Redefining Saab; Swedish automaker's fall concept forecasts future designs.(Brief Article)

Dig into Saab's design history and you won't find much. In more than a half century in the car business, nearly every car produced by the Swedish manufacturer has clearly descended from the design of the Saab 92, a 1947 concept car also known as the ``original Saab.''

Maybe that's why Saab is attaching such historical significance to its plans to roll out a new concept car this September at the Frankfurt motor show. Technically, the latest concept will be only the third concept car in company history, taking its place in a short line of test-beds that includes the 92 (below) and the EV-1, a Saab 900 Turbo-based future car built in the late 1980s. (Saab's 1956 Stockholm motor show Sonett was introduced as a production rally car, while its 9000 model introduced in 1984 went directly from paper to production.)

Saab was solely in the aircraft business back in post-World War II Europe when its leaders, looking for a way to save the company from an untimely demise, directed its engineers to pound out a car. Not surprisingly, the prototype two-door Saab 92 bore a striking resemblance to

the company's aircraft product line, its revolutionary aerodynamic shape honed in the wind tunnel. A front-driver (what better to handle winter driving conditions in Scandinavia?), the 92 was powered by a transverse-mounted, two-cycle, two-cylinder 25-hp engine that pushed the slippery shape to a speed of 62 mph.

Eccentric as it was, the 92 framed the design characteristics for the entire Saab lineup for the next five decades-influencing models from the 99 to the 900 to today's 9-3 and 9-5.

Against that backdrop, this fall's concept unveiling takes on considerable weight, because it will signal the first real change in styling direction in ...