Trollhättan, Sweden: The Mille Miglia is one of the highlights of the year for any car enthusiast. Fantastic cars, fantastic scenery and fantastic people. And at Saab Automobile, we live cars, so naturally we again competed in this year’s event after the 2010 edition saw Saab Automobile CEO and Chairman Victor Muller and former Saab Automobile CEO Jan Åke Jonsson taking the wheel of two Saab 93s.
For the 2011 edition, Saab brought three 93s to the Brescia starting line. The #331 car was driven by Mats Fägerhag, Saab Automobile’s Vice President Vehicle Product Development, with Peter Bäckström, Manager of the Saab Car Museum, sitting alongside. The #332 car was driven by Hans Hugenholtz, Chairman of Saab Automobile owner Spyker Cars N.V., and his wife Laurence. A third #333 car was entered and driven by long-time Belgian Saab importer Jacques Beherman, assisted by Umberto Stefani, External Affairs Director for Saab Belgium.
In preparing the Saab 93s for the event, the cars were kept as close as possible to the specification of the cars that competed in the old days. “We restored them to original condition, as near as possible, with the same materials and components that were used at that time,” says Peter Bäckström. “We’ve had to refurbish some of the interior trim and that was an interesting project for our colleagues in the prototype workshop at the factory. They were working with materials and build techniques that are no longer used, but they enjoyed the challenge.”
Click to see a feature on the restoration of the #331 Saab 93.
Keeping the cars in original condition also meant not improving them beyond their original trim. “For instance, with the technical knowledge we have these days, it would be quite easy to get some more power from the two-stroke engines, but that is not what we wanted to do,” says Bäckström. “In standard trim they produced about 33 hp and for competition use this was raised to about 50 hp. And that is what we had on the Mille Miglia.”
