In the month of hatch lovin’, here’s a great example of the original, the Saab 99 Wagonback, aka SportCombi. This particular example also fits nicely with our recent discussion of the marquee colors for various Saab models. One of the ‘winners’ in the admittedly unscientific poll of our faithful readers was orange for the 99.
The orange color looks great here, for sure.
The body kit certainly enhances the overall lines of the 99 hatch, and I think the bigger wheels (I’m guessing 16″) really give the 99 a more muscular look.
Finally, the front air dam gives us a clue to the modifications under the hood — it appears that this turbocharged car has an intercooler for additional boost.
Click on the pics to enlarge.
you’re absolutely right about the rims, their 16″. Aero-rims from a late 9000 (you can tell from the exposed lugnuts).
I’ve always wondered something, are those side vents on the 99 and 900 functional? And what year did they switch from the awesome looking original 99 ones to the blander 900 ones on the 99?
And that car does look awesome in orange.
Jeff, If you’re talking about the rear side vents, yes they are the flow-thru ventilation vents. Makes me wonder where they are on the current 9-3, must be there somewhere. Don’t know about the blander style, never noticed it, is it maybe part of an aero kit?
Well, I assumed that one style was older and one style was newer, I could be wrong. Some 99s have that swoopy larger vent and some 99s have the vent that’s on c900s. The (I’m assuming) older 99 one looks really cool.
Very sexy.
And the new 93 has it’s cabin air released via openings at the rear of the parcel shelf,and out into 2 air evacuation units located inside the rear bumper on either side of the car behind the wheel housing,so the depressed air outside the car helps draw the cabin air out.
saabologist – Nifty. How does the NG900 do it, I wonder?
I saw that car at SOC ’06.
It is very orange.
Airvents: I’m not sure if I quite understood you, but I’ll try to explain what I think is your “problem”
The vents on this one is the same ones that you find on 900SPG. As far as I know, you have those (which is very popular on C900 and maybe also 99), and the standard ones on both 900 and 99, the black ones that looks like a grille. Sorry, but I can’t describe it better in english
And the vents are functional. Air is sucked out back there.
Those vents look great, if you ask me!
Swade, the owner of this Saab 99 is John Webber from Pennsylvania, USA. More photos here: http://www.nysoc.com/gallery/album117/P0017979