Saab isn't exactly a household name anymore in the car World nor was it ever one even when they were in business right up until 2016 in America at least they always sort of existed as a curious vehicle choice for those who couldn't conform to the status quo no matter the decade in the 1960s the British sports car craze that included the MGB and the Triumph TR4 was in full swing America was becoming enamored by these agile and Lively lightweight platforms these foreign roadsters were a massive step away from the horsepower war that the big three
were waging and so choosing a compact 4cylinder sports car was already pushing back against that status quo but for those who wanted something even more unique surprisingly it was Saab who had the answer the same people who made sedans that look like this had decided to build their own own lightweight sports car tipping the scales at less than 2,000 lb and being powered by one of the angriest sounding engines of all time saab's creation is one of the most fascinating cars of the era the sa Sonet the origins of the Saab Sonic Trace back to
the 1950s when a group of Saab engineers and racing enthusiasts led by Rolph meld designed the initial two- seat Roadster prototype for the brand on an absolute shoestring budget created in a barn near Saabs manufacturing Hub in Sweden this car was initially dubbed the Saab 94 which was The Logical number to follow the current Saab 93 it was later renamed the Sonet inspired by the Swedish phrase which I cannot pronounce but I'll put on the screen which means how neat it is this would end up becoming the going name for the car itself from this
point on and this first sa Sonet was an absolute featherweight tipping the scale at just 12200 lb thanks to its aircraft inspired lightweight aluminum chassis that was riveted together in many places to provide the strength that it needed visually the Saab Sonet 1 was a clean contemporary sports car that clearly Drew styling inspiration from cars like the Porsche 356 Speedster and period Alpha Romeos it just wasn't quite as elegant but you could see where the inspiration came from but in the case of the Saab the body was actually made from fiberglass something that Saab themselves
were not accustomed to using given the budget constraints that the car had much of the suspension and drivetrain segments of the first Saab sonets had to be lifted from the existing production line at Saab which meant using the power Trin from the Saab 93 and 96 because because in a rather unusual fashion for a sports car the Sonet was front-wheel drive and this engine was a 748cc inline 3 cylinder that was actually a two-stroke motor of all things which made the Saab Sonet sound more like a bike than it did a car Peak power was
57 horsepower and torque sat right around 60 foot- PB this first little Sonet was light tossable and was a jaw-dropping iteration for the brand given the current styling of their cars once unveiled at the Stockholm Motor Show in 1956 the Saab Sonet was a hit sadly though only six cars were ever built in the Prototype phase before the Sonet project took a break to prioritize saab's production efforts on their sedans but that was not the end of the sonnet in fact things were just about to get interesting by 1966 the sonnet would make a Shakespearean
return with the fully redesigned Saab Sonet 2 gone was the old Roadster design the new sonnet was now designed as a Sleek little Fastback with a large glass rear window that always seems to remind me of the one on the 65 to 66 Plymouth barracudas the large glass on the back of the sonnet now led to an abruptly cut off cam back rear which helped to accentuate the Body Lines by minim iing the rear overhang the front end of the Saab Sona 2 was also modernized more with the headlights now being recessed into the fenders
and having a slightly more angular front end overall these new sonets had what was very evidently a more thorough and congruent design than the series 1 prototype cars because now they actually had a real budget to put towards developing them make no mistake though with all these changes these new Saab sonets were still really tiny with a wheel basee of just 85 in and an overall length of just 148 in the Saab Sonet was a full 10 in shorter than the MGB and it was around the same length as the Triumph Spitfire the sa Sonet
2 maintained the ethos from the first car and used a majority of off-the-shelf Saab parts where they could but it was a totally different car underneath compared to the Sonet 1 with Independence suspension front and rear the Sona 2 was actually well equipped to tackle the turns and gradually pull away from them with its newly revised two-stroke in line three now the 750cc motor was punched out to 841 CC which bumped Peak power to 60 horsepower still not a ton but with the full production ready Sonet 2 weighing in at just 1,500 lb it was
still more than enough to get the car to over 100 mph if you could wait long enough couple that with the added drama of the two-stroke Engine with three carbs on it and the driving experience that you got with the Sonet was something truly unique especially when shifting through that four-speed manual transaxle that was a column shift saab's full intentions were to take the Sonet 2 to the American Market which was proving to be an exceptionally lucrative market for sports cars as I mentioned although the biggest challenge that Saab ran into selling the Sona 2
