The Saab 92001 was the first automobile built by Saab. The brand was founded by former aircraft engineers. The word Saab was originally an acronym that stood for “Svenska Aeroplan A.B.,” or “Swedish Airplane Co.”, a manufacturer of warplanes. The Saab 92001 was also called a 1946 Saab 92 prototype.

As World War II was drawing to a close, The Saab, realized that it needed to enter a different market and an automobile project was envisaged. In the fall of 1945, the company decided to start the automobile project. The project involved 16 engineers which were none of them had ever designed a car before, and only two held driving licenses. The weirdness that resulted, the car boasted incredibly low drag and an 18-horsepower 2-stroke 2-cylinder engine. The immediately-preceding Saab production code was for an aeroplane – the Saab 91 Safir – for this reason, the first car project started as the Saab 92 (92001). That’s why the car was also called a 1946 Saab 92 prototype.

The original 1946 Saab 92001 was driven thousands of miles. Today it is in the Saab museum in Trollhättan, with a cleaned grille and more roadworthy headlights. It is called Ursaab, meaning ‘original Saab’.