Top Gear - Saab

[sgould]

My Saab is better.  It still goes wrong in a few ways, but the manual Princess I had kept cracking valve seats.  On one Friday I picked up a scrap cylinder head on my way home, got home at five, fitted the head, started the car and drove off on holiday with the family!!

Not done that in the Saab yet.

I chose a Princess because I had a Triumph Dolomite 1850.  It was fine for No.1 son with a carrycot and later a childseat, but when No.2 arrived I needed a car that took a childseat and a carrycot across the back seat.

(just realised that this was over 30 years ago!!!  )

[Norfolk Jim]

I had a Dolly 1850HL - lovely finished car and nice smooth drive but kept breaking down. Final straw was driving to see my girlfriend (now wife) one evening and got half way when load bang - spark plug had shot out of cylinder head! I was going nowhere. Managed to get scrap head and got rid of it and bought a Dolly Sprint - ha..................still went wrong but you got places quicker! Always nicely finished inside

[Geoff1951]

When one looks back at the likes of the Dolly and similar cars of the late 60s and 70s, it's surprising how small they are compared to their direct competitors today.

[chris aka zaphod]

Passed my test with a Dolly 1300.
Classy!
 

[Norfolk Jim]

Agreed Geoff.

Popular, Anglia, Escort, Focus

Cortina, Sierra, Mondeo

Consul, Granada .......lost now

Viva, Astra..................

Victor, Vectra???

Maxi, Marina.............

All gradually get bigger but some lines disappear.....

Renault is a good one but complex with names and numbers.......

[Petemate]

Yes, regarding cars getting bigger - the current Astra estate is almost as big as the Vectra estate.

[Norfolk Jim]

9-5...............

[Geoff1951]

9-5...............

...and as others have pointed out before, certain dimensions of the 9-3SS are bigger than the classic 9-5   

[jmblack]

When I first passed my test, my Dad was about to buy a second hand dolomite sprint 1750 - black with a big silver stripe down the side. Very cool (for the early 80's anyway).

However, he fell out with the salesman at the very last minute and for reasons I will never fathom, bought an Austin Metro 1.0 in diorrhea beige instead............not cool..............and I'm sure scars my teenage years to this day.

As an aside, the MEtro turned into a swimming pool in the aptly named footwell if it rained hard. Could never stop the leak. I suspect it finally went to the scrapyard due to a rotted floor!

[Norfolk Jim]

Dolly Sprint had a 1998 16 valve SOHC engine. Quite a few 1850's were given similar colour schemes and wheels but the Sprint had lots of parts upgraded for the extra 34bhp.

Did you know that Triumph gave Saab the 1850 engine which ended up in the 99.

[sgould]

I believe that the Triumph/ Saab engine origins were a bit more complicated than "giving"!

The story I heard from a respected motoring journalist is that Triumph had approached the independent consultant, Ricardo, to design a new engine in the 1700cc to 2000cc size.  They were getting started with this when Saab approached them to design a similar engine.  A lot of diplomatic discussions took place before a common approach was agreed.

I saw a lot of pre-launch cars back in the early days - Allegro - Dolomite - Avenger etc. as one of the Autocar road testers lived along the road from me.  Many a late night walk back from the pub/chippie involved quiet tape removal took place!

[jmblack]

Maybe I should have taped the metro to disguise it...

[Audax]

Did you know that Triumph gave Saab the 1850 engine which ended up in the 99.

It's all documented quite well on wikipedia, the engine was the Triumph Slant 4 which was in effect half of the 3l V8 from the Triumph Stag (Saab even experimented with a V8 in the 99) this was originally a 1.5 engine being half of the V8 then when being developed it became a 1.75 then Saab turned it into 1.8 which was then made into the 2.0 B engine, which was then further modified in the H engine as used in the 900, 9000, 9-3 and 9-5. Not a bad run for an engine that was originally conceived in the 1960's that it finally went out of production in 2010.

[welshwizard]

Did you know that Triumph gave Saab the 1850 engine which ended up in the 99.

It's all documented quite well on wikipedia, the engine was the Triumph Slant 4 which was in effect half of the 3l V8 from the Triumph Stag (Saab even experimented with a V8 in the 99) this was originally a 1.5 engine being half of the V8 then when being developed it became a 1.75 then Saab turned it into 1.8 which was then made into the 2.0 B engine, which was then further modified in the H engine as used in the 900, 9000, 9-3 and 9-5. Not a bad run for an engine that was originally conceived in the 1960's that it finally went out of production in 2010.

1709cc then 1854cc, both used and manufactured by Triumph. It was the B20 that with Scania's help Saab developed, ironing out the idiosyncracies of the earlier engines, angle of the bolts etc. etc.

H-series was a short-lived nomenclature.

B-series isn't quite dead yet, BAIC own the technology now.

[Audax]

H-series was a short-lived nomenclature.

B-series isn't quite dead yet, BAIC own the technology now.

Disagree, the B series engine is what went into the 99 and early 900 (and possibly the 90?) the letter B (which was used with the 99 too) at the beginning of the engine family refers to the fuel type of the engine and to the engine family, if you look at the parts catalogue it does show that all the 99 engines that began with B referred to the family and the engine numbers began with a B too. B means petrol as in Sweden petrol is called Bensin. Also I believe that BAIC are not using the H engine as they were looking at hybrid and electric options for their cars.