Saab 96 motoring gracefully into middle age
NORMAN — Tom Shehan and four of his chums in initial 70s Cleveland Heights, Ohio didn’t go for the muscle cars of the day. They noble themselves from the pack by driving small utilitarian cars assembled exclusively in Trollhattan, Sweden.
“We became enamored of driving these old mad little Saabs,” the Norman businessman said. “My first car out of altered consciousness school was a 1966 sedan with a 2-stroke, 3 cylinder motor.”
These were not sports cars favored by little pampered pungent kids. The Saabs of this era were no-nonsense vehicles engineered by a contemporaries used to necessary frugality caused by WWII’s devastation of Europe.
“They were unquestionably a people’s car,” Shehan said. “New they were priced about the same as a VW Beetle, around eighteen hundred bucks.”
This unite of automotive rebels in the American industrial heartland liked the small cars because they were different. It was an exotic ride for for a song.