Seat 1200/1430 Sport

[go.pawel]

I've just discovered a car, I've never ever heard of before. I love when that happens And it's not some italian one-off racer or long forgotten albanian prototype from early 30s, but a product of a well known company. It's Seat 1200/1430 Sport.
I've been looking through netburner's 2006 Techno Classica gallery and there was that green hatchback. At first I thought it's a Renault 14, but then I noticed it's a 2-door. On a stand behind the car there was a name 1200 Sport with a Seat badge. I made some research and this is the little bit of info I found.
The SeaT 1200 Sport is a 2-door coupé produced by SEAT from 1975 to 1980. It was based upon the underpinnings of a Fiat 127, but with a bigger 1.2 engine, and with a body design bought from NSU of Germany. From 1977 a more powerful 1.4 engine was available, known as the 1430 Sport. The car was called Bocanegra (black mouth) in Spain, because of the plastic front bumper.
Am I the only one to see this car for the first time? Was it sold outside Spain? Does anybody have any more info on it?

[henk4]

I know of its existence, and I think it was sold in Holland. Haven't seen one in a long time though...

[Ferrer]

My uncle had one of those, it was the 1.2-litre though, and was finished in a quite frankly horrid brown color. It was a very famous car in Spain, as it had quite remarcable performance for the time, and we hadn't had a lot of sportcars, because until the reinstauration of democracy we only got locally produced cars. Other spanish sportscar are the famous Pegasos, the spanish built Alpine A-110 and A-108 and the Seat badged Fiat 850 Spider and Coupé and Fiat 124 Sport Coupe (sadly we didn't get the Spider).

[Sei cilindri]

It was defintively imported here in the Netherlands, I even got some spare parts for it !

Ferrer, Can you help me with some info over the localy produced Fiat/Seat cars ?

E.g. Were the 124 coupe and 850 really produced in Spain or just assembled from big chucks of pre italian produced parts such as complete engien, body etc. ?

I collect and specialize in the big straight six cilinder Fiats
Ofcourse in Spain the 4 cilinder 1400C en 1500 were produced with the same body and minor detail changes
I would be very much interested to buy a 1500 Pick up or perhaps a panel van
Do you ever come accross one ?

[Ferrer]

It was defintively imported here in the Netherlands, I even got some spare parts for it !

Ferrer, Can you help me with some info over the localy produced Fiat/Seat cars ?

E.g. Were the 124 coupe and 850 really produced in Spain or just assembled from big chucks of pre italian produced parts such as complete engien, body etc. ?

I collect and specialize in the big straight six cilinder Fiats
Ofcourse in Spain the 4 cilinder 1400C en 1500 were produced with the same body and minor detail changes
I would be very much interested to buy a 1500 Pick up or perhaps a panel van
Do you ever come accross one ?

Wow you've caught me here. I'm way too young to know what you're asking, but if I'm not mistaken we got sent the parts from Italy and we nailed them down here (to be precise in Barcelona). As a curiosity in the late 70's we even got locally built Lancia Beta Coupes.

The oldest Seat I have come across in recent years was a second series Seat 1500. This was exactly the same as your six cylinder Fiats (1800/2100/2300), but sadly we didn't get the straight six engine, only the 1.5-litre inline four. The Pegaso experience coulped to the way the economy was going then meant that the six cylinder cars didn't really have a market in Spain. Interestingly the need of a big car (for official representation and government members) was satisfied by the rather big Dodge Dart, which was later renamed to 3700 GT (due to its 3.7-litre straight six engine), rather than the big Fiat of the time.

[dracu777]

The oldest Seat I have come across in recent years was a second series Seat 1500.

I did see a very early Seat 600 and a Seat 132 while I was in Barcelona last summer. I was quite surprised (and excited ) to see such cars still riding around. I saw both of them on one of the streets leading to Park Güell (I belive it is Carrer de Larrard leading north from Travessera de Dalt. Beautiful city by the way. Loved it.

[inducar]

Hello , I have one unit of this model , this car is the only SEAT car designed and manufactured in Spain, and it was not manufactured into the factory of SEAT , it was manufactured in another external company "INDUCAR" ,
you can see betwenn the door and the tire , the "IC" logo.
I attach the image of my car , twenty years ago I buy this car ( I was eigtheen years old).
it had been abandoned in my street for one year and they will throw it, my father and my uncle that they had been truck drivers and they were fond of the mechanics they encouraged me for repair it and to leave it like you see in the picture.
it was disassembled piece to piece and mounted during 2 years again.

[henk4]

welcome to UCP, nice to see you actually have one of those. And thanks for the background info, always useful. Is it a lively performer, was it build on an existing chassis or was both the body and the chassis a completely new design?

[inducar]

This car has never been valued in Spain and it has always been a problem to find
replacements SEAT threw to the garbage all the replacements to the 5 years of it finishes
it the production.

The car is a design of Aldo Sessano for NSU.

It shares motor and parts of mechanical with the models of SEAT and FIAT
between the years 75 and 79 (RITMO,124, 128), but have specific components
like weber carburetor, pumps, lights, suspension,exhaust etc.

All the interior is different to any model of SEAT and FIAT.

Now I don't have pictures of the interior, but I will already attach you some pictures.

[inducar]

I add you some links.

http://www.clubseatsport.com/Seat1200.asp
http://www.clubseatsport.com/manual1200.asp
http://www.clubseatsport.com/fabrica1200.asp

[hobbydriver28]

does anybody know were i can find one that is for sale?

[Allemano]

This car has never been valued in Spain and it has always been a problem to find
replacements SEAT threw to the garbage all the replacements to the 5 years of it finishes
it the production.

The car is a design of Aldo Sessano for NSU.

It shares motor and parts of mechanical with the models of SEAT and FIAT
between the years 75 and 79 (RITMO,124, 128), but have specific components
like weber carburetor, pumps, lights, suspension,exhaust etc.

All the interior is different to any model of SEAT and FIAT.

Now I don't have pictures of the interior, but I will already attach you some pictures.

I like this car for it's pure design very much.
You made an adorable job Inducar!
The car has become one of the top rarities over the years and is hardly to find anywhere.

Wasn't this car object of big dispute between SEAT and FIAT?

Actually the NSU was a rear engined car which project name was 'Nergal'.
Also from Sessano with similar design elements is the hardly known OTAS 112.
IMHO one of the most beautiful compact cars ever made!
I attached some pics:

[Ferrer]

Wasn't this car object of big dispute between SEAT and FIAT?

You are probably thinking of the Fiat Ritmo and the Seat Ronda. When Fiat and Seat parted ways, in the early 80's, Seat redesigned their cars (which until then had been rebadged Fiats mostly) so that Fiat couldn't sue them for copyright infrigement.

But apparently the Seat Ronda (Ritmo "facelift") was very similar to the facelift Fiat had actually done for their own Ritmo, which caused them to redesign the car again and of course upset them quite a lot.

[Allemano]

Thanks Ferrer, was too lazy to research on myself.....

Anybody knows how many OTAS were built? Or knows a still existing car?

[go.pawel]

As far as i know, the OTAS 112 has been built as a single prototype only, based on the underpinnings of Autobianchi A112. Quite a shame, as also in my opinion it was one of the best-looking small cars.