It had to happen! Almost as soon as the print run of the last Saab Enthusiast was finished, I found a new model of the Saab 92. This one, as with many Saab models, is an example not generally available for public sale.

The ‘Essence of The Car’ is a new(ish) range of hand produced resin sculptures, finished to a very high standard by David Roots. The range started almost by accident. David was working for Ricardo and was chief chassis and powertrain engineer on a project to build a special supercar for a Far Eastern sultan . He decided that a model of it would be good! Now, I’ve been lucky enough to see these first models and the photos’ of the real beasts. (Six hand-built coupes built on Bentley running gear; six different coloured cars, one for each day of the week … superb!) Twenty-seven(ish) model subjects later, he seems to have the basis for a nice little cottage industry. Incidentally, David also worked with Ricardo and Saab on the diesel drive-trains for the 9.5 and 9.3 models, and as a consequence visited Sweden, the Saab Museum and saw the prototype 92001 and first production car.

His model 92. although accurate in its colour scheme (dark green!!) seems to retain many elements of the shape of the prototype. Before I met him he had made 13 examples of his solid resin models, that were moulded from a hand carved original. Many of these seem to have found their way back to Sweden to the desks of senior Saab managers! I have had 10 more pieces built to date for European and American collectors and intend another run in the near future; costs are around £25 each.

So, assuming no-one knows of other 92 models, let’s move on to the Saab 93.
Several manufacturers have made versions of these cars over the years in a range of materials. Some very early diecast and plastic toys are very rare and I’m only aware of one or two examples still in existence. Some excellent tinplate toys still turn up from time to time, and several white metal and resin companies have created examples; a new diecast has been promised for a couple of years or so as part of the ‘Saab Museum’ series, but we are still waiting ….

The first toy we will examine is the Bandai version of the Saab 93b. This is reasonably well known, although hugely expensive to buy if you find one mint in its original box. To a scale of around 1:20, this is a sizeable toy and with its friction motor had plenty of play value in the late 1950s when it was introduced into Bandai’s “cars of the world” range. The body, interior, wheels and floorpan components are classically pressed, bent and lithographed ‘tin’ pieces, held together by tabs as appropriate. Acetate pieces form the windows, chromed tin trim and rubber tyres complete the toy. The commonest colour is a darkish metallic red with green and dark grey examples (also with a metallic finish) turning up fairly regularly. Less common are metallic brown or black versions and ‘flat’ red and green examples.

The artwork on the boxes is very evocative of the period and appears to show a Saab of limousine proportions! These toys were marketed in Europe as Bandai and in the USA as Cragstan, although all my examples came from Europe!! Later versions of this toy had a slightly different back window to represent the new Saab 96; although all the examples I have seen still bear the legend Saab 93b on the base.

A further toy Saab 93 I have in my collection is one of the most fragile replicas I have seen. It is a one-piece moulding in 1:87 (European HO model railway scale) in a very ‘thin’ beige plastic, it has no interior, just clear plastic windows and a grey plastic base marked ‘Hong Kong’. It is finished with grey plastic wheels and is contained in a small clear plastic box with a yellow roof and ‘door’ so that the whole thing resembles a ‘lock-up’ garage! No one is certain, but the belief is that this was marketed by the Louis Marx group of companies in the late 1950s. I don’t think anyone can identify who made it!

 

Iain

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