The later years of the #Saab99 famously brought turbocharging to Trollhätten’s finest, but this Opal Green 99 GL is from 1976 - just before the Turbo era. By then, the 99 had been in production for eight years and had become Saab’s standard bearer, a refined, modern front-driver just like the 92-96. Rather than being a strict 95/96 replacement, the 99 was mean to expand Saab’s range and keep it competitive in the 1970s. In that, Sixten Sason’s final design (he died just as it was being completed) was remarkably successful; the bones lasting until the final 1994 900 classic. - Work began on the 99 in the spring of 1964 as “Project Gudmund.” Wider and larger, early prototypes were created by sawing a 96 in half and widening it - a vehicle called “the Toad,” but these were for testing the drivetrain and not the shell. An all new unibody was created for that, carefully sculpted for aerodynamic efficiency by Sason and his team, including Gunnar Ljungström and Björn Envall. When people noticed the wide Toads, Saab replaced them with mules using the new shell but badged “Daihatsu” to fool observers. - The wider Toads were needed to test the new engine, which came from Triumph via engine-builder Ricardo, who had been helping Saab develop a 4-stroke engine of it’s own (in 1965, Saab had yet to buy Ford V4s and 2-strokes were fading fast). The planned Ricardo/Saab four didn’t happen due to cost, but via Ricardo’s connections, Saab bought Triumph’s new slant four developed for the Dolomite, with Saab getting 50K engines a year exclusively until 1972, first 1.7L and later 1.85L. Fitting this engine required mounting it backwards, which helped Saab keep costs down in developing the transaxle, partially retained from the 96. In 1972, Saab updated the engine on it’s own into the 2-liter “B” engine, complete with Bosch FI. - Bowing to the public in Stockholm in November, 1967, the car went into volume production a few months later and debuted for the U.S. at the 1969 #NYIAS. Modern, reliable, and tenacious handlers, the regular 99s were joined by the luxury EMS and, in 1978, by the turbo, but #Saabs remained a niche product (9-13,000 sales a year) in the U.S. until the 80s. (at Lake Washington Cars & Coffee) https://www.instagram.com/oldmotors/p/BvuBsOBgAPP/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=w0t2v050yf2b
