Solved - NEH 3425: Saab D Sports Racer "Baas Bomb" - 1956

[Carnut]

What's this, from when - for 1 point?:

ANYONE FOUND GIVING ANSWERS OBTAINED BY USING GOOGLE SEARCH BY IMAGE MAY BE BANNED FOR AN INDETERMINATE PERIOD!

[Carnut]

Experts who have posted here?:

http://www.autopuzzles.com/forum/index.php?topic=28116.msg325752#new

[spider]

VW Beatle based: Karrman prototype

[Carnut]

VW Beatle based: Karrman prototype

Not by Karmann and not VW-based..

[Oswald]

Saab based?

[Carnut]

Saab based?

Yes!
Locked for your next reply.

[Oswald]

Thanks Carnut, but I have no idea.
The wheels and wheelbase just reminded me of a Saab 92 and its derivatives.
I cannot find anything on this one, though.

[Carnut]

Fair enough Oswald, so this puzzle is open to all eligible players again.

[AlexFrance]

Any connection with a Saab Sonett I?

[Carnut]

Any connection with a Saab Sonett I?

I don't know of one but it might be connected!

[AlexFrance]

Any connection with Ingvar Lindqvist?

[Carnut]

Any connection with Ingvar Lindqvist?

None.

[AlexFrance]

Was the car made in Sweden?

[Carnut]

Was the car made in Sweden?

No.

[serra]

From USA?

[Carnut]

From USA?

Yes!

[Carnut]

Professionals?

[nicanary]

An early Quantum ?

[Carnut]

An early Quantum ?

No.

[Hiawatha]

Any connection with Devin?

[Wendax]

Does it have a fiberglass body?

[Carnut]

It's a fiberglass body and at first I thought it was a Devin but the site didn't say that; I've tried to compare it with a Devin and I think it has some differences which lead me to think it's not a Devin, but I may be wrong.

As far as I'm aware it was a one-off not based on another fiberglass body, but I really can't swear to that.  These sites don't always give the whole information.

[Wendax]

I found it described as a 1956 Saab D Sports Racer powered by the three-cylinder 850 cc Saab engine, formerly owned by a professor from Ohio. The badge said "BAAS BOMB".

[Carnut]

Very good - you seem to have found the same site I got it from as your picture is there too, but I've found it hard to get the photos off the site (there is a number of good ones).  The one other photo I managed to get is below. I noticed that 'Baas Bomb' badge but I wasn't sure it was the car's name, although you're probably right as it must be a picture of that square badge on the bonnet!

What I could get off the site was the story, which is repeated below;  it mentions that the engine was turned backwards, but quite why I have no idea!:

QUOTE
I was raised in the bucolic little village of Hudson, Ohio, home to Western Reserve Academy across the street. Ever so convenient as, far starters, they had 2 soccer and 1 lacrosse field right across the street from our house most convenient exercising the latest experiment with my mini bike or go cart....until security would arrive. Then it was a mad dash to any of the well concealed wooded drives or service roads where the race was on. Barney Fife against half a dozen of my crazed go kart pals.

On one of these service roads was the a huge barn in which the professors kept their spare vehicles from cars to boats to even a small gyrocopter, in it was this machine. I'd known of it since I was 12 years old as the drive adjacent to this professors house went ride by the pad outside his shop at this house. With a high rev'g two stroke motor and that swoopy body, I viewed as a Ferrari Testarossa and was totally smitten. He was in the sciences and his hobby was two stroke tuning, focusing on exhaust pulse technology. As anyone familiar with expansion chambers on motorcycles and snow mobiles know they can be rather large, you can imagine how big this one was. To change it required pulling the body of the frame for which being fiberglass was not heavy but unwieldy. I helped him lift this body off while discussing the nuances of ackermann in steering geometry, camber, caster and the virtues of live as opposed to single traction rear axles to which I'd devoted much focus in making my gokart faster than any of my my pals. These supremely enlightening conversations conducted with a "grown up" at the time were imprinted to this day but alas, lost touch when I got into cars and prepared to go off to college.

In the summer of 1974, his wife called me, he had died of leukemia and wanted me to have his car. So for the princely sum of $500 I had something the with the visual and aural impact of any of the other over-the-top machines rolling around our town...including that Hemi Cuda convertible, 67 427SC Cobra used as a daily driver, a white 289 GT40 and 67 911S among others heavily lusted over heretofore.

This machine is based on a 3 cylinder Erik Carlson 850CC rally engine turned around backwards in a tubular frame with a transvers leaf spring over lower A arms with the rear controlled by torsion bar on a beam like axle. It had a four speed with huge alloy finned brake drums similar to those on a 356 Carrera. I had it running in no time and terrorized my quaint environs for a year with it wailing at redline like a howler monkey. Wildly exagerated claims of my misdeeds were reported back to my mother so alas (sigh) I was not allowed to take it to my freshman year in college.

The following summer I bought a 1967 Jaguar XKE and had to liquidate my herd. The bloke who bought it arrived in a 1953ish Studebaker stake side farm truck and was over the moon to have it. I bet so, as more than one Saab enthusiast has mentioned it bore a very strong chassis resemblance to the original SAAB Sonett 1 Super Sport of which they only made 6. Hmmm, guess a grand for it wasn't that good a deal after all.
UNQUOTE

[Wendax]

A method to recover pictures from sites which don't allow that the usual way is to use the "Print Sc" button (or "Druck" in German). This will create a screenshot which can be altered like any usual picture. So far I have only discovered very few sites which also prohibited the use of the screenshot button as well.

BAAS BOMB seems to be a word game with BAAS being SAAB spelled backwards, of course.