Gunnar A. Sjögren

Gunnar A. Sjögren ("GAS", 1920–1996) was a Swedish engineer who worked for Saab Automobile and the author of The SAAB Way - the first 35 years of Saab cars, 1949-1984.

Born in in 1920, he spent his youth in the northern Swedish city of Umeå. During this period he developed a passion for drawing cars, trains aeroplanes and boats. It was soon to become focused on cars, and remained such throughout his life.

After leaving high school, he spent a year in an engineering workshop manufacturing trolleybuses, whereafter he went to engineering college in Örebro in order to realise his dream of fully understanding cars and entering into the auto industry. The most notable event during his education was an essay written at high school entitled "About cars and car makes" that would have gained the maximum mark had it not been for his error of spelling "Orient" with a small "o".

On December 1, 1941, he was taken on at General Motors in Stockholm as a draughtsman, after having submitted his drawings along with an employment application. He was later transferred to the advertising department where he produced illustrations for the variety of GM products marketed in Sweden.

In his spare time, he started submitting drawings to auto magazines and soon became a regular contributor to "Motor" in Sweden. He also was appointed editor of "GM-Revyn", the company's customer magazine, thanks to his talent for both writing and illustrating. It was at this time, the fall of 1946 that he bought his first car, a Chevrolet Fleetmaster Sport Sedan (model 2103), model year 1946. Color: grey.

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