old SAAB
About 30 years ago I had one of those 3 cylinder 2-stroke Saabs.
Actually, I arrived at this forum after searching for any reference to those cars - I was wondering why I never see any of them around anymore.
My Saab was an excellent car. Wish I still had it. The free-wheeling, as I understood it, existed because the engine was lubricated by the oil in the gas. The free-wheeling was to prevent the engine from prolonged high-speed operation with the throttle closed, as in using engine braking to coast down a mountain, where it may not receive enough lubrication.
I burned out an engine once. Luckily, I had a spare engine in the garage. I remember picking the spare engine off the bench in the second floor of the garage, walking down the stairs with the engine in my arms and manually lowering it into the Saab. The thing must have weighed no more than about 75 pounds.
Many moons ago, my mom had a girlfriend who owned one of those two-stroke Saabs.
She always had trouble at the service stations (back then there was not "Self-Serve") when she'd tell the attendant to put oil in the gas tank, too.
I wonder if the scarcity of old 3 cylinder Saabs has to do with what I found to be exceptionally short engine life and the difficulty of finding someone who can rebuild the motors in this day and age.
I am in a city, Cali, Colombia that is chock full of all manner of oddball old cars but I have yet to see a Saab automobile of any vintage (no DKWs either). There are some modern Scania buses about but not many. For some reason Colombia was a popular destination to ship Russian and Romanian vehicals. I parked behind what must have been a seventies Zastava the other day and 70s/80s Lada Nivas are everywhere. The mountain going public transport around Cali is mostly ARO Carpatis, big Romanian jeeps with 3/4 ton rear axles that can haul fifteen people counting those standing on the rear bumper hanging on to the roof rack. One of my favorite oddballs here is the Oltcit, a Romanian Citröen. There are also 50's era US models I never saw in the states like Fargo pickups and big Desoto and Mercury two ton trucks.
My dad jumps of joy whenever he sees a 1960's Renault, if you're lucky you can always catch one here in Mexico. Reminds him of all his crazy adventures I guess.
He was so hyped up with those cars that he even bought a new one recently! Even though theres no dealership here in Tijuana - and the closest one is nearly a thousand miles away - he brought it from Mexico on a 2k mile trip.
I owned a Renault Dauphine once. I wasn't
Real Thrilled With It
Renault was one of the first foreign companies to construct an assembly plant here in Colombia. As a result there's a lot of Renault Masters which barely qualify as cars but are ubiquitous here.
