High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Saab Direct Ignition is a capacitor discharge ignition system developed by Saab Automobile, then known as Saab-Scania, and Mecel AB during the 1980s. It was first shown in 1985 and put into series production in the Saab 9000 in 1988. The system has been revised several times over the years and is still in production today. The ignition system together with the ignition coils form a single transformer oil filled cassette (or two cassettes in the case of a V6 engine) which is placed directly on the spark plugs, without the need for a distributor.