Saab History

“Americafied” Saab by Chuck Pelly

Saab by Charles PellySaab by Charles Pelly

Charles W. Pelly, commonly Chuck Pelly, is an American industrial designer. Pelly is best known for founding the global design consultancy DesignworksUSA. Charles Pelly was a young talented designer who designed the Scarab sports cars in the late fifties.

After completing his studies at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena he ended 1957 at the College of Arts in Stockholm for special focus on furniture. He is then likely to come into contact with the “strange little domestic car” named – Saab. Then probably quite unknown in America.

The figures from 1958 show a little amerikafierad Saab elegantly extended while retaining the basic shape.

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Pellys Saab
Pellys Saab

Charles Pelly, however, only make sporadic appearances in the car industry during its designers career, Chaparral race cars during the sixties, and a project with a four-door Porsche that did not.

1972 he founded Designworks USA, counted as one of the world’s foremost center for industrial design. The whole Designworks USA  company was acquired by the BMW 1995.

Saab Interior designed by Charles Pelly
Saab Interior designed by Charles Pelly
Goran Aničić
the authorGoran Aničić
For over 15 years, Goran Aničić has been passionately focused on Saab automobiles and everything related to them. His initial encounter with Saab cars took place back in 2003 when the first Saab 9-3 and sedan version were introduced. At that moment, he was captivated by the car's Scandinavian design logic and top-notch engineering, and everything that followed stemmed from that first encounter. Later on, through his work at the editorial team of the Serbian automotive magazines "Autostart" and later "AutoBild," he had the opportunity to engage more closely with Saab vehicles. In 2008, he tested the latest Saab cars of that time, such as the Saab 9-3 TTiD Aero and Saab 9-3 Turbo X. In 2010, as the sole blogger from the region, he participated in the Saab 9-5ng presentation in Trollhättan, Sweden. Alongside journalists from around the world, he got a firsthand experience of the pinnacle of technological offerings from Saab at that time. Currently, Goran owns two Saabs: a 2008 Saab 9-3 Vector Sportcombi with a manual transmission, and a Saab 9-3 Aero Griffin Sport Sedan from the last generation, which rolled off the production line in Trollhättan in December 2011.

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