in America wasn't the price or the car itself really it was the power plant a two-stroke engined car may have sold fine in Sweden where Saab had a strong foothold but in America that was just a recipe for slow sales just 258 Saab Sona 2os were built with the inline 3 before Saab made the hard pivot to use an existing fourstroke motor to try an increase the broad appeal for the car the challenge with that though was finding a motor that would fit in the tiny engine bay of the Sonet most inline fours would be
too long and a V6 would obviously be too big which left Saab with really only one existing engine option the V4 Ford Tannis [Music] engine this motor was designed for the Ford Cardinal economy car project that ended up falling through but it then made its way into various European Ford products but never any offerings stat side this little 1.5 L V4 being a normal fourstroke engine eliminated the need for Saab owners to do any oil and gas mixing for the two-stroke thus making the ease of ownership experience a lot better Peak power was now 65
horsepower with the 1.5 L V4 under the hood by horsepower more than the inline 3 but the real gains were actually in the much fatter torque curve that came from the larger displacement motor which made the V4 powered sonets more engaging in the lower RPMs than it was Prior and although the new motor was heavier and offered a much different Driving Experience the added livability of the V4 powered cars was generally a well-received change these new cars were all dubbed the Sonet V4 and and as expected the introduction of a more normal engine did help
with sales considerably 1,600 units of the Sona V4 were sold from 1967 to 1969 with prices in the US starting at around 3200 bucks by 1970 the executives at Saab though felt that the Sonet needed a new facelift to keep it competitive with some of the new design language that manufacturers were incorporating as a result these V4 sonnets were reimagined for a third and final time these new sonnets were a relatively inexpensive facelift from a production standpoint because most of the underpinnings were the same as the later V4 sonets from the late' 60s the quarter
panels and core lines of the car stayed pretty much the same except for the front end which got a full redesign that doubled down on its angularity gone were the recessed headlights and in their place were a set of popup lights that's sat above the new Full width grill that housed the fog lights the rounded rear glass was replaced for more practical to produce flat piece of Fastback rear glass that was now also hinged for easy access to throw your luggage onto the parcel shelf this was a nice quality of life update that also undoubtedly
reduced the exorbitant cost to produce that old style rear glass the 1.5 L Ford V4 remained under the hood albeit it was now slightly less powerful given the emissions regulation changes but by 1972 the Sonic got fitted with the upgraded 1.7 L version of that very motor which brought Peak power back to 65 horsepower performance in terms of the 0 to 60 time was around 13 seconds and it could complete the quarter mile in about 18 seconds the Sonet obviously was not a fast car but what it lacked in speed it made up for in
fun the Sonet 3 specifically was a card that you could use every ounce of power out of on public roads and not get in trouble the Sonet 3s specifically made the switch to an updated interior that had a nicer Dash than its predecessor but more importantly the shifter was now moved to a floor shifted fourspeed which greatly increased the fun factor rhod and track praised the Sonet 3 in their review of it for its fun Driving Experience and balanced handling even though the car had a 6040 front weight distribution but they felt that some aspects
of the car did leave a little bit to be desired the serviceability of the engine was a challenge with the new redesign and some of the touch points like the clutch the brakes and the shifter just weren't up to par with some of the great pluses of the Sonet like its communicative steering nonetheless the Saab Sonet 3 was a step in the the right direction it seemed sales were also considerably better than they were for the Sonet 2os however with the gas crisis in America making its ugly head known around 1973 coupled with the new
mandate for us crash bumpers the Sonet story took a turn for the worst the large impact bumpers added to the sonnet added considerably more weight to the car and now the curb weight sat around 1,900 lb further hampering performance sales began to fall off a cliff and by 1974 Saab decided to pull the plug on the Sonet now there were plans to bring it back but they never materialized in total just over 8,000 Saab Sonic 3s were built which brought the total production run of all Sonic cars up to just over 10,000 units these were
quirky cars there's really no other way to say it it took a very specific kind of buyer to purchase one of the over any British Roadster or any other sports car at the time but 10,000 people did thankfully which is why I can even make this video for such a rare car these actually are pretty inexpensive as well one look on bring a trailer can show you that these cars are still definitely affordable by the average person in terms of a collectible the question is though would you take one of these over an mg or
an old Alpha spider let me know in the comments down below and thank you all for watching another video please make sure to like share and subscribe it really helps me out but otherwise until next time enthusiasts
