Mellbergs Customs: Swedish vintage custom cars

January 15, 2017 12:05 PM

Leif Mellberg was a Swedish custom car designer during the 60s-90s. He mainly worked with Saab and Volvo cars, such as the gorgeous SAAB 900 turbo 16 EV-1 or Mayo P1. The site's in Swedish but the pictures say it all really.
posted by Foci for Analysis (8 comments total)

That SAAB 900 is like a crazy soap bar of death with '80s trim. I love it in part because its esthetic is completely outside the grid of sports car design whose axes are Italian, German, and British.
posted by ardgedee at 12:45 PM on January 15, 2017 [1 favorite]

Really? To me, it seems like he's trying to make the Saab 900 (which was a gorgeous car in its own right, and one of the only mass-market vehicles of the 1980s to be able to make that claim) conform to the design language of an Italian spots car. I can't say that I get it.
posted by schmod at 1:36 PM on January 15, 2017 [3 favorites]

I would have kept my 93 if it had gull-wings.
posted by lagomorphius at 4:09 PM on January 15, 2017 [1 favorite]

I'd buy a P1 in a heartbeat; that is great looking car.
posted by Mitheral at 7:05 PM on January 15, 2017 [1 favorite]

*Sigh* - it breaks my heart that by the time I could afford a new car SAAB had disappeared.....12 year old me still remembers this advert (Which looks totally corny now - but on a giant movie screen it ruled). Sierra Alpha Alpha Bravo indeed....
posted by inflatablekiwi at 7:44 PM on January 15, 2017 [3 favorites]

The P1 looks fine for a cool country, not so great for a hot one with that huge back greenhouse. But, yes, I too miss SAABs; my dad had one for a while and it was super to drive.
posted by anadem at 9:55 PM on January 15, 2017 [1 favorite]

That P1 would look so great with an updated shade of pastel paint!
posted by oceanjesse at 10:39 PM on January 15, 2017

That back glass looks pretty modestly sized to my eye and heavily tinted. Certainly smaller than the back glass on my Tiburon and that isn't much of a sweat box in the summer.

Now the EV-1 has a pretty huge glass for it's size but even then with modern IR tints and A/C it wouldn't be bad I'd think. Couldn't be worse than the numerous cars and sport utilities now available with glass panorama sunroofs.
posted by Mitheral at 6:02 AM on January 16, 2017