The launch of Saab XWD is a remarkable chapter in the family history of Peter Johansson, one of the chassis engineers responsible for the development of the system.

It was Peter’s father, Sigge, a former member of the competition department at Saab, who came up with a design in the 1980s for a limited-slip differential to use in rally cars. He took out a patent and eventually sold the rights to Haldex in 1987.  Now, two decades later, that original design forms the basis of the electronically-controlled LSD that his son has worked with in the development of Saab XWD.

In fact, the family connection with Saab goes back even further, right to the beginning of the car company. Peter’s maternal grandfather, Tage Flodén, now a robust 88 year-old, started work for Saab Aircraft as a toolmaker in 1945 and transferred to the newly-created car division in 1949 to make tooling for the first Saab 92 production car.

Through three generations, the extended Johansson family therefore spans the history Saab as a carmaker; from tooling up for its first production car to the launch of its latest product technology. “It’s a bit like a family business for us,” says Peter, 45, whose own seven-year-old son, Simon, is already showing a healthy interest in cars.

Sigge, now 74, was also an accomplished race and rally driver with Saabs in the 60s and 70s, even fitting a turbocharger to a racing Saab 96 V4.as early as 1973. But it was his determination to improve traction and handling that prompted him to pursue his own design for a limited-slip differential.

“Saab suggested that my father should take his design to Haldex for development,” says Peter, also a keen racing driver in his own right who once beat a very young Ayrton Senna in a karting race in Sweden. “At that time, Haldex were not involved in the car industry but they could see the potential of this differential and decided to pursue its development.

“Dad has been for a ride in one of our test cars and was pretty impressed by what we have done with the XWD system. Obviously, we have come a long way from his time by adding four-wheel-drive and all the control electronics that were not around in his day.

“Both my father and grandfather can look back to when Saab was a much smaller company and I don’t think either of them ever imagined it would grow into the big international brand it is now. It is a story that the three of us feel part of, something that is very close our hearts.”