Saab 94

The Saab 94, also known as the Sonett I, was a Saab concept car built in six or seven examples between 1955 and 1957 and presented at the Stockholm motor show on 16 March 1956. Rolf Mellde, a designer and racing enthusiast, developed it with three colleagues as a completely new model while Saab was moving from building aircraft to building passenger cars. The name Sonett comes from Mellde's Swedish remark meaning roughly how neat it is. The whole project cost only 75,000 Swedish kronor, and the first car was built in a shed at Asaka near Trollhattan. It was a light two seat car with an aluminium monocoque frame and a fibreglass body, powered by a 748 cc two-stroke three cylinder petrol engine of 59 PS and a top speed of about 160 km/h. It was meant to race in GT series, but a change of rules in 1958 spoiled those plans. Six were built and two are in the Saab Museum in Trollhattan.