuel to the engine. In practice the difference is basically negligible.
More modern fuel injected engines shuts off fuel completely when engine braking, so it's "free".
Bingo, like going downhill on a moped. The piston would start to seize.
@ It was common for big American cars of the 1930s to have freewheeling. I think it was to save fuel considering the depression but the lack of engine braking does affect safety so that's why they stopped equipping cars with it. A question for anyone- do two stroke bikes have freewheeling? I honestly don't know.
Fun, simple video highlighting the quirky brilliance of SAAB. Well done, Jay. The SAAB community is probably the kindest, most supportive auto community. SAAB owners are quirky like their automobile counterparts but always friendly and helpful.
I learned to drive in a 1968 V4 Saab. My friend had an older 2 stroke. Fun cars and good with the Wisconsin show. Saab did not update the transmission for the V4 so mine had the free wheeling knob too. I would usually pull it out for engine braking. The 2 strokes needed the free wheeling because it there was no fuel there would be no lubrication. If the engine was at high RPMs rolling down a long hill the engine would seize up if there was not free wheeling. Same is true for a two stroke motorcycle so I would pull in the clutch while going down a long hill on my Suzuki T500.
In Sweden they were called ”Djungeltrumma” (= Jungle drum)
Haha ja
Why?
Dad's '60 93f (last year of the 93) did not have suicide doors, but all the rest of this brings back memories. In 61 my older sister totaled that great little car and walked away from a serious crash. (The windshield popped out-as designed.) Dad then bought a new 61 Saab 96, with the new back end (big taillights, big backlight, flip out back windows, 40 horsepower, new instrument panel, key starter) We used that for 5 years, then he traded it for a new 66 96 (new front end, radiator in front...then the engine, 3 carbs, 850, (46 hp.) 4 on the tree). -I used that car a lot. it topped out at 86 mph. -BTW, even our 60 had MPH on the speedo, not KPH.
Come on Jay, the difference between the word "instruktionsbok" and "instruction book" really isn´t that big!
Haha it was fun to hear nonetheless and im swedish
Carl Ehnfors 😂
I think Jay just wanted to be funny.
Im Icelandic and I had a Saab 96 pocorn engine. Also the V4 . Best cars. Also remember the Swedish mupped cook. Burdy burdy burdy burd. Heja Sverige!!
I believe (in all honesty) Jay said once he is Dyslexic, so it would be a big deal for him actually.
I wish cars now would require four separate steps to start, in the right order. The traffic would have been so much easier since half the drivers in my area would never get out of their driveways.
Would you please give my UA-cam channel a Subscribe
Hahahahahah
Add the manual transmission and you're down to at least 25%.
Recently I have seen two drivers (OK, both women, both possibly foreign born) in my neighborhood trying to parallel park with no clue whatsoever. One had their car parallel to the curb, in the space, and about three feet from the curb and couldn't figure out how to get closer despite turning the wheel left and right and going back and forth.
That engine really put a smile on your face! Much more joy than all these Ferraris. I have driven cars with alot of horsepower but this one is pure fun and character
OMG LMAO! The only 2 people I knew that owned real Saabs (before GM) were an English teacher and a college professor. You nailed it, Jay. 😂
Yep even in the 90's when I was in middle school the old bat librarian who also went to my church owned I believe it was a 75 or 76 Saab, so yeah he nailed it. lol!
Christiaan Overgaard old air plane people I’m guessing?
I was the first one in my family to buy a Saab, a 1984 900 turbo. Good car. Then my father bought a 2000 9-3 turbo manual and drove it until he was 89. "I'm not old enough to drive an automatic." Then my youngest brother bought a 2003/4 9-3 and my middle brother bought my father's car in 2012. 12 year old 9-3 turbo with 6,000 miles on the clock :-) My current Saab is a 2007 9-3 aero 2.8V6 turbo manual. Slightly modified. My previous Saab was a 1989 900 aero that I sold in 2012 with 315,000km on the clock. It was still being used as a daily driver at age 23 and did Melbourne to Queensland drives, around 1,800km of spirited driving each way, every summer in 40C+ temperatures.
My two brothers and I have engineering degrees. I worked in IT. Number 2 is a chartered accountant and number 3 is a recently retired civil engineer. Our father had a physics degree and was an army officer. Our mother did maths at UNI and was a rocket scientist at the end of WW2. Could there possibly be a trend here :-)
@@WelcomeToTheMadness you got it
@@roadie3124 love it :-O
I miss Saab, last one I owned was a 92 Saab 900 coupe. Great car
My friends mom had one. Not this one, we would have rolled it lol. He called it, excuse spelling, "Keemo Saabee". He used to smoke the Devil's Lettuce in it. I would watch.
