Photo: altcinc.com
Brands have been revived after sleeping for longer, but it seems that Swedish carmaker Saab isn't coming back anytime soon. Born in 1945 and tracing its roots to the aeronautical industry, the automaker's quirky, premium cars had so much charm that its fan base is still large enough to make the Internet go round in this new decade, despite the last true Saab having rolled out the factory gates back in 2012. And one particular Saab aficionado is Ash Thorp, an artist who has decided to bring back the glory of the Griffin badge in the rendering realm.
You might be familiar to the pixel wielder's name thanks to projects such as the muscle car-like Batmobile from next year's The Batman movie or Hoonifox, Ken Block's next drifting ride, which dials the Fox Body Mustang to eleven, all sideways. But those are the "paying jobs", so how does this enthusiast spend his nights and Sundays?
Well, you are now looking at the one of the answers, namely a racing incarnation of the Saab 900 Turbo - the 900 was produced between 1978 and 1994, while the Turbo is the kind of compact executive coupe or cabriolet that adds spice to auction sites these days (you can grab one for well under $10,000), proving you can have retro fun starting from 143 horsepower.
Sure the Swedish toy was taken down the motorsport path back in the day, but the result wasn't nearly as bonkers as the virtual contraption sitting before us right now.
You can forget all about the front-engined, FWD nature of the production 900 Turbo. As opposed to the simple "S9" nameplate of the project, the digital work involved modernizing the machine and bringing it up to the stopwatch-defying standards of the IMSA racing series of the late 1980s and early 1990s.
So the custom chassis now sees the engine sitting in the middle, with this thing pushing the Earth backwards via its rear wheels.
As we've seen on the majestic Hoonifox project, more than one livery was prepared for the widebody madness that is this once-a-900. So, from the widebody to the... Batmobile-like wing, you might choose to view the new airflow-manipulating styling cues of the vehicle in black, white and clear carbon composite (no, not clear-coated carbon), because why not?
As explained on the ALT Creative website, which allows one to get lost in the digital magician's portfolio, while obviously including a small universe built around this contraption, Thorp served as the Art Director, Designer and CGI Artist for the S9, while fellow digital artist Matthew Bellamy was cast in the roles of Designer and CGI Modeler.
When feasting your eyes on this fictional Saab racecar, be prepared for all sorts of extras. These range from the inversion that marks the transition between the black and the white liveries to scenes portraying the downforce monster seeing its Turbofan wheels attacking the Nurburgring. Once again, because why not?
Well, you are now looking at the one of the answers, namely a racing incarnation of the Saab 900 Turbo - the 900 was produced between 1978 and 1994, while the Turbo is the kind of compact executive coupe or cabriolet that adds spice to auction sites these days (you can grab one for well under $10,000), proving you can have retro fun starting from 143 horsepower.
Sure the Swedish toy was taken down the motorsport path back in the day, but the result wasn't nearly as bonkers as the virtual contraption sitting before us right now.
You can forget all about the front-engined, FWD nature of the production 900 Turbo. As opposed to the simple "S9" nameplate of the project, the digital work involved modernizing the machine and bringing it up to the stopwatch-defying standards of the IMSA racing series of the late 1980s and early 1990s.
So the custom chassis now sees the engine sitting in the middle, with this thing pushing the Earth backwards via its rear wheels.
As we've seen on the majestic Hoonifox project, more than one livery was prepared for the widebody madness that is this once-a-900. So, from the widebody to the... Batmobile-like wing, you might choose to view the new airflow-manipulating styling cues of the vehicle in black, white and clear carbon composite (no, not clear-coated carbon), because why not?
As explained on the ALT Creative website, which allows one to get lost in the digital magician's portfolio, while obviously including a small universe built around this contraption, Thorp served as the Art Director, Designer and CGI Artist for the S9, while fellow digital artist Matthew Bellamy was cast in the roles of Designer and CGI Modeler.
When feasting your eyes on this fictional Saab racecar, be prepared for all sorts of extras. These range from the inversion that marks the transition between the black and the white liveries to scenes portraying the downforce monster seeing its Turbofan wheels attacking the Nurburgring. Once again, because why not?
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