The Saab 95 wagon (1959-1978) is one of the best seat-to-door ratios you can get in a vintage car this side of an old school bus. The 95 was always equipped with rear facing seats to allow a total of 7 human beings the chance to ride around, albeit slowly, in a Scandinavian front driver. Today's 95 is a smurf blue survivor -- find this 1970 Saab 95 V4 wagon offered for $2,800 in Mountain View, CA via craigslist. Tip from Kaibeezy.
Kaibeezy sent this one in with the following all caps initialism (not an acronym):
IISLTIPWBATSMFBAOT...which apparently means: if i still lived there i probably wouldn't be able to stop myself from being all over this. I can't argue with that.
The SAAB 95 is powered by a V4 engine taken from the Ford Taunus and its the same 1.4 liter 55 horsepower 95 ft-lbs of torque engine that powers the (later 4-stroke) 96 and Sonett. It puts that power to the front wheels via a 4 speed manual transmission (with the funky freewheeling action from the 2-stroke engine version) and is the reason these cars are better known for Rallye than for anything on the tarmac - the front wheels help pull the car around in low grip environments.
On the inside you'll find 5 forward facing seats (2 up front, 3 more in the back) and a final 2 bonus seats facing out the rear. These are the seats that if you put even the most introverted kid in the back, he/she will start waving at total strangers, who will wave back without fail.
Find another longroof with 3 doors? Email us here: tips@dailyturismo.com
Ah, now we're approaching the top of my automotive bucket-list, for some reason, and the price on this one is good. Timing's still wrong for me, though, no way I can justify another car around here right now.
ReplyDeleteThey're not fast, they're quite comfortable for their size, useful, yadda yadda yadda.
His door cards and etc. suck, though.
I believe you'll find they're all 1.7L, not 1.4.
a V8 swap would make it fast................. 2 stroke V8 swap
ReplyDeleteEvinrude 2 Stroke V* into Volvo Amazon
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmnsXTMLzCE
I'd think that the Katech V4 would be the optimal engine for a Saab 95/96, but you'd need a transaxle that could handle it and a helical LSD in the diff.
DeleteThese were developed for a bike application, but Katech doesn't seem to have them on their website as an over-the-counter crate motor at this point.