The third-oldest surviving Saab, the ninth of 20 prototypes built before the company put its original 92 model into production in 1950, is going on the block on September 10 in Chantilly, France. The Bonhams auction house is offering the car with no reserve, estimating that it will go for between $18,000 and $30,000. What happens when bidders raise their paddles is unpredictable, but that bit of guesswork looks to us like small money for a genuine piece of automotive history.
Granted, the Saab 92 was a modest machine, powered by a 764 cc two-stroke twin driving the front wheels through a three-speed manual transmission, but the full history of this one is known and documented, and it’s in running condition. In photos, it looks like a candidate that any high-profile concours would welcome for display in its preservation class.
According to the auction catalog, Saab 92009 is one of only three known survivors from the original run of 20 prototypes. Number 92001 resides in the Saab museum in Trollhättan, Sweden, and 92004 is in private hands. Like all 20 prototypes, when the car was built in 1949 it was painted green, and traces of the color can be seen in places such as the underside of the hood. The car was repainted gray, probably just before it was sold to one of the company’s aerospace engineers, Olaf Öhlander, in November 1953. The prototypes didn’t have opening trunks, so cargo was accessed only through the interior. This car was retrofitted to a...