City Car Design

Jack has always managed to included ideas for small city cars throughout his books. This one is simply tagged as the "SL." There isn't much in the way of notes about this concept, so I'll just let the sketches to the talking:

Suicide doors and "bugeye" like headlight:

Note low floor and huge luggage area behind driver:

New Saab 96?

Many moons ago, Jack had sketched up some ideas for a modern version of the Saab 96. This was when the rumor mill was suggesting Saab would bring over a new small car, based on the Opel/Vauxhall Astra. So you'll see quite of Astra proportions in this design:

Black Olga: Saab 93B

Many years ago, we took possession of a rusty little shell of a Saab 93B, we called Black Olga. The bottom 4-inches of the doors and fenders were more dust than metal, so Jack sketched up some ideas for a chopped and channeled street rod:

Of course it had a hot rod V4 engine:

Fast Freddy Hood Details (1969 Saab Sonett V4 Race Car)

When Fast Freddy got a winter's worth of work, one of the jobs was to lighten the hood, build a front valance with a wing for added downforce, and keep the tilting option for ease of access. Here are some of Jack's sketches:

Fiat Topolino - Saab V4 Powered?

The earliest version of the Topo was powered by a Saab V4. Since Jack has built a couple hundred of these little engines, it made perfect sense. It is an extremely compact design, and when it isn't hiding under the hood of a Sonett, it can house some respectable cross-ram Webers.

Cross-ram intake manifold featuring twin Weber DCOE carbs:


Saab V4 mated to Fiat 124 5-spd trans:


More details showing the cross-ram Weber setup:


And along came a twin cam. About this time, Jack took possession of a low-mileage Fiat 2000 Spider that had been smacked in the butt. So after a bit of measuring, deep introspection, Jack decided the little Topo should be powered by a hot rod 2L Twin Cam:


Ultimately, this setup has proven less costly, far easier to make work, and possibly even more powerful given similar carb setups.

Fiat Topolino Mechanical Details

These are a few of the various mechanical sketches Jack did for the Topolino project in Sketchbook #4.

Fiat 124 Spider front suspension and Saab 99 steering rack. This basic setup actually made it to the final product:


Jack ended up building a simple roll cage following much of this early design:


More cage details, including doors beams:


Window winding mechanism and handle/lock details:


Brake master cylinder mounting details:


The Topo came equipped with a 124 rear diff, setup with leaf springs, per this sketch. The final product uses coils and modified Saab 99 rear trailing arms:


Jack had grand visions of driving the Topo in 100-degree heat, so some of his earliest sketches included details for mounting air conditioning:


Highly detailed HVAC setup: