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That is a very dramatic headline, but unfortunately it’s not a very dramatic story. It’s a fun one for those who might consider themselves Saab anoraks, though (thanks Dave!).
Further to the story about the 1:43 scale model of the Saab 98 for sale on Ebay, I received a telling photo via email today, which lifts the skirts of the Saab 98 from the Saab museum to see what’s underneath.
Shock horror!! All isn’t quite as it seems.
To my scant knowledge, there was only one Saab 98 built. It now resides in the Saab Museum in Trollhatta, is painted Sienna Brown and comes out on show just every now and then. It wasn’t on show when I visited the museum last year, though Steve B from Melbourne managed to sneak out back and shoot this photo in the storage area.
Here are some more shots and angles dug up from around the tubes.
When I say that to my knowledge there was only one of these built, it seems my knowledge isn’t complete as there’s an orange version of this car floating around, too.
On Jpowell’s site, he asks whether there’s two of them or if it’s the same car, to which he received a reply as follows:
Yes, they are the same cars only in different colors and as you can see, the Orange Saab 98 has the Saab 99 EMS Wheels. Keep up the good work!
So it may be that there is only one of them, but it was painted brown, then orange, then repainted in it’s original brown again. If anyone’s got a clue here, please feel free to share the full story in comments.
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Now to the exposed bit….
As mentioned in the previous post, the Saab 98 was a prototype built on the bones of a Saab 95. How much of it was 95? Well, according the build plate and the color of the firewall, the whole thing started life as a white Saab 95.
David R took this photo at the Saab museum some time ago and sent it through to me via email today.
As you can see, the internals are a very white shade of Sienna Brown and the VIN starts with a “95…”
Sergio Coggiola did the coachwork for this prototype (which had the internal name X14), so they must have just shipped him a white Saab 95 and a set of drawings and let him loose.
Thanks Dave, for the pic.
You can now all sleep easy knowing a slightly fuller history of the Saab 98.
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14 responses so far ↓
1 Markac
// Nov 25, 2008 at 6:05 pm
From what I’ve read, the 98 was intended to replace the both the 95 and the 96 but was not cost effective to produce. To me it looks better in orange with the blacked out and more modern trim. The wheels look more like Sonnet items than 99EMS.
2 eston21
// Nov 25, 2008 at 6:07 pm
have to say that the 98 in orange and with the 99 wheels looks absolutely stunning. and the rear windows are bit differently set out on different colours. did saab change the windows after they painted it?
3 Markac
// Nov 25, 2008 at 6:23 pm
Something didn’t look right. As a previous owner of 2 99 EMS, the wheels just didn’t seem correct.
It appears 99s had a 4 bolt pattern and Sonetts had 5. Here is the EMS wheel.
4 Jeff
// Nov 25, 2008 at 9:04 pm
It looks like a Xenomorph from the side.
And it definitely looks better in orange, but that’s not saying much.
5 Rodder76
// Nov 25, 2008 at 9:20 pm
There is somthing strange.
I have always thought that there is two diffrent cars and if you look at some details I´ll still think so.
Paintwork and wheels are easy to change, but rear window, the air outlet (?) behind the rear window (looks bigger at the brown one) and rear bumper (easy to change)
6 Robin M
// Nov 25, 2008 at 10:05 pm
I see what you mean about the rear side window. Its a differant shape.
7 saabyurk
// Nov 25, 2008 at 11:31 pm
Looks to me like it’s possible the rear glass and frame on the orange version is the same shape, but they may have added additional black plastic trim to sharpen the back corner. I see that on a lot of modern cars.
However, it also went from one-piece to two-piece, a sliding/opening version?
8 eggsngrits
// Nov 26, 2008 at 12:28 am
I wonder what made it cost too much? I’m looking at a post in the near future about costs and the pricing structure in Detroit and elsewhere. I’m sure that the large amount of glass was a factor.
9 ctm
// Nov 26, 2008 at 12:45 am
Q. Is it a hatchback or a combi?
10 Tim in Denver
// Nov 26, 2008 at 1:09 am
‘Yes, they are the same cars only in different colors ‘
in my opinion, the writer meant to say,
‘Yes, they are the same model, only in different colors’,
and promptly contributed to further confusion.
11 saabyurk
// Nov 26, 2008 at 3:06 am
Tim, maybe, maybe not. Wikipedia cites “The SAAB Way” by Gunnar A. Sjögren, page 57, as saying “a couple of test cars” were built up to 1976.
12 Markac
// Nov 26, 2008 at 11:33 am
Eggs, I’m not sure about the price of the 95 and 96 at the time, but the 98 was intended to be Saab’s first “Combi Coupe” and it was regarded as a replacement for both the sedan and wagon.
However it may have been more costly to build and would have been priced too close to the 99 to make it viable. There seems to have been more than one prototype built but it appears only the brown one remains? If it had been produced it might have extended the life of the 95/96 line of cars by several years.
13 Alex
// Nov 26, 2008 at 11:45 am
That is quite simply a terrible looking car
14 Barry
// Nov 27, 2008 at 7:17 pm
Regarding the one piece / two piece rear windows: I don’t think it’s a sliding window (judging from the shape) but it could be anchoring points for rear seatbelts. Kind of like the chrome “pillars” splitting the rear side windows of a Volvo 240 wagon.
Anyway, even though I love classic Saabs, that is a seriously ugly car.