‘93 was the last year of the real Saab. I’ve owned 4 from ‘99-06 but I want a real one like my brother’s’93 which he drove 200k miles on the original clutch and very few repairs. As good as any Toyota.
I had a slightly later model that didn't have the suicide doors. My dad bought it for me for $850, with 92,000 miles on it. Such odd features. Major flaw was that the distributor was right behind the front grill where it would cake with ice when you drove in a snowstorm. At 100,000 miles it needed a new transmission, so my garage in Woodstock, VT swapped out a good one for $200. Another flaw was that in the summer heat, the engine would get extremely hot unless you ran the heater. My sneakers would nearly melt from the hot air blowing on my feet. Had to sell it when I planned to drive across country, knowing that it wouldn't make it over the rockies. Bought a new, '70 VW bug convertible for $2700. Drove that across the country and back twice. Fun times with those cars.
I had a Saab 96, brilliant in the snow, I remember that free-wheeling feature, the seats flattened in the back so you could sleep in it.
About 1961, UpState New York, having to drive back roads to get to work. Finger Lakes area, cold heavy snow, unplowed roads at night with ice on inside and outside of the windshield with big wet flakes coming down. Though not much fun at the time can look back at that 59 Saab with affection today. We went through many an adventure together and as a not too smart 21 year old managed to survive. Mountainman Carl.
Hopefully Jay sees your comment, very interesting.
Regards,
Mangovisionn.
Rod Serling had a summer house near one of the lakes and buried nearby perhaps you took a wrong turn and made a slight detour into the Twilight Zone.
good story, like your self I kept my Angels very busy helping me out. I still remember going out at night when nobody would go out today , just to visit or get a coffee at the local shop, course there would be other kids there too and the bright lights on the snow at midnight would make the place seem like an oasis of quiet and warmth. nowadays kids just text each other and sadly the snow storms dont slow down anything, every body and there brother has 4 wheel drive. I remember going for miles down the mostly level Old Post rd thru CT with nary a car around, the heater on full blast ,the window open. and not a worry in the world.
My gf owned one of those but a bit newer model from the 60s. This was in the late 90 though. Thanks for the nice show and kind words about our Swedish icon.
Hi Jay! I need to tell you some more details about the 93! My parents had two of them when I grew up here in Sweden. Not only is the radiator mounted behind the engine, making it easily overheat when a family of 5 persons and a roofrack etc making summerhollidays in hot weather... But then if we had some rain it would suffer from the fact that the ignition distributor was mounted right up in the front where all the rain hit... :-/ I remember that my father tried to protect it with a rubber glove with tiny holes on the "fingertips" where the cables passed through. The car has no window flushing, only the wipers, but an old bottle of Heinz Ketchup with water squeezed by the steering column was the solution for that! :-) WE LOVED THE SAAB hehe! :-D
Your childhood sounds like it was amazing :|
I had a '67 Saab 96 and encountered the same problem during a late winter snowstorm in Arizona-- distributor got soaked and we had to wait a few hours while it dried out. A plastic bag shroud with ignition wires poking out were my low-tech solution.
Loved it with all its quirks but not without its challenges-- sheet metal separating from body due to rusted clips; and as much as I loved the looks of gas station attendants when they saw me pouring oil into the tank during a fill-up, in retrospect the two-stroke engines were absolute disasters environmentally-- magnitudes worse pollution-wise than 4-stroke engines.
Awesomeness!! Love the rare stuff...
Riding a mini bike makes me smile more than a F 40...even a scooter... happiness overrides all
My dad bought a red 1958 model back in the days. I loved this car, never any problems or issues. Only remember to fill the correct oil in the gasoline, ..but if Im not wrong there was fuel pumps with oil mix to use on these or similar cars. - Absolute great car story. Thank you Jay Leno.
My father had a sonnet and a 96 during his automotive ownership days...loved them both
Would you please give my UA-cam channel a Subscribe
I'm sure somewhere in the 2500 comments it was pointed out.. but i didn't see it. Volvo invented the 3 point seat belt. They didn't charge anyone else to use it though.
Probably true. SAAB was the first with a safety belt, but it was not a three point.
@@Octopussyist not sure about that. I know Tuckers had em standard in 48. Nash as optional in 49.
Volvo designer, owns the patend. But gives no license fees for using. Meaning everybody can use them. Make them. And produce copies. Truly the best idea
But the belt it has is over the shoulder 2 point not 3 point, no lap belt.
