Despite literally hundreds of letters requesting that Saab put the Sonett Super Sport and production, the company would have none of it. This frustrated Ralph Millet, president of Saab Motors, the US distributor. Millet figured the Sonett would be a great draw in the showroom. So perhaps he was an easy mark when Walter Kern, an MIT atomic physicist came to call, saying he wanted to build a sports car. Kern planned to computer analyze the project – which sounded a lot more impressive back before everyone learned just how limited computers really are – and even had an appropriate name: Quantum.
Originally published in Special Interest Autos, February, 1995.
“I said, “Fine,” recalls Millet. “I would help him out, and I gave him a bunch of spare parts to use for the suspension and all sorts of stuff. I think we had about $50,000 worth of parts into this project and the treasurer of our company kept coming to me and saying, ‘How much longer are you going to let this go on? Are these people ever going to pay us anything for all this stuff?’ I was getting myself in deeper and deeper.”
What Kern was working on was similar in concept to the original Sonett I, a front-drive sports car with the engine and transmission turned ‘round to back. Kern’s computer analysis “proved” the suspension and it was all covered by an attractive fiberglass body. A non-drivable Quantum concept car was displayed on the Saab stand at the 1962 New York Auto Show to an enthusiastic crowd, and it was announced that the Quantum was slated for production.
A second Quantum, this one a runner, was sent to Sweden for evaluation. “They came back with a nasty report,” says Millet, “said it was a stupid car and no good.” Some criticisms were valid; Kern, after all, had no experience building production automobiles. But many criticisms were related to the fact that the car was not a finished product, merely a prototype. And in match races against a Triumph Spitfire, at the Gellerasen racing circuit the Quantum was faster with a Sports engine, slower with the standard engine.
So Millet had Quantum production stopped. According to Millet, five or six had been built.
“I went over to Sweden,” Millet recalls. “I went into [managing director] Triggve Holm’s office and he gave me hell. He said, ‘Don’t you ever spend that kind of money on that stupid project.’ I thought he was going to [fire me] but he didn’t.”
But not long after that Saab announced its intention to build a sports car, the Saab Sonett II.
“So that’s really how the Sonett started,” said Millet. “Because we insisted on having some sort of sports car.”
Addendum: Additional information and photographs from Saab Planet.com, written in response to a Quantum being sold on BringATrailer. The auction notes and comments add information on the Saab Quantum plus a great number of the car auctioned up to $57,000 in April 2025.
