Back in 2015, Tubitak, the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey, announced that it had licensed technology from NEVS, the National Electric Vehicle Sweden, to build a national car. Chinese owned NEVS had bought some of the assets of SAAB when it finally ground to a halt after several failed attempts to revive it. Those assets appear to be the factory and … [Read more...]
Transverse Engines
This week’s technical article is about the transverse engine – found in most modern front drive cars and it follows on from a recent article about DKW. DKW were the first to have a successful transverse engine in a production car. It helped that their engine was a tiny two stroke, two cylinder motor derived from a motorcycle engine. This was in the 1930s and they were very … [Read more...]
DKW
DKW wasn’t the first car company to supply other manufacturers however their name certainly appears in the history books of many other companies. Not only did they become the worlds largest motorcycle manufacturer for a while but also their engines went into quite a few other manufacturers models. DKW was founded in 1916 by a Danish engineer based in Germany. Jorgen … [Read more...]
SAAB CEO Charged with Giving False Testimony
Early in September the former CEO of SAAB, Jan Ake Jonsson was finally charged with giving false testimony during the bankruptcy court case for the collapsed car maker. SAAB had been abandoned by General Motors and Spyker had stepped in with firstly Russian/Ukrainian and then Chinese money to save the company. GM didn't like either parties and the deal failed taking firstly … [Read more...]
SAAB
Saab was founded as an aircraft company in 1937 although its heritage goes back to 1921 when Svenksa Aero was formed to build German aircraft under licence. In 1932 they were bought by ASJA – in English these letters stood for the Swedish Railroad Workers Air Plane Department. After several years with no commercial success, ASJA was reformed as Svenska Aeroplan AB, or SAAB. I … [Read more...]