I had a older Suzy 750 GT Water Buffalo .In the late 70s and 80s Suzuki made a Water cooled 3 cylinder 2 stroke 750 cc street bike. It self metered oil and had a place for 3 spare spark plugs under the seat. However this thing due to its weight would scream it had the same snap the big motor cross dirt bikes have but 750ccs of it. I forget the year but. At the time the first Ninja bikes were coming out. And they used to get so pissed.This street bike no fairings no rear sets would eat them up. But it sounded like a swarm of bees or a weird F1 car coming down the road. Id love to have a Saab like that.
I have heard some of these in full rally trim at races in Sweden. 850 cc triple, built by Saab's rally department with 100+ hp, screaming through the forest at 10.000rpm. It's a very special sound.
Even called the "Djungledrum" due to the 2-stroke popping! My dad had one. And its totaly a marvelous car!
its warms my heart to see the name of my little town of 50 thousand people on a sticker on a car from 1958 :´)
Grew up in northern New York in the sixties and rural mail carriers loved these cars to traverse snow covered country roads. I love the simplicity of engine compartment.
Great car for skiers.
When I was a kid living with my grandfather I went with him too the Saab dealership in Brunswick Maine and watching the P3 Orions land at the naval base, I miss him
Gotta love a Saab!
I had two two stroke Saab's, a 1965 850 and a early 1967 850 3 carb model with oil injection. Both were such a blast to drive
I can almost smell it through the screen! Wonderful episode.
Peter Epstein mmmm and what a smell.. 😍
Weird it doesn't smoke much. Usually you can't keep old 2-strokes idling for 5 seconds or else you can't see through the cloud of smoke.
@@GlamStacheessnostalgialounge i don't know what kind of 2 stroke you have seen, but it was either wrongly adjusted or sat for a long time. Otherwise they mostly don't smoke
+crazyyoutubeuser24
I had some hands-on experience with old Trabants and tiny 2-stroke scooters and all mechanics say the same, that these smoke like mad.
@@GlamStacheessnostalgialounge i have experience with both 2 stroke mopeds and cars. And when the engine reached a certain temperature it should'nt smoke
Last year I drove from Stockholm to Gothenburg and, while passing the SAAB airplane factory just outside Linkoping, saw that they had examples of all their famous planes, the Viggen, Gripen, etc mounted on poles, so you can see them while driving along the Motorway. It's a shame they don't make cars any more but they're still making airplanes
Their aircraft are legendary, hid them under overpasses and used the highway to take off. They could fly from primitive forward bases for weeks.
Was the viggen not the only plane to get missile lock on one of the us planes ?
The Saab automobile company and Svenska Aeroplan AktieBolaget separated in 1990. The aircraft company is totally separate.
Wonderful video - brings back lots of memories - had a 1958 93 like this one which a friend of mine and I raced with the Grumman Sports Car Club on Long Island NY in the 60's. Stripped out the seats, removed the exhaust resonator, took off the hubcaps and raced in the gymkhana circuit on Long Island. Also got me to work in the snow because my TR-4 was awful in bad weather. Thanx Jay !!
An old swede in good hands. I had the 4 stroke one, a dream in winter to drive. Sometimes they were called "sne fyra" (crooked four) as the pedals was not in the middle of driver position. People who walked crooked did so after driving that saab :-)
You sat centered to the pedals!
By the way.... SAAB 96 and winter.
When i was in the army we lads from our neck of the woods carpooled.
One of my friends had a 96 v4 and seating five not so small guys in that car!
As it was then the temperature could drop down to -40 c.
It was really really cold.
Especially in the back seat!
The heat distribution were almost non existent.
Hot feet in the front seats and the inside of the glass almost entirely covered with ice.
The passenger in front did have to scrape the windows so the driver could see out!
The 4 stroke motor was a Ford V4. I remember one that PD Elrod had that ran rather roughly. Turned out that the center main bearing journal was broken! The break was at an angle, so the crankshaft still worked! For several years and tens of thousands of miles!! Ran rough but it ran!!
The reason for the freewheel is that when the driver backs off the throttle, the engine's not getting any fuel. But the wheels and the drive train will cause the engine to turn over, possible at revs e.g. when going down a hill. Turning over the engine in a two-stroke, without fuel, would be catastrophic as the engine is lubricated by fuel.
Sounds accurate, but an interesting fact is that Saab kept the freewheel when moving to the V4 engine (a four stroke) in Saab 96. Does not sound as good as the 93, though.
Another reason for the freewheel is that the 2 stroke engine would cause a lot of bucking when the car was coasting with the engine engaged. With the freewheel the car was smooth as glass and nearly silent when it was coasting.
