The SEAT 600 at 50

SEAT 600

The SEAT 600 can be favourably compared in terms of cultural significance with the Volkswagen Beetle, the Citroën 2CV and the Mini.  In Spain it has been nicknamed the Seílla o Garbancito (Chickpea).  Reproduced as a toy, a miniature or Scalextric car, the butt of numerous jokes and anecdotes, as well as a star in film and song, the mystique of the 600 springs from a love affair between a country and a car that is larger than its purely mechanical existence.

The late Manuel Vázquez Montalbán, journalist and writer, generally credited as being chronicler of the zeitgeist of the transitional period in Spain, wrote ‘The day Spaniards got into their 600s, they began to leave their past behind them, embarking on a weekend trip from which they have not yet returned’. The SEAT 600 will, for ever more, be the car of all Spaniards.

10 things you didn’t know about the SEAT 600…

• One in every four cars on Spanish roads in 1971 was a SEAT 600
• Thanks to the song Mi seiscientos (My 600) with lyrics by Juan Aguirre and music by Chano Montes, this small car came to form part of Spanish folk tradition
• A 600 was the star of the film entitled Ya tenemos coche (We’ve got a car) directed by Julio Salvador in 1958; the car also played a major role in the Spanish television (TVE) series Plinio
• Caba, Gabor, Inauto, Milton, Nardo, Serra and Siata were just some of the coachbuilders who converted a standard 600 into a coupé or convertible during the 1960s.  Later in the 80s Rany used a 600 chassis to create a buggy
• The ‘House of the 600’ in Barcelona’s Rosselló Street was the city’s most popular used-car salesroom.  Its proprietor once remarked that one particular 600 changed hands there more than 15 times
• José Lacambra, a farmer from Huesca, converted his 600 into a tractor after running it for 100,000 kilometres.  Another farmer did things the other way round, using half of a 600’s bodywork to make a cabin for his tractor
• In addition to nicknames like Seílla y Pelotilla, the 600 was also popularly known as the Ombligo (Bellybutton), the simple joke being that ‘everyone had one’
• In 1970 the Catalan artist Joan Vila Casas converted his 600 into a work of art on wheels which he called Autometria 600 – and continued to drive it for many years
• In 1972 six students from Madrid crossed Africa from north to south in three 600s.  With hardly any changes or major modifications to their cars, they took four months to drive 30,000 kilometres through deserts, jungle and mudflats
• SEAT exported about 80,000 units of the 600, almost 10% of total production.  Cars destined for export markets with the Fiat badge also bore the legend construzione SEAT