Eric Carlsson Saab 96

[corrrado]

Eric Carlsson has always been considered - alongside with Pauli Toivonen - as one of the first professional driver in rallying history. His achievement with the tiny, 850cc two-stoke engined Saab 96 was truly remarkable. The reliability of the Saab and the exceptional driving skill of Carlsson fruited a long line of victories throughout the early 60's.He won the RAC three times, the Monte two times and had succes at the Safari and Acropolis.
I came across this 1:24 Air-Trax kit years ago. The kit looks really great, well proportioned, although few things needs to be corrected to represent the 1963 Monte Carlo winner car. As usual with the resin kits, it needs lots of cleaning. The most demanding parts to correct were the front windshield frame which seems to be a bit low, the front grille, which has incorrect round shape on the top, the steering column and the rims. Since I am very keen on the wheels I
made a little research on it. According to the references, Saab seems to change the 12 oval hole 5 screws rim to 12 round hole 4 screws rim from 1962 to 1963.This makes my job easier.
I started whith cleaning up the body and making the front air intakes bigger.

[corrrado]

[LeeABC]

Good luck with it, looks like an interesting but awful kit. I'll be looking forward to seeing your progress.

Cheers, Lee

[corrrado]

A little update on the Saab. The details and the accuracy of this little kit is really remarkable. The casting is a different story. Let's say this is not an MFH kit but this is what I call a challanging project.I thinned dow the body on the visibe parts. I had to rebuild the dashboard, although the original was very accurate but unuseable because of the holes in the resin. The wheel was scratchbuilt to represent the 1963 version. I used the Hasegawa Datsun 240 Safari tyre, Fujimi Porsche 911 spare outer rim, scratchbuilt inner rim and Tamiya Super Seven center part. Still need to add the proper screws.

[firun]

It's a challenging build, but worth it! The end result will be unique and truly magnificent.

[corrrado]

Hi everyone, small update on the Saab. I wish I had more time for this little gem. It is coming along well though. I focused on the interior and rebuilt the dashboard according the 1963 Monte configuration, scratchbuilt the driver seat and copilot's headrest. Seats were in the good trim for this rally according my references, unlike the 1:18 Otto Models Saab which I considered as a reference but wrongly sports the street version trim. The driver seat is originally from the Tamiya Audi Quattro, than it was modified for my Fiat 124 Abarth than ended up as a Saab seat... Also changed the seat rails since it was made longer at the factory to fit Eric Carlsson's rather big figure. The rear part of the chassis was also trimmed off to fit into the body silhouette. I scratched the doorpanels which were proper for the street version but the rally version was using an earlier and lighter trim.

[corrrado]

Little progress on the Saab, primed and painted, awaiting for polishing

[corrrado]

[freakray]

Wonderful transformation from a quistionable lump of resin to convert it to a recognizable little SAAB, your patience and skill is paying off and you're turning this into a nice build! Well done!

[racer1]

very nice

[racer1]

very nice

[corrrado]

After 7 years being packed away in a box, I decided to finally give the checkered flag to the Carlsson-Palm Saab 96. It is definitely a challenging kit but the end result is quite nice and very unique on the shelf, - although being very dominant rally car at the early part of the 60's. I finished with the interior and got all the exterior parts prepared, ready for the assembly.

[Midnight Creep]

Very nice build from this iconic rally car.


You only forgot the light "bulb" on the roof of the car which was very present for this car.

[Deathtrap]

Cool car. I always like the more uncommon kits. I'm not sure why
And that you were to finish it after 7 years of lockdown...

And thanks for not having more annoying photobucket watermarks.

[corrrado]

Finally I can call this build done. Some wip and final fotos of the little Saab which made so much history in rallying in the early 60's. 3 Monte, 2 RAC, Greece and Sanremo victories were secured in the hand of Erik Carlsson. Deathtrap, you are right, I am happy to finish it in 7 years. The car gave me lots of challenge and beside the modified body, modified chassis and seats, everything else was scratched, including photoetch and decals to finish it up properly. Midnight creep, the "bulb" was the last thing I installed, since it is very fragile while handling the model The only non authentic thing I did was the names on the doors - which were not present on the original car but I wanted to have their name on for respect!