Close-up look at the rare Saab V8 engine, made in Finland in 1989. The Saab V8 engine engineering in Finland in late 1980s – four stroke spark-ignition prototype.

Director of the SAAB-Valmet Uusikaupunki car factory, had the idea for a SAAB V8 on one of his trips to United States. People loved the SAAB 900 Cabriolet in the U.S., but thought that two-litre inline fours were better suited to lawn mowers – even if they had a Turbo. Linnoinen’s vision was to design and build V8 SAAB for the American market in Finland.

The result of his efforts can be seen in the following video clip. Five engines completed in 1989, and never entered serial production stage. Deplacement was 4 liters, and generated power 300hp:

As you probably already read, General Motors became a partner in Saab Automobile and instead wanted Saab to use their new V6, which resulted in the scrapping of the project