SaabsUnited.com

These images of a proposed Saab concept vehicle are from a Spanish design student named Rubén Barrientos.
Note: they are not Saab images nor do they come from Saab design. They are a student’s design project only. But they’re interesting.
When I first saw that rather noticeable front end, my immediate reaction was ‘arrghhhh!’ But having spent a little more time with it this morning, and having read what it’s meant to symbolise, I’m coming around to it. I’m not so sure I’d like to see it in production, but it is the type of quantum leap from current design that could be justified given Saab’s impending new circumstances.
i.e. – change of owner, change of design language.
Here are some of the images. There’s a whole bunch more at Car Body Design.
Click to enlarge…..

OK, to the front of the vehicle.
If I’m reading the designer’s notes correctly, those lights and the shape of the front ‘grille’ is supposed to mirror the face of an eagle/gryphon. The lights are eyes and the inverted angular bits are kind of like how a beak would look, front on. Look at it long enough and you’ll see it.

At the back, there’s a shallow tribute to the way UrSaab angled down to a point at the rear of the vehicle. I’m not so much a fan of the single exhaust that forms that point on this model, but I can see what he’s trying to do.

I this panel, you can see how he’s pointed a note towards Saab’s avaition background with the point behind the rear doors mimicking the tail fin of an aircraft. I think those rear doors are rear-hinged, a-la the Mazda RX-8, to allow easy pillarless access to the rear seat.

If had one criticism of the design over all, it’s that I prefer softer edges to the hard ones used here, and that goes especially for the interior concept. And why we’d want a massive shifter like that for the transmission, I’ll never know.

——
Over all, I like this a lot more than my initial reactions indicated I would. It’s pretty bold, that’s for sure, and I wonder if it’s maybe a little too ‘loud’ for a company like Saab. Then again, the Aero-X wsn’t exactly a shrinking violet and even the Saab 900 looked like little else at the time.
Kudos to Mr Barrientos for a well executed bit of work. In my opinion, at least.