Car designers in the 1950s were given latitude to indulge in their
eagerness to experiment. In the small Saab organisation, they amused
themselves valiantly with serious projects. One of these was The Monster
- a Saab 93 that
had been stripped of all unnecessary weight and
fitted with two engines. Two 748 cc engines make nearly 1.5 litres together, and
the idea was for the unique sixcylinder Saab, with well over 100 bhp
under the plastic bonnet, to set a new world speed record for cars up to
that cylinder capacity.
Saabs engineers had the use of Satenas airfield and it was there the
Monster was timed at 196 km/h. That was a record but it was set under the
wrong conditions. There were no inspectors and the run was made in one
direction only. The Monster was also driven round the Gelleråsen
circuit
in Karlskoga, were it was found to be quite a handful when cornering. The
power developed by the engine was also too much for a pinion in the
transmission, and the tests had to be called off, never to be resumed.