When it comes to historic rally cars, the Lancia Delta, the Peugeot 205 and the Ford Sierra are always the first to emerge from any discussion. Why is she never mentioned? It doesn’t seem right to us.
Historic cars and where to find them, today we are dealing with a real pearl of world of rallies and we dare you to tell us that you already knew it since it comes from other times, an era in which the Delta Integralthe Stratos and Escort Turbos were nowhere near in development. Looking at it, it wouldn’t even look like a real racing car, but you know, appearances are sometimes deceiving.
Historical weight
The long history of motorsport includes many of those cars that list them all would be impossible, even if we restricted the field only to rally cars, for example those that participated in at least one official season of the WRC or in an official rally before 1973, the year in which the roll of honor was officially established league in question.
Few know it but among the brands that have participated in competitions of this type before or after the official establishment of the championship there are names such as Skoda, Hyundai and Saab, a Swedish brand unfortunately now disappeared despite repeated attempts by Chinese and European investors to take matters back into their own hands and officially put the brand name back on the market.
Born to win
Among the most incredible cars that have ever managed to win at least one important rally we find, incredible but true, Saab 96. This very small coupé with a line perhaps vaguely similar to an Alfa Romeo of the period, was born in 1960 and remained in production even until 1980. Despite its small size and far from solid appearance, the Saab 96 would have imposed the his domination of important tracks over the years.
During the 1960s, the car won more than one important rally, including an incredible victory at the 1961 Monte Carlo Rally and at the 1962 Sanremo Rally, both achieved by experienced pilot Erik Carlsson. Those were different times, of course, compared to the roaring years of Group B, but also to bring home twenty victories in less than four years, a car had to know about him.
Two-Stroke Fury
Equipped with a small 57 horsepower two-stroke engine, the Saab 96 it would make you laugh when compared to a modern car but we can assure you that in those days, the other drivers had very little to scoff at when the solid Swedish car imposed itself on the dirtiest, hardest and most difficult tracks of the period. Today, very few experts well versed in the history of rallying remember this car and this explains the low price at which a historic example is going.
The car for sale is an original Saab 96 which, however, did not bring home the important successes we mentioned earlier, on the contrary, it was in fact a car created specifically to pay homage to Carlson’s victories. The recently restored car does not hit the road since many years but it is probably still in excellent condition given the solidity demonstrated by the model in years of very tough European rallies.
At the moment, there are four days to go until the end of the auction but the offers… aren’t exactly enormous, you can take a look at the price above in the photo. Probably, it is lack of fame of the car to have caused this death of new bidders, better for those who will take it home in short. And did you know that Saab produced such a racing car? No, admit it!
