John Simister: Saabs at the Ace

In the mid-Nineties the building was a tyre emporium, but a bikers' reunion on September 4^th 1994 planted the seed of an idea. Three years later, a part of the building re-opened as a cafe, and in 2001 the whole building was Ace once again. No longer does traffic thunder and smoke past its frontage, though; nowadays the North Circular runs in an underpass here and what remains of the old road is quiet with its horizons determinedly local.

Which makes things all the better for one of the key reasons the Ace Cafe is still the roaring success it has been since 2001: the motor-flavored gatherings, be they of motorbikes old and new, custom cars, American cars, classic cars, car clubs, anyone with petrol-filled veins. A few years ago I was the 'concours' judge at a Citroën Car Club gathering there, sponsored by Citroën UK which had decided it was a good thing to celebrate the marque's rich and convention-defying history instead of being, as the parent company had been not long before, embarrassed by it or pretending it didn't exist.

And last weekend I arrived at a gathering of Saabs organised by the Saab Owners' Club because I thought it might be fun and it was a good excuse to give my 96 two-stroke another run following the New Year's Day trip to Brooklands. I rendezvoused with my mate Peter, whose idea the trip was and who had brought his 1960 example of a Saab 96 two-stroke, a year older than mine. Like me, he bought his in mainland Europe and drove it home – except that his high-risk drive started not from Sweden, as mine did, but from Germany, even though his car still had a Swedish registration. Still, we're all in Europe now, at the moment anyway.

We met at Scratchwood Services on the M1, as everyone still calls it despite official re-naming as the bland London Gateway Services. Minutes later we were at the Ace, following a pair of Saab Sonetts – yes, that is the correct spelling – into the car park. Our two-strokes were the oldest cars there as well as the most aromatic, and we were greeted with much enthusiasm. I, though, wanted a good look at those little pieces of mis-spelled poetry.

They were Sonett III models, the most numerous. A lot of these cars were painted orange, particularly popular in the US where most were sold, but these two were white. So, what were Sonetts II and I? The first Sonett appeared in 1956, an open two-seater sports car whose glassfibre body sat on a lightweight aluminium chassis and which was powered by the 748cc two-stroke motor from the Saab 93 (like the 96 with a lower, more rounded and less roomy tail). The front-drive sports car was known as the Saab 94 internally but gained the Sonett name on its launch at the Stockholm motor show.

The idea was to build a racing career around the Sonett but the rules then changed for production sports car races, allowing modifcations to rivals which would have take away the advantage Saab supposed for its contender. So the idea was canned after just six Sonetts – all right-hand drive, as non-single-seater racing cars mostly are – had been built.

The Sonett II arrived a decade later, a glassfibre coupé on largely 96 underskin components and still powered by a two-stroke motor. A year on, in 1967, the Sonett did as its 96 parent had done and gained for itself a V4 engine from Ford of Germany. These were engagingly compact, pert-looking coupés, but for 1970 the design went slightly – only slightly – more mainstream for the Sonett III: big bumpers, conventional front grille, longer nose, more adornment. And, at last, a floor-mounted gear lever instead of a column shift.

These were the cars at the Ace Cafe, not beautiful but highly distinctive. I'd like to drive one, one day. But then my eye was drawn to a very late 96 V4 in fabulous condition, its metallic Ruby Red paintwork pristine, its interior similarly so. It belongs to Mike Philpott (who also owns a Sonett), and it has an interesting story.

'It was at Haymill Saab near Slough, Britain's first Saab dealer, as a used car,' Mike told me. 'It was in the showroom because it was in such good condition, and it had only ever been serviced there. One day an old chap took his automatic Saab in for a service and they lent him a manual. He got the gears confused and he smashed straight through the showroom window and into the 96. 

'It damaged the bonnet and front wings, but you'd never know. Then I bought it, 20 years ago. Sadly, Haymill Saab is no more. The site is being redeveloped.' As has happened to too many old-school main dealers, unfortunately.

It's interesting to compare Mike's R-registration 96, one of the last imported to the UK, with my early one. You can see that under the later, much plusher interior trim are many of the same pressings and components, only a little evolved over the 17 years of separation. I even got a set of suspension bushes straight off Haymill's shelves for my 1961 96, back in 2001, because they were exactly the same as a late car's.

Other Saabs at the Ace represented the 99/900 family and even the General Motors-era cars, which you would imagine to be less coveted by enthusiasts but which represent a significant body in the Owners' Club. Making that point very forcibly were several examples of the final 9-5, the really handsome one launched in late 2009 just before GM sold Saab to the Dutch Spyker company. I have always been a big fan of this 9-5, willing it to succeed, but sadly it wasn't to be and it was all over for Saab in 2011.

The few cars made are holding their value well and are gaining the beginnings of a cult following. Sounds like a future classic to me.