It’s time for another Saab photochop effort, this time it’s the car that should have been made five years ago – a Saab 9-3. The base photo is a Saab Turbo X and the photoshops you see here come from Rasta (who’s work profile is here).
My thanks to Rasta for sending them in to be seen here at TS. The images are all basically the same, with alternate wheels to differentiate them.
Click to enlarge, and there’s a jumbo wallpaper sized one with original Turbo X wheels at the bottom.
And this one’s a full-size wallpaper that you can re-size to your needs.
Thanks again to Rasta for the images. It’s a variant the 9-3 range should have had right from the start.
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Exactly! But why not? The cost of producing can’t be to high or?
If they’d made the coupe maybe I could even have liked the 9-3SS range. But alas they didn’t.
I guess there’s always hope for the next 9-3? Would like it with a hatch too.
Quite tasty – could have beaten the A5 to the market too
Another missed opp.
But it does remind me I don’t like the Turbo-X rims – the third ones down do it for me best.
The only variant missing Rasta is with the BBS wheels to make the full spectrum of tasty options. Other than that these are great, I can’t imagine a coupe Turbo X with the Haladex XWD transmission. Oh man, what a car !!!
Nice work Rasta! Oh what SHOULD have been!!!! These last several years have been quite a lesson in patience…
Yeah and with Caddy being launched all over the place and Opel being able to come up with totaly unnecessary models, the SC wad delayed and the Coupé canned. Is the XWD system realy something that was made for Saab as something important to the brand or is it just a GM testvehicle?
Yepp I´m mad
The irony is that the convertible is effectively a coupe-in-waiting but for the hard top. Surely this could be done with a minimum of investment?
Cue the list of lame excuses why a coupe is soooooo difficult to make…………..
mark_belfast said:
But it does remind me I don’t like the Turbo-X rims – the third ones down do it for me best.
Joe Lobo said:
The only variant missing Rasta is with the BBS wheels
The third wheels are Hirsch Performance Design and they are produced by BBS
:O)
While we’re at it, does anyone want to twist the knife a little bit more by giving it a hatchback profile and a more pronounced hockeystick C-pillar?
And about the coupe/vert thing, I remember when the 9-3SS vert came out back when I paid no attention to Saab whatsoever. I saw it and thought “I love those taillights, the coupe is going to look sweet”, but of course the coupe never came. Meanwhile Infiniti released the G35 around that same time and I swear that half the G35′s on the road are coupes, but it almost seems like GM is going out of their way to NOT sell saabs.
Yawn…
if you compare to the original image, the rear has been slightly modified to give it a hatchback look without being too extreme: http://s2.desktopmachine.com/pics/Saab_turbo-X_118_1920x1200.jpg
I’d take it but I’d prefer to see any additional development $ put into offering a hatch.
All I hear & read is constant complaining about no hatch and believe me, I agree. So who’s buying the 9-3SS and encouraging GM? If you’re not buying the 9-3SC which offers fairly-comparable utility, don’t complain about the lack of a hatchback.
SaabBob: I’m sure some people buy the 9-3SC because they can’t buy a hatch, but for other people it doesn’t quite fit the bill. I like a coupe that is also a hatch (Combi coupe) because it offers a whole lot more practicality and I don’t want a station wagon. I must admit I would’ve considered a 9-3 that was a straight coupe though, afterall my first Saab was a 99EMS two door and I liked to think of it as a coupe.
these look awesome, its really a shame this sort of thing isn’t in the pipeline. anyways i would LOVE to see the sportcombi photochopped into a coupe…