More than a thousand years ago, Scandinavian invaders conquered much of northern England and Danes got here to rule the old Roman city they called Jórvík. The Danelaw is long gone, but I visited that city (now referred to as York) a few months back and located some ancient Scandinavian treasure in a junkyard scrapyard there: a Saab 96, as rusty as a long-buried iron Viking sword but still recognizable.
We saw a 1973 Saab 95, the wagon version of this automobile, in a California boneyard last fall. 1973 was the last 12 months for the 95 and 96 within the United States, but 96 sales continued within the United Kingdom through 1976.
England is damp year-round they usually have a generous hand with the road salt there in winter. The level of corrosion on this automobile would impress even a Michigan resident.
The amount of vegetation, rodent droppings and moss is impressive. It will need to have sat outdoors, perhaps half-buried, for a long time.
Still, I discovered only a few cars built before 2000 during my scrapyard explorations in England (with some notable exceptions) and these old Saabs are cool, so I photographed it.
At first, the 96 was built with a three-cylinder two-stroke engine. For 1967, Saab began installing the Ford Taunus V4 engine in these cars, and that is what’s here.
The odometer shows that it reached nearly 100,000 miles (or perhaps 200,000 or 700,000 miles— it’s not possible to inform with a five-digit odometer).
Even in freezing Yorkshire winter weather, the mould on this interior might be smelled from a few rows away.
Restorable? Not on this condition, though the 96 has many fans in Britain.
Would you place the horse behind the cart? Of course not, which is why you wanted a front-wheel-drive Saab 96!
(*96*) : www.autoblog.com
