Wednesday 21st July 1993

The new Saab 900 was launched in Trollhättan, Sweden. It included many breakthroughs includingAmong the Sensonic, an automatic clutch. The ‘Sensonic’ clutch variant, provided a manual gear lever as in a standard manual transmission car, but omitted the clutch pedal in favour of electronics which could control the clutch faster than an average driver. When a driver started to move the gear shift knob/gear selector lever, a computer-controlled actuator operated the clutch. With the car in gear but stationary, the clutch was released only when throttle was applied. If neither brake nor gas pedal was depressed, a warning tone sounded and a message flashed on the on-board display, and if no action was taken after 7 seconds, the engine was shut off. The second generation 900 was also the first Saab car with a 6 cylinder engine.