Wonder what the story behind this photo is? Check out the ‘Leader in a new Era‘ article in the Library.
The 022196 is one of the first 25 cars to have been produced. The car was bought from the showroom floor in Fort Wayne, IN, USA, by a young attourney, who sadly passed away not to long after that. The SAAB salesman who sold him the car bought it back for his wife and has enjoyed it for quite some time.
In 2011, Ewout and Martin from the Netherlands were daydreaming about what car to buy if thay had to add one to the car park. Ewout showed Martin the 1986 900 convertible, with its slender lines and timeless performance. Soon, Martin was convinced and proposed to go and find one to buy together. After months of searching, there it was:
We bought the car unseen (which we later decided never to do again…) and shipped it to the Netherlands. In this video the arrival in the Netherlands is shown:
As you can see, not all went as planned… But what fun we had! We were even tracking the ship that brought the car over on a daily basis:
When we got the car in the shed and took the dirty carpet out, we found a business card of the SAAB salesman and got in touch. As it turns out, his family mainly came from the Netherlands. So this car in fact went back to the family’s roots and is now alternately partly restored and driven.
What we found as well was a lot of welding to do. But we persevered and soon, there was a truly nice Fabulous Flatnose that was the instigator of the Register:
In March 2014, a man in Chester VA was offering a flatnose cv for parts on http://www.saabnet.com/
Who knows this sad little SAAB has been saved meanwhile…!
In the Library section, relevant and related documents of all kinds are collected. The first document to have been shared by the Register was the Supplement to the Owner’s Manual, an extension of the non-convertible owner’s manual, containing information on the SAAB GUARD alarm, the convertible top, the upper class audio equipment and other convertible-specific features:
If you have any relevant document to share, please e-mail to info@fabulousflatnose.com or share the document on our Facebook Group.
Before acquiring my sought after Fabulous Flatnose, I scoured the internet searching for information on this particular model. What striked me was that no one seemed to know the exact story behind this model, the number of cars built and the whereabouts of the model. Therefor, after buying my own Fabulous Flatnose (serial number 022196), I started the Register Facebook Group March 19th, 2014, with the following opening post:
This page is solely dedicated to the limited series of (about) 400 1986 SAAB 900 turbo convertibles. Owners, fans, addicted, devoted and interested are welcome to share knowledge, experience and stories on this special convertible: the fabulous flatnose.
That same day, a Fabulous Flatnose popped up for sale in The Netherlands (where I reside), so that post was in fact the first content of the Register:
It turned out to be the 029277 …and the Register was born!
Thanks for your interest in the Register.
