Greater than a thousand years in the past, Scandinavian invaders conquered a lot of northern England and Danes got here to rule the outdated Roman metropolis they known as Jórvík. The Danelaw is lengthy gone, however I visited that metropolis (now referred to as York) a few months again and located some historical Scandinavian treasure in a junkyard scrapyard there: a Saab 96, as rusty as a long-buried iron Viking sword however nonetheless recognizable.
We noticed a 1973 Saab 95, the wagon model of this automotive, in a California boneyard final fall. 1973 was the final 12 months for the 95 and 96 in america, however 96 gross sales continued in the UK via 1976.
England is damp year-round they usually have a beneficiant hand with the street salt there in winter. The extent of corrosion on this automotive would impress even a Michigan resident.
The quantity of vegetation, rodent droppings and moss is spectacular. It will need to have sat open air, possibly half-buried, for many years.
Nonetheless, I discovered only a few automobiles constructed earlier than 2000 throughout my scrapyard explorations in England (with some notable exceptions) and these outdated Saabs are cool, so I photographed it.
At first, the 96 was constructed with a three-cylinder two-stroke engine. For 1967, Saab started putting in the Ford Taunus V4 engine in these automobiles, and that is what’s right here.
The odometer reveals that it reached almost 100,000 miles (or possibly 200,000 or 700,000 miles— it is inconceivable to inform with a five-digit odometer).
Even in freezing Yorkshire winter climate, the mould on this inside could possibly be smelled from a few rows away.
Restorable? Not on this situation, although the 96 has many followers in Britain.
Would you place the horse behind the cart? In fact not, which is why you needed a front-wheel-drive Saab 96!