@@olbill70 I'm surprised it hasn't been mentioned, that i saw, but in Freewheel you can shift up without touching the clutch. I owned a V4 Sonett with freewheel and it was a lifesaver in heavy traffic.
It also allowed you to change gear without using the clutch, and with a slight right tilted pedal and steering wheel (because of the front wheel well), me and my friends annoyed many people by driving from the right seat of the car!!
An with no mid consol you just mowed over and seemed innocent when cops pulled you over!
I sure love these quirky little cars.
I believe the freewheeling system was because of an inherent problem with using a 2-stroke engine - when you back off the throttle, the engine doesn't get enough oil. Not really a problem in motorcycles, as they slow down fairly quickly, but with the better part of a 1/2 ton of car, the car speed (and therefore the engine speed) didn't drop quickly enough just with compression to slow it.
I'm a former owner of a SAAB 96. The freewheeling system was also intended to prevent "snatching" on the overrun. Lifting off the throttle would cause the engine to buck.
I don't know if it's really a problem with motorcycles or just perceived to be a problem, but I always heard never to just let off the gas on a 2 stroke to slow down. Especially when decelerating from high revs, I ALWAYS pull the clutch in. The freewheeling feature on the Saab 2 strokes was probably put on there so you don't have to hold the clutch in or put it in neutral when coasting. I would LOVE to have that car, I'm a 2 stroke guy from way back!
The owners manual clearly describes the need to change the three spark plugs to cooler burning plugs when you drive at highway speeds for long distances.
Decades ago I commuted on an Italian scooter with a two-stroke engine, and on long downgrades when I used the engine for braking, I remember having to periodically activate the clutch and twist the throttle grip a couple of times to rev the engine, to make sure the piston rings continued to get enough oil. I hadn't thought about it in years until you mentioned it here.
The 58-59 Sports had oil injection (and triple carbs) - but so much for your theory on frugality. Jay's used premix, so it does not have oil injection.
Its really great to see Jay enjoy his cars. He is so passionate, and knowledgeable.
Saab were great eccentric cars. I would love to see a whole series covering all the Saabs and Citroens.
Jay,
It never gets old watching you talk of these earlier cars. You Sir are a National treasure.
In Sweden we call them " oljedriven djungeltrumma" oil driven jungle drum". My neighbors is still driving one of these, as theirs only car. Perfectly served and rust protected with linseed oil.
I remember my '67 Montecarlo 850 GT. Whata solid road-runner; specially in the mid West winters.
Mine's a 1967 Saab V4, one previous owner, a retired Colonel of Artillery, who drove it to Lebanon from Sweden to take command of a UN battalion. I remember well the first time I met a two stroke Saab, though, just after I moved to Sweden. Love them.
Love the raspy, burpy two-stroke sound...
I always like it better when Jay reviews his own cars.
One of my little grade school friends' parents owned one of these back in the early 70's! It was a wild ride.
I am a proud SAAB owner.
To all of you who do not like SAAB... own one, you will love it.
It's like a Harley Davidson, "turning gasoline into noise without moving you very fast." =P
Post-Smog ChryCo also. 440 hemis from 73 on were just noisemakers that drank gas like Peter O'Toole around a vodka handle.
Noise > Speed
I had a ride in one of these up in Ottawa Canada back in around 1972. What a riot. I still remember the ride after all these years.
No, Jay, this car looks familiar to me because I am really, really old. My father had several 93s and 95s. I bought my first car when I was 21: a 1967 Saab 96. Later there was a 99 (great car) and then a 900. But you live in the wrong part of the country to truly enjoy a classic Saab. Snow and twisty steep back roads that are the same as they were 250 years ago, except with some asphalt on them. One spring morning on my way to classes at the University of Virginia (all male in those days) from Mary Washington College in Fredericksburg (all female in those days) I had the great pleasure of running a Plymouth GTX off the road that hadn't changed since the Civil War. I just kept pushing him and pushing him with the little Saab and he put his foot into that 440 and flew off the road at the next curve. The Saab clung to the road like it was on rails. Does yours have freewheeling? My 96 did. No engine braking. Take your foot off the gas going downhill and the tach dropped to idle and the speed kept climbing until panic sat in. Fold down the rear seat, not common in those days, and who needs a motel? This was a fantastic brand, conceived by ingenious Swedes, and perfect for a young man wanting to stand out from the crowd. I got 32 to 36 miles per gallon. In 1967! Too bad GM destroyed it. Oh, and my 96 had a magenta high beam indicator jewel light. Never seen anything like it.
My first car, in 1969, was a SAAB Sonnet.
