“Throughout the development process, we focused on giving this car all the exciting driving characteristics you would expect from a Saab,” Saab’s chief test driver Peter Johansson said in a release.
The team behind the project looked to find the best set-up by optimising two different suspension layouts, front and all-wheel-drive transmissions, passive and adaptive chassis functions and two steering systems with different brakes, wheel sizes and tires, as well as five powertrain options.
The test fleet included 15 cars that were driven on roads in Sweden, United Kingdom, Germany, Belgium, France, Spain and Italy, in all conditions: wet and dry, day and night, winding to straight.
“With this car, I should say you get that overall Saab feel through the steering wheel and the seat of your pants. We’ve developed the car to have predictable, neutral handling in most situations. When cornering under extreme loads, it is forgiving and easy to control with no sudden surprises,” added Johansson.
Testing also took place on closed tracks, such as the Nurburgring Nordschleife in Germany and NARDO in Italy. The cars were also taken on a 10 km forest track at the Colmis test facility in northern Sweden, just outside the Arctic Circle.
“After every tuning change we always go to this track to see if the handling is OK,” said Johansson. “If a change hasn’t worked, we know it will be exposed there.”
Customer order book for the new Saab 9-5 are already open in many markets, but the first deliveries, however, are set to begin later this year.
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