The power of one

By Alastair Sloane

What's the most exclusive car in New Zealand? We are talking mainstream models here, not one-off exotics from Europe, or a rebuilt grand carriage from pre-war England. Give up? It's a ... Saab. Or rather, it will be.

The Saab Viggen, a limited-edition, 250 km/h variant of the 9-3 model, has just been launched in New York.

And New Zealand will get ... one. Maybe two, if Saab Australia, which looks after distribution of the Swedish marque here, has one to spare from the 20 it will receive.

"I've already sold the one Viggen coupe I've been allocated," said Saab Auckland manager Neville Bevan.

"Saab is only allocating them to order because of the scarcity of the Viggen. I might be able to get two but that will be it." The Viggen is expected to cost upwards of $100,000.

The Swedish carmaker - which is owned by General Motors - will limit Viggen production to about 2000 coupes and convertibles.

Nearly all will be left-hand-drive and end up in the United States, where the convertible 9-3 Saab is the most popular imported soft-top. That's why Saab launched the Viggen in the Big Apple.

The remaining handful of right-hand-drive Viggens will go to Britain, Australia and Asia.

The left-hookers go on sale in America next month. Right-hand-drive production starts in August and New Zealand's likely one and only Viggen (a five-speed manual) will arrive in November.

The 20 Viggen variants - 10 manuals and 10 automatics - for sale Down Under are painted "Lightning Blue," a Saab adaptation of Henry Ford's philosophy: "You can have any colour you want as long as its black."

Saab has aimed the Viggen at those who want more in terms of performance and design than what the overall 9-3 range has to offer.

It gets warm and fuzzy over the Viggen name, which it shares with the Saab 37 Viggen jet fighter. Viggen is Swedish for "thunderbolt" and the delta-shaped Viggen symbol on the car's front wings is similar to the shape of the plane's wings.

The car was built at the carmaker's Valmet plant, in Finland, by Saab's Special Vehicle Operations, a development team which used the resources of Britain's TWR (Tom Walkingshaw Racing) Group.

Incidentally, the TWR Group has a substantial share of Holden Special Vehicles in Melbourne; and Valmet is a high-performance town - Porsche builds some of its Boxsters there.

The limited-edition Viggen is powered by a 2.3-litre, four-cylinder turbocharged engine, producing 165kW at 5500 rpm and 342Nm of pulling power between 2500 rpm to 4000 rpm.

The engine is an Ecopower design, Saab's philosophy of turbocharging all its powerplants to achieve higher output while retaining optimum fuel economy and lowering exhaust emissions.

Along with the engine's extra oomph comes revised aerodynamics and a specially tuned
chassis.

The Viggen sits squatter, a deep front air dam, contoured side sills, wraparound rear bumper and rear spoiler not only adding to its more aggressive look but reducing lift forces by more than 50 per cent over the standard 9-3 model and improving by 8 per cent its aerodynamic drag factor, how it cuts though the air.

The chassis has been uprated to improve the lickety-split car's handling. The Viggen comes with revised springs, new dampers, bigger

17-inch wheels, bigger brakes and improved rack and pinion steering.

The interior has been designed to reflect the car's individuality. Predominantly black, it features contrasting colour leather inserts in door trims and seat covers.

Safety equipment includes front and side airbags and Saab's award-winning head restraint device, a headrest which reduces the risk of whiplash injuries in a rear-end collision.

The Viggen weighs between 1395 and 1475kg, depending on coupe and convertible, and accelerates from zero to 100 km/h in about sevens
seconds.

The SVO team is happy with the result. "Our aim was to produce a low-volume niche product that would appeal to drivers with sporting aspirations, while retaining the Saab brand values that belong to our mainstream models," said leader Peter Leonard.

"We were also looking for something that would adequately express our engineering history -especially the aircrafft technology - that has inspired all Saab cars to date.

"So the use of the Viggen name from the jet fighter seemed the most appropriate way to denote this most potent Saab 9-3 yet."