The front-wheel-drive Saab 96 made the brand into a rally icon in the 1960s. Superstar driving from Erik Carlsson, his wife Pat Moss-Carlsson and - later - from Stig Blomqvist, all brought real publicity and admiration for a car that always lacked the sheer straight-line performance of its rivals. Saabs like this, however, never wanted for strength, or for amazing handling and traction, and they succeeded in events as diverse as the Monte Carlo, Britain's RAC rally, special stage events in every Scandinavian country, and the rough-and-tough Spa-Sofia-Liege Marathon. The big change came in 1967, when the 96 became the V4, looking almost the same as before, but with a new and more powerful four-stroke Ford-Germany V4 engine. Works cars continued to be competitive in carefully chosen events for many years, and it was only the arrival of much more specialised rivals that made them outdated. Saab, though, was not finished with rallying, as the V4's successors, the much larger and more powerful 99 and 99 Turbo types, proved. More than any other car of its era, the 96 and V4 models proved that front-wheel-drive allied to true superstar driving could produce victory where no-one expected it.
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About the Author
Graham Robson possesses a world-wide reputation as a motoring historian, and has been close to the sport of rallying for many years. Not only as a competitor, team manager, organiser, reporter, commentator and observer, but above all as an enthusiastic historian, in more than forty years he has never lost touch with the sport. His experience of rallying is worldwide. Not only has he competed in many British and European events, but reported on marathons in South America, and acted as a travelling controller in the legendary London-Mexico World Cup rally. As a recognised authority on many aspects of classic cars and motoring of that period, he is the most prolific of all authors, with more than 120 published books to his credit. Over the years he has owned, driven, described and competed in many of the cars featured in this Landmark Rally Cars series, and his insight into their merits is unmatched.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
By Breizh Veur
Anyone interested either in Saabs or 1960's rally cars will find this book informative and a tribute to these cars. As the owner of a 96 I just wished there was more of it! Lots of great pictures so for the price you cannot quibble. Hopefully there will be another one , such as the 96 which ran at Le Mans.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
3.5 out of 5 stars
2 reviews
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars
Disappointing
16 Jun 2010
By J. L. Williams
- Published on Amazon.com
Amazon Verified Purchase
As a vintage SAAB fan and former 96 owner, I had hoped this book would give a look at the colorful personalities and creative engineering behind the 96's surprisingly successful rallying career. There's a bit of that, but the book is mostly a dry, and negatively toned, data-sheet chronology.
What's more, the writing makes it pretty obvious that the author is a loyal Brit-car buff -- sometimes it reads as if his goal in writing a SAAB book was to show how fabulous the British teams were by comparison. (I swear that a strict word count would turn up almost as many incidences of the words "Mini-Cooper" as the word "Saab.")
The author does do a service for serious rally-history buffs by poring over the cars' FIA papers year by year -- so if you want to know when the team started running a particular engine size or cylinder head, it's in here. However, the book contains so many typographical errors and obvious photo-captioning mistakes (for example, mis-identifying a Saab 95 as a 96, despite the fact that their body styles are obviously different) that it's hard to regard the more esoteric information with a lot of confidence in its accuracy.
What's more, the writing makes it pretty obvious that the author is a loyal Brit-car buff -- sometimes it reads as if his goal in writing a SAAB book was to show how fabulous the British teams were by comparison. (I swear that a strict word count would turn up almost as many incidences of the words "Mini-Cooper" as the word "Saab.")
The author does do a service for serious rally-history buffs by poring over the cars' FIA papers year by year -- so if you want to know when the team started running a particular engine size or cylinder head, it's in here. However, the book contains so many typographical errors and obvious photo-captioning mistakes (for example, mis-identifying a Saab 95 as a 96, despite the fact that their body styles are obviously different) that it's hard to regard the more esoteric information with a lot of confidence in its accuracy.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Valuable addition to my Saab book collection
1 Mar 2011
By George T. Yurkon
- Published on Amazon.com
Amazon Verified Purchase
I'm a Saab nut, and I have a lot of books about Saab. I was afraid this book would just be a rehash of what my other Saab books cover, however, I found it stands out from the others and covers subject matter the others don't. I especially enjoyed many of the photos that I had never seen before. I'm glad I bought this book. It does have some obvious errors such as a photo caption describing round headlights when the Saab pictured clearly had rectangular headlights, and I think "Pommac beer" should read "Pommac soft drink", but I think I can find similar errors in any of my books.
I especially appreciated the year-by-year competition coverage of the work's Saab's careers. Some might consider the writing dry, but I surely don't. The book isn't intended to be an ear tickler. Like the title wording "Rally Giants" would infer, the book covers the rally career of a 1960s rally icon, and covers it well. The author does seem to write off anything but total domination of a rally season as a failure, but I kind of think Saab felt the same way. After all, winning rallies was important to them --- they described their little wonder as "the rally-winningest car in the world" in their 1967 brochure.
In short, if I ever have to trim my Saab library down to just a few essential books, this book will be a keeper.
I especially appreciated the year-by-year competition coverage of the work's Saab's careers. Some might consider the writing dry, but I surely don't. The book isn't intended to be an ear tickler. Like the title wording "Rally Giants" would infer, the book covers the rally career of a 1960s rally icon, and covers it well. The author does seem to write off anything but total domination of a rally season as a failure, but I kind of think Saab felt the same way. After all, winning rallies was important to them --- they described their little wonder as "the rally-winningest car in the world" in their 1967 brochure.
In short, if I ever have to trim my Saab library down to just a few essential books, this book will be a keeper.
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3.5 out of 5 stars
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