SAAB Gripen Exterior Design Project

Automotive designer Dominico S. Lee, who lives and works in Italy, recently presented his vision of a compact executive car that has its design models in the Saab cars heritage. Dominico is of Argentinian-Korean origin, but for the past ten years he has been living and working in Turin, Italy, where he recently completed his studies in “Transportation Design” at the prestigious European Design Institute.

The city of Turin (Torino) is the charming industrial capital of Italy. Turin is one of the three strongest industrial cities in Italy, together with Milan and Genoa, and it is also the seat of the famous company FIAT (Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino), which has a long tradition of cooperation with Saab cars.
That is why this city is home to a large number of schools and institutes that study industrial design, especially car design.

That’s why it’s no wonder that Dominico chose Turin as the place for his training and work. He has always been interested in cars, journalism, photography and design, so he was a journalist-editor for several automotive Argentinian web magazines and blogs.

His latest design project that he recently announced is called the Saab Gripen, and the project is his attempt to create a compact sports car based on Saab’s exterior design elements. As you can see from the attached sketches and 3D models, Dominico worked out the design in great detail with very interesting details that owe their appearance to Saab roots.

In addition to car models, part of his inspiration also came from the Saab plane, of course the famous Gripen, from which he took over and predicted that the frontal part of the car has some kind of multipurpose radar head. From the outside, at first glance, we can see the lines of the Saab models 9-3 and Viggen, and there are also the famous three-spoke Saab rims.

The proportions of the model are quite good, so with a little modification, the car can be a classic coupe, or a sedan with a coupé-like lowered rear part of the roof. Also, the back of the car is Saab recognizable, and Dominico designer designed the rear window together with the rear spoiler to be in one piece, and made of glass. Additionally, like the Saab 9-5ng model, this Gripen has a practically joined front windshield with side windows, so that it further emphasizes the aircraft design heritage.