Erik Carlsson

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Erik Carlsson and Saab 96 pictured in 1999, Keystone Resort, USA

Carlsson's replica 1963 Monte Carlo rally car at Linköping, on the occasion of the Diamond Jubilee of SAAB in 1997

Erik Carlsson and Sonett III, 2005 SOC, Essen, Germany.

Erik Carlsson, aka "Carlsson på taket" ('Carlsson on the roof'), was born March 5, 1929 in Trollhättan, Sweden and was a rally driver for Saab. Because of his public relations work for Saab, he is also known as Mr. Saab.

Erik Carlsson married Pat Moss (on March 3, 1963, London), who was also a famous rally driver (and younger sister of Stirling Moss). In 1970, they had a daughter, Suzy Carlsson, who was later to become a successful show jumper.

In John Gardner's James Bond novel Icebreaker, Bond receives several weeks of driving training from Erik Carlsson, as preparation for an arctic assignment. Carlsson also outfits and delivers Bond's "Silver Beast", a Saab 900 Turbo, in Licence Renewed.

Because the early Saabs in which he competed were seriously underpowered and with the tuned two-strokers it was necessary to keep the revs up, he had to maintain a high speed while cornering and developed the left-foot braking technique to perfection. Left-foot braking was performed by keeping the right foot on the gas pedal while pushing the brake pedal with the left foot. This brought the rear out in a controlled skid while maintaining speed. The drawback of this was that it significantly hastened brake wear.

In 1965 Pat Moss and Erik Carlsson wrote a book: The Art and Technique of Driving (published by Heinemann, London, selling for 25 shillings). This book was translated into Dutch, German, Japanese and Spanish.

The expression 'Carlsson on the roof' originated from the children's story Karlsson på taket by Astrid Lindgren, in which a Karlsson character lived on the roof of an apartment building. The name was given to Carlsson as a result of his habit occasionally to roll a rally car on its roof. In the Safari Rally, he even rolled the car intentionally, to escape from a mud pool. When journalists later doubted his story, he proved it by rolling the car again. The Ford factory team then tried the same stunt with their Ford Cortina, causing more damage to the car than had occurred during the entire rally.

Erik Carlsson has done a number of unusual things during his rally career. During one rally in the UK, he needed a spare part and happened to find a brand new Saab 96 on a parking lot. He and the mechanic quickly started disassembling the car when the rather upset owner discovered them. The co-driver managed to defuse the situation by explaining that Erik was a factory driver for SAAB and the owner would be given a new car. In the end Erik could keep driving and they remained friends and still exchange Christmas cards. During one period rally drivers were given penalty points for damages to the car. When approaching the end of a stage Erik Carlsson had dents in both front fender and one door so to avoid the penalty points they stopped and switched the door and fender with the support car. Then it looked a bit suspicious to have a clean door and fender while the rest of the ca was covered in mud and dust. As they had no water they used the spare gasoline to wash off the car. Reporters covering the event were impressed that they had time to spare to wash the car before crossing the finishing line. After the finishing festivities Erik Carlsson looked out the window from his hotel room and saw the support car parked outside: clean, but with a dirty door and fender, still with the starting number visible in the dust.

Erik went to the 1959 Portuguese Rally to win the European championship. His closest competitor was Paul Coltelloni who was a factory driver for Citroën but to prevent Erik from winning Citroën had bought him an Alfa Romeo. A combination of faulty electronics and worn down brakes caused Erik to turn the car over right next to a railroad and nearly getting hit by the train in the process. Despite this he finished third and it was enough to finish fourth to win the championship. Shortly before the price ceremony he was told he had been given 25 penalty point for having his competition number in white text on black bottom instead of the other way around. But 25 penalty points only pushed them down to 4th place so the European championship was still safe. It was all nice and well until the prize ceremony when he found out that he had been given an additional 25 penalty points putting him in eight position. When he asked why he was told he had been given 25 penalty points per door.

In the 1966 Coupe des Alpes he drove an almost competitive car. A SAAB Sonett II. The two stroke engine had been bored to 940 cc compared to the 841 on the standard model and it gave as most 93 hp. The gearing was changed down so the top speed was 140 km/h. 0 to 100 km/h was done in 8 seconds. The car was capable to keep up with a Porsche 904. But they ran into problems with the spark plugs. Frequent spark plug changed were not unusual for tuned two-strokers, but it used up spark plugs at an unusual rate and soon they had ran out of spare spark plugs and had to give up. Sabotage was suspected and the gasoline was sent to SAAB for analysis, where they found that it had been contaminated with a foreign substance.