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Saab confusion



I don't recall how this Saab thread got started but there are a couple of
statements needs to be clarified or corrected.

On Tue, 8 Jan 2002  Tim Hancock correctly wrote:
> There were three notable 3 cylinder 2 stroke cars I know of: Saab 92/94,
Auto
> Union 1000 (very much the forerunner of todays Audi) and the East German
> Wartburg from Eisenach. I don't know if they all used the same engine, but
> they were all late fifties early sixties contemporaries so there may be a
> connection. All were FWD and had free wheel devices to offset the
roughness of
> a 2 stroke on the overrun. The engines sounded great, but were not that
> powerful given their small size.

Then Joe Elliott (also correctly) wrote
> What about DKW?  I thought I read somewhere that those SAAB engines
> were sourced from DKW.

The Auto Union 1000 was indeed sold as DKW and then (late sixties I believe)
the cars make was changed to Audi. Same company.


On the topic of special Saab cars it gets a little muddy though as Michael
Smith writes:

> and for the true SAAB aficionado there is always the Toad...a bimotore 6
> cylinder 2 stroke...fair boggles the mind eh

To which James Barbour replies:
> The 2-stroke SAAB with two engines (one in the boot) was known as the
> Monster; the Toads were a series of prototype SAAB 96's modified to take
> the Ford V4 engine which they later adopted.

The two-engine Saab was indeed called Monster BUT the engines was both in
the front, side by side! http://www.saabmuseum.com/monster/index.html

The Toads were not 96's  modified to accept the V4 (which the 1966 Saab 96
was designed for) but rather they were 99 mules with 96 bodies widened to
cover the much wider platform. http://www.saabmuseum.com/toad/index.html

Sorry for prolonging this off topic discussion (I know y'all can't wait to
get back to the FWD/RWD/AWD thread..)

Thomas
Seattle, WA

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