For a company that went belly up in 2011, Saab is sure receiving a lot of attention from the media lately. At first, it was Swedish magazine AutoMotorSport that brought Saab back again under the limelight of discussion with the release of three, very low quality, computer models of the new 9-3 in both liftback and convertible forms.
The griffon-loving crew at Saabsunited accepted the challenge and upped the ante with the release of four pictures, the most important of which is a near production prototype of the liftback that would have been the new 2013 Saab 9-3.
Saabsunited’s editor Tim writes: “This is as close to a final version the design team got. An Aero version is being presented to the Chinese delegation from Pang Da & Youngman, May 27th 2011”.
China’s ‘Pang Da and Youngman’ was one of Saab’s suitors, but the deal never went through.
According to the report, if Saab had secured the necessary funding to avoid bankruptcy, the 9-3 seen in this image would have made its world premiere at the 2012 Geneva Motor Show.
A team led by Saab’s then chief designer Jason Castriota penned the car, the design language of which had been previewed by the PhoeniX Sports Coupe Concept at the 2011 Geneva Auto Salon.
Based on Saab’s Phoenix platform, the new 9-3 would have been powered by 1.6-liter turbocharged petrol, and 2.0-liter turbocharged diesel and petrol engines, all sourced from the BMW Group as part of a deal signed between the two automakers in 2010.
Among the other pictures released on the site is an earlier clay prototype of the 9-3 and a design proposal for a Sonnet coupe model.
2013 Saab 9-3 Photo Published with Permission from Saabsunited
PHOTO GALLERY
