Saab 900: an automotive enigma.

[Mr. Pockets]

A friend of mine bought an '89 Saab 900 SPG over the weekend. It really is a very cool car, and I'll admit that at least some of my ridicule is envy-driven.

Do any of you know why the engine is mounted the way it is? It's sideways, backwards and slanted. The slant makes a little sense, but the sideways and backwards? Come on. It's also got chains in the drivetrain. Wow.

I've spent at least thirty seconds looking on the internets, and I can't find an answer.

[zukiru]

is this the engine?


I see where you get that this is slanted... but sideways and backwards??

edit I now see the pulleys up against the firewall......... whoah.

[Mr. Pockets]

Exactly. It's FWD, but has the engine in longitudinally. Then it's flipped around. Besides easy access to the clutch, I haven't found an explanation. Even that's not a very good one.

[Mike621]

I had a 1993 900 5 spd coupe for a month, and sold it before I even registered it. I paid $150 because I towed it out of some womans driveway, but it turned out the car was in good condition, under all the dust, and fetched $1800 on ebay. (I had two SVXs and an ML320 at the time so I didnt really need the car anyway.)

[Hondasucks]

SAABs are built by aircraft engineers, so the old ones are all funky. If you look closer, the oil pan is the transaxle. They don't share oil though.
Those cars were designed to not need any major maintenance until 100,000 miles, at which point you dropped the engine out from the bottom and pretty much replaced everything lol. I work with a guy who has a turbo Saab 900 convertible that's his wifes, after watching him replace the head gasket I knew I DID NOT WANT ONE lol.

[Mr. Pockets]

Right, I understand all that, but you didn't answer my question. It still doesn't explain why they did it. There has to be an explanation for why they would go to all that trouble to mount an engine that way.

Thanks for playing, though.