“Go out and drive a Saab 900,” said Midge. “I’m going to stay here and have a brew.” Well, he didn’t have to tell me twice. My dad had a 900 Turbo when I was a kid (VLX 993X – I suspect it went to the great scrap yard in the sky long ago) which taught the 7 year-old me all I needed to know about boost gauges and hooligan thrust. Time to make a long-held dream come true with perhaps the ultimate Euro box…
It’s very telling that various studies have shown Saab to be the marque of choice for architects. Even though the brand is now defunct, these hefty Swedish legends are still very much the go-to retro for people with supremely ordered minds, a keen eye for design and tactility, and a strong feeling that things should just work instead of playing up and causing problems all the time.
It’s for this reason that it’s hard to get into any Saab without experiencing a certain frisson of… is smugness too strong a word? Perhaps satisfaction is a more appropriate term – never self-satisfaction, but merely the certain knowledge that you’ve made the right choice.
The car we have today is a nat-asp 16-valver rather than a full-fat turbo, but this is no bad thing – rather than acting the hooligan and wantonly spinning the needle on that oh-so-prominent boost gauge, we get to revel in the 900’s trump card: tactility. For these are cars engineered to strike a fine balance between keen handling and a supple ride, something that they deliver in spades. Much to the evident delight of the architects.
This car is a ‘GOOSE’ (that is, a 900 SE – look at the badges on the boot, you’ll see why people call it that), a spec level offered in limited numbers in the early 1990s, offering such heady delights as wood trim and all sorts of electric gizmos.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der April 2017-Ausgabe von Retro Cars.
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Diese Geschichte stammt aus der April 2017-Ausgabe von Retro Cars.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
Bereits Abonnent? Anmelden
The Incredible ULK
It had turned green, had an appropriate number plate and did something quite remarkable - what else were we going to call the new Retro Cars project car?
They Rebadged It, You Fool!
40 years ago, the UK waited with baited breath for the ‘British Car to Beat the World’. 20 years ago, Rover dealers were still trying to boot the last ones out of their showrooms. Ahead of its 40th birthday, we put the first and last Metros head-to-head
One Saved - On To The Next…
After last month’s mechanical woes, we’ve finally finished our MG ZS project car. Here’s our final instalment, followed by an all-new project
Reverting To Type
The S-TYPE was a huge car for Jaguar; the first model developed from the ground-up under Ford’s stewardship and its first mid-size executive car since the Mk2. Two decades on, how does it fare as a classic?
Knightsbridge Or Kensington?
Tempted by the Metro’s swansong? Here are two virtually unused examples for sale at the same dealership
360' Kickflip
This BMW E30 may appear relatively unassuming, but to the trained eye there are clues that all is not as it seems. No-one, however, will be expecting the self-styled 360i’s fi repower!
Copper Wink
When Kicker Audio decide to build a showcase for their latest speakers, they don’t mess about. This 1950 Studebaker is testament to the passion of a bunch of enthusiasts who didn’t want to just screw some speakers into yet another minivan…
Ade's Volvo 850
This month sees Ade sorting out up his Volvo with an awesome Kenwood headunit.
Take Five
Carlo de Grundt’s fifth-generation Skyline might not have a GT-R badge, but that doesn’t stop it from looking every bit as awesome as its ‘Hakosuka’ forefather...
Coupé De Grâce
Escobar’s '90s Civic coupé hides many surprises, each one developed to Edenilson deliver a killer blow…
