40 year SAAB atical One that got away
PICTURE THE SCENE. SUMMER1969. HONKY Tonk Woman belts out the radio, still number one for the umpteenth week. The volume is up high to counteract the sound of yet another British summer downpour. The lad watches, amused as a couple make a dash to their car, heading somewhere to avoid the incessant rain. It is at this point that a seed is planted in his mind, a seed which would eventually germinate but lie dormant for several decades before once again bursting into life. The car was an early SAAB 93; the classic, bulbous, fast-back saloon with a three-cylinder, transverse two stroke engine. An engine which would surely fit into a Featherbed frame...
Robert Marshall lived in Nottinghamshire’s Trent Valley and, if nothing else, was patient. ‘Bob the Level’, as friends affectionately but sarcastically knew him, was also meticulous, fastidious and not a little skilled – for what you see here had probably never been done before, and therefore there was no template. He had to go it alone.
He takes up the story. “It wasn’t actually until 1979 when I got started on the SAAB idea properly. I sold my blown-up Triumph engine but kept the Featherbed chassis. I got a tip-off from a local Saab agent about an engine near Doncaster. The engine was a stock single carb unit in good condition, but the chap also had a hot triple-carbed unit, albeit in his
