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Sunday, October 20, 2013

The Saab Sonett III convertible story


Yes, you see correct. It's a Sonett III convertible. And it seems to be the only one worldwide. The story behind is partially foggy but also a wonderful example of how coincidences can develop.

Imagine to be a Saab mechanic with your own workshop, loving the Saabs and having enough work. One day you break your arm and are forced to sit home and doing nothing. So you surf the internet, the Saab scene and so on. And than you find an ad for selling a Saab cabriolet, without stating a model. But for some reason you start to be curious.

Exactly this happened to the owner Michael. He thought, that it would be a classic 900 cabriolet before the definitive end. But after a call with the owner and seeing the documents, it was clear, that someone wants to sell a gem without knowing it and it's even in the same country.

What would you do than ? Jump into the car, drive there and buy it.



This Sonett was built in 1970 as a normal Sonett III. It's unknown who did the rebuild. But it is known, that it was intended for the Detroit Auto Show in 1972. The drums are drumming, that there were two pieces rebuilt, a burnt orange one and a silver grey. Nobody knows what's with the other. For some "paper" reason these Saab 97 Sonetts never came to the States. And it's very likely, that the orange one was repainted to Montecarlo Blue, that's why the blue soft-top. A 40 years old soft top!

The car was then bought by a Saab dealer from Corsica, imported there and drove 30 years as a beach and fun car. How it came to Germany is unknown.

What Michael found was a blue Sonett III cabrio in surprisingly good condition of the car but not very good condition of the colour. He found out, that the original colour was Burnt Orange, so he returned it back.  Otherwise only brakes and clutch hydraulics needed a repair, everything else was fine. No welding etc.



So here it is. If the accident with the broken arm didn't happened, who knows, where this unique Sonett would end.

Nice, nice...




6 comments:

  1. Here is some more information:

    http://traumautoarchiv.de/html/1267.html

    Greetings!

    Matthias

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. nice. is it the same car ? (just different color)

      Delete
  2. Saw a green one on a trailer behind a pickup truck on Interstate 10 this morning heading east towards Scottsdale. I wonder which auction it's consigned with?

    ReplyDelete
  3. The blue one at traumautoarchiv is the same car
    best regards
    Michael

    ReplyDelete
  4. Does anyone know where the convertible top may have come from? I’d love to do this!

    ReplyDelete