Thanks for a great story...this is why i like these old cars...Working on New cars nowadays is not the same...Greetings younger car mechanic from Norway
think simo lampinen was greatest seller of saab,once back fast,break and try to make turn,it took over,simo came out of car and start to tell bottom of that saab...and this is not a story,it is so true,,
Great story. Tht was my GTX, no damage, was busy with a girl in the back later that night.
Haha! That was a nice story indeed. But well, i can't picture americans from GM having a proper talk with those sweden guys that engineered and built the 99 & 900. Seems like they must've had way too much of a different idea about how cars should be made.
"Imagine the British trying to combine electricity and water." :DDD
Imagine the British trying to do electronics that work on its own 🤔
Lucas... the prince of darkness.
I know an old British Car would be a nightmare, but if I could afford it, I’d have an ole MGB in my driveway just always Loved the British designs
Electronics in cars was an afterthought to the British.
@@poppyneese1811 I have a Triumph Herald convertible. Not quite an MG but still cool
I had this car in the early 60s. Freewheeling was fabulous (scared the crap out of me when I took it out for a test drive). I had it for years. I once drove from London to St Tropez fully loaded with 4 up for a holiday and got 65 to the gallon! I loved it!
10:45 - My sister took a trip to Germany in high school (then "West Germany,") and when she got back, "It was amazing, we got on the Autobahn, and were doing a hundred! And that was kilometers, so we were going *REALLY* fast!"
I didn't have the heart to tell her she had her conversions backwards. (She thought the was doing over 160 MPH, not 62.)
Such a good video - many thanks Jay and Team. Show us more of your own vehicles!
I was almost borne in a car like this. However in 1956, I was carried home in A Lloyd, but my first car memories appeared in a white Saab 93, like this. As you say, it was a well built car, created by an airplane company, that manufactured aircraft for The Swedish Air Force. The logo is a stylized front view of the medium class bomber B18, as was one by the last designs before the jet-era.
I remember the car as a very pleasant vehicle. The entry through the suicide doors eased the entry to the back seat. It managed the tough mountains in Norway without troubles.
Engine sounds were never disturbing, and the motor wheeled happy in the worst of uphills. Downhills, it could tear the brakes, however, but they never let us down.
I have seen Norway by lying upon a pile of luggage in the backseat. Eh. Seat-belts did not suit kids by that time anyway, and I survived. The back storage was full, as well as the backseat.
The problem was the roads by that time. Very few were covered by asphalt, and at the gravel roads, the wheels hammered the fenders with a massive throw of pebbles that made a terrible sound inside the car. They had also lots of deep holes, as well as bumps, and after some time I felt ill, and sometimes wanted to puke. These roads would not qualify for tough rallies at these days.
I will never claim the car for my illness, but the roads were horrible, and very dangerous with kilometer scarps on one side, and rock walls on the other, and no protection walls, except some stone here and there. It was however worth some danger, though the views of the three-dimensional landscape from above was adorable, at least.
I can assure everyone, that after day-trip of this kind, it was awsome, to make up the tent, and get on the food cook. Such easy dinners are better than anything.
However, we were teared sometimes, but the Saab 93, never protested, and ever delivered any requirement.
33 horses. Would such a span fail three people, and luggage over a hill? Nope, never if they were not insane, and Saab's horses never went insane.
Saab's Two stroke horses were of full blood arab's, that never let someone down. They were always awaken.
Nowadays the horses in a car, is asleep until calling up, but sleepy things are not happy to deliver at once. Otherwise you are cheating against the envirionment rules. The old twostroker is always awake, and uses a great part of maximum all the times. The engine is a pollutioner, of course, but its 33 Hp of 750 cc made our day by honours at the time.
Cheers to Jay Leno, and all two stroke lovers.
Back in the day I had 3 different Saabs, a 99 and 2 different 900s. Great cars and fairly easy to work on. Never had a 2 stroke Saab.
Beautiful restoration, love the way Jay chucks the oil bottles in the boot, hopefully they won’t leak all over the boot carpet 😉. I also cringed when the photocopied paper was stuck to the original manual. Fantastic car as usual with these Mr Leno. I’m a 49 year old engineer and I look forward on a Sunday night to what will be up on a Monday morning, you didn’t disappoint.
@Larry Doffee Me too. Jay seems senior enough not to worry about things like that.
Had a 1985 900S. Great car. Very comfortable, solid, smooth, quiet and reliable. Big hatchback and with the back seat folded down you could haul about anything. Loved the ignition switch in between the front seats and the curved front windshield.
"it's like a hive of bees coming at you" love this effin review and love Jay's love of cars