If we can design and manufacture aircraft, why not cars?
The decision to actually start the automobile project was made in the fall of 1945. Development was started in Linköping by a 20 person team led by Gunnar Ljungström. The previous production code was for an airplane -the Saab 91 Safir- and the car project started as 92001.
An important requirement was that the car had to have a very low drag coefficient. Aerodynamical tests were part of the very early evaluations. Even 001 was tested with a 1:10 scale wooden model. The results were excellent....
By summer 1946 the first prototype body was ready, hand beaten on a wooden jig, black, shiny and streamlined. It had a borrowed 18 hp (13 kW) two strokeengine.
The original 1946 Saab 001 was driven thousands of miles. Today it is in the Saab museum in Trollhättan, with a prettied up grill and more roadworthy headlights.
The 92001 design was improved by Sixten Sason, in 1947 resulting in another prototype: 92002 and the Saab 92
Some of the early cars such as the two-strokers, V4s and Saab 99 were quite successful in rally sport, notably the 96 in the 1960s RAC Rally and Monte Carlo Rally, driven by Erik Carlsson.
Saab was the first manufacturer to put turbochargers in production cars, after the short-lived 1962 General Motors A-bodies.
Originally Saabs also had the key located on the right side of the steering column, but when they changed from a column shifter to a floor shifter, the ignition key followed along, except in the Sonett III.
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