I’ve always been a fan of Saab. They have a way of approaching automobile design that is a little different from other manufacturers. In the early days, they were one of the first to try front wheel drive but they were very careful to craft a vehicle with ideal front-rear weight distribution, placing the transmission in front of the engine and crafting equal length drive shafts to eliminate torque steer. They placed the ignition key between the front seats to reduce knee injury in an accident, under the dashboard was similarly designed to prevent bodily injury. They had a hatchback design when everyone else was a station wagon or sedan…..Saab has always tickled my fancy with neat ideas. Well look who’s back with a neat idea.
SAAB engineers have decided that the A-pillars are an obstruction to outward vision that need not be. They have snuck a few other ideas onto this concept car and all of them look ready for the real world: 3-D instrument guages, remotely operated “drawer” for a trunk, cool ice-blue LED headlights, 400 bhp bioethanol engine, no unsightly door handles and what a way to open the ‘cockpit’ to enter the car–no doors! Beautiful.
