[Spridgets] NFI - 1967 Saab Sonnet ii - $2750

Jim Seippel aseippel at austin.rr.com
Wed Jun 26 22:49:48 MDT 2013


In my misspent youth (18 year old) I worked for the Saab dealer in Chapel
Hill, NC. This was back in '66. Did a lot of work on 2 stroke Saabs. I still
have a Saab 2 stoke timing tool. It was a special dial indicator that
screwed into the middle cylinder. The 750GTs and Monte Carlos were a lot of
fun to drive. They had a 4 speed on the column.  There were no automatics.
You drive the car by accelerating in each gear until the power fell off and
then shifting. The transmission had a free-wheeling feature so you couldn't
use the engine for braking when slowing down.  Since it was a 2 stroke, Saab
was concerned that there would be no lubrication if the throttle was closed
and the engine was still turning high RPMs. 

When I went to work there, mechanics were paid a 50% commission for work. My
predecessor took a bunch of cars apart and them was paid half of the total
commission.  He quit without completing anything. I had to deal all of the
unhappy customers, some of whom had been without their cars for over a year.
I had to find all of the parts and then put them back together. The shop
wanted me to complete the repairs for the other half of the labor (25% of
the total).  They didn't get their way. 

The owner of the dealership bought a 289 cobra and then brought it back to
the garage. The manager (who had some racing experience) pulled the engine
out the first day it was there so they could "blue-print" the engine.  When
I left, the owner wound up sending the car to a Ford racing engine shop that
had ties back to Shelby. 

The manager of the dealership also  "borrowed" one of the factory cars that
was floor-planned for sale. He put in a roll bar and went racing at VIR. He
rolled the car on the downhill before the pit straight the first weekend
out. He left under a cloud when Saab North America pulled an inventory of
the cars and several were missing. It turned out he sold them and never paid
Saab. They were not happy.  Fortunately the owner was heir to a large
fortune.  It was somewhat smaller when the dust finally settled. 

That was a wild time.  I was glad to get out of that madhouse. 
Jim


-----Original Message-----
From: spridgets-bounces at autox.team.net
[mailto:spridgets-bounces at autox.team.net] On Behalf Of
corvallis at peoplepc.com
Sent: Wednesday, June 26, 2013 8:18 PM
To: spridgets at autox.team.net
Subject: Re: [Spridgets] NFI - 1967 Saab Sonnet ii - $2750

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saab_Sonnett

In the US, the two-stroke engine was called the 'Shrike' at that time. Its
displacement was reduced slightly, to 819 cc to avoid emission regulations
which exempted engines under 50 in3...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saab_two-stroke
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