Misremembering The Saab 93

As long as I'm on the subject of 50-year-old pint pots (previous post)...  I had not thought of the two-cycle Saab in decades, until I saw Jay Leno's:

http://www.jaylenosgarage.com/video/1958-saab-93b/188058/

I knew a guy in college who had one.  He was from Connecticut.  He loved the car, especially in sloppy weather--and he got us around in winter when most of our cars could slither down the hill into town, but not back up the hill to our heights of knowledge.  This was before Saab had cachet, and a big reputation for passive safety.  That came with the 99, an "upmarket" design.  The 93 sold well in New England (Kurt Vonnegut had a dealership on Cape Cod), but it was a rarely seen in the Midwest where we were just getting used to the novelties of the VW Beetle.

I loved the 93.  Not as much as my Mini, but more than the Beetle.  It had a heater and defroster that actually worked.  The two-cycle engine was rev-happy.  That is always a plus with me, and I wonder if my lifelong affinity for Lawn Boy mowers was a result of riding around in a Saab 93, years before I had grass to cut.  It is not true, as Leno says, that you needed to premix the gas.  Just dump a can of oil into a near-empty tank and then run the gas pump at maximum flow to slosh the oil around.

On the other hand, I clearly remember a 4-on-the-tree gearbox with short throws that made the 93 a quick car.  And I remember wrong: according to Wikipedia, the standard 93 came only with
3-on-the-tree.  As for quick: there was no way a 33 h.p. Saab could stay with a 36 or 40 h.p. Beetle with a 4-speed.  It must have been those ringy-dingy revs that made us feel like we were flying.

Would you drive straight through from Connecticut to Western Pennsylvania, mostly on the New York State Thruway,
in one of these?  The guy I knew in college made the round trip three times a year.  Never mind the red wheels on this
one: Saabs came in subdued, sensible, Swedish colors.  His was between olive drab and forest green, a shade never seen
before or since.  Compared to Saabs, V.W. Beetles, Fiats, and Renaults were a riot of primaries and pastels.

The suspension was supple, with long travels, and there was a lot of body lean.  Swedish country roads were potholed
gravel, and the 93 was designed as an entry-level car (below Volvo) to put Swedes on wheels while catering to their
sensibilities and driving conditions.  The "suicide doors" made entry and exit easy and the low-compression two-
cycle engine was quick to start and warm up.  In many ways, the 93's design features made it the "anti-Beetle," which
gave it some snob appeal in the American circles Leno mentions in his video.  It was the Toyota Prius of its day--a day
in which we gave little thought to emissions from two-cycles that were miserly in their use of fuel.

I thought the screen around the radiator fan (driven by a long shaft from the generator belt in front) was hilarious--it
reminded me of an oscillating household fan.  But, in a cold climate, getting the engine and interior warm quickly and
keeping them that way by putting the radiator near the heater box made some sense.  On American Interstates, in the
summertime...not so much...