Saab 94 Sonett Super Sport
Saab's first tiny sports car was built in secret in a barn, with an aircraft-like aluminium box under a feather-light glass-fibre body.
SAAB94.jpg · Liftarn · CC BY-SA 3.0
Research pending
A matching completed auction sale has not been verified for this exact year, body, trim, engine, transmission and market.
Joyride shows this gap instead of substituting an asking price, unsold bid or mismatched special vehicle.
More than a set of wheels.
Rolf Mellde and a small after-hours team completed the first Sonett at 2 a.m. on 14 October 1955. Saab revealed it in Stockholm in March 1956 and later called the project the Saab 94. The open two-seater paired a tuned 748 cc two-stroke with front-wheel drive and weighed only about 500 kg. Five more test cars followed, but changing racing rules removed the reason to build the planned production series.
Look a little closer.
The first car's aluminium chassis weighed less than 70 kg, about as much as one adult passenger.
Photos show an example of the model or generation. The pictured vehicle’s year, equipment, or modifications can differ from the specification described here.
A prototype built before management said yes
Mellde's group worked in spare time in a barn at Åsaka, roughly 60 km from Trollhättan. The rolling chassis was tested secretly before Saab management saw the finished car. Its enthusiastic reception at the Stockholm show turned an unofficial experiment into the Saab 94 test programme.
Source: The Saab Museum · Saab 94 Sonett history ↗Why six cars did not become two thousand
Saab considered 2,000 cars per year and investigated outside assembly, but revised competition rules allowed tuned production cars into the intended racing class. A special-purpose sports car was no longer essential, so the six-car experimental programme ended without series production.
Source: Saab Heritage Car Museum USA · 1956 Sonett I ↗Where these facts come from
- The Saab Museum · Saab 94 Sonett history
- The Saab Museum · Saab 94 Sonett technical specifications
- Saab Heritage Car Museum USA · 1956 Sonett I
- Wikimedia Commons · original Saab 94 chassis no. 1
Selected facts checked for this edition. Some source pages link to broader model families. Last reviewed October 1, 2026.