Design, management and development
Structure and basic characteristics

In May 1957, the first units of the SEAT 600 started to leave the assembly lines of the SEAT factory in Barcelona’s Zona Franca. The Spanish automotive brand, that was already producing the 1400 under FIAT’s license, initiated negotiations with the Italians in order to get the license to produce a second car in Barcelona. This model, the 600, was the second version of the car that had been launched in Italy two months before, with an improved compression ratio, slight changes in the distribution and descending windows instead of sliding ones, among other technical and aesthetic details.

The original model, designed by engineer Dante Giacosa, met some very precise specifications: a four seat vehicle with a weight of 450 kg (200 for the mechanics and 250 for the bodywork), with a velocity of no less than 85 km/h, giving the engineer a free hand to decide the location of the engine-transmission block, in the front or in the back of the vehicle. After analysing both options, Giacosa chose the “all in the back”-formula - made popular by the German Volkswagen and the French Renault 4CV - because of its lower cost, for back then the Italian automaker was not sure if they would be able to dispose of constant velocity joints cheap and reliable enough to be installed in a front-drive car which was to go into serial production.

Although an air cooled opposed two-cylinder model was studied, the engine that was to be installed in the future model was a liquid cooled four cylinder in-line model – known to insiders under its internal code 100 - installed lengthwise behind the rear axle and connected to a four-gear box. The valves, situated on top of the cylinder heads, were driven by tappets and rockers, whereas the distribution was performed by a chain-driven side camshaft; the crankshaft had three main bearings. With the initial cylinder capacity of 570 cc and a power output of 16 hp, the engine was strong enough to reach a maximum speed of 88 km/h, with an intended total weight of 515 kg. Due to the lack of space, the radiator was situated next to the block and cooled by a water pump, and it was connected to the motor through an arm, in the centre of which the fan would rotate. In order to heat up the passenger compartment, the hot air was directed towards the central tunnel of the bodywork, which would conduct it into the interior of the vehicle.

“The engine is an outstanding example of simplicity, and simplicity is synonymous with reliability”, as Giacosa wrote in his memoirs. In fact, the entire car was a shining example of simplicity. The suspension, independent in each axle, with triangular transverse links and a transverse leaf spring in the front, and longitudinal triangular transverse links and coil springs in the rear; the drum brakes at all four wheels, and the steering worm and helical sector. The wheel rims had a diameter of 12 inches. Giacosa designed the mechanical parts in such a way that only a minimum quantity of sheet metal would be required to contain them, and incited those responsible for the bodywork to reduce the size of the bonnet and the hatch.

In spite of its small size, it was far from being an uncomfortable car. In fact, habitability was one of its greatest virtues and the guiding motive for its interior and exterior conception. Giacosa first designed the passenger compartment, which then enabled him to adequately position the steering wheel and the dashboard and to determine the ideal dimensions of the doors to easily get in and out of the car.

“With my long legs it was easy for me to demonstrate to my colleagues how to conceive the opening of the doors, the room for the feet and the positioning of the pedals in the reduced space that we had at our disposal. I have always been very demanding regarding the position of the driver and the accessibility.” Maybe the long lower extremities of the technician from Piamonte were the very motive for the unconventional design of the doors, which opened in the opposite way from the way doors of cars usually open.

The model was sold under the commercial denomination 600, a figure half-way between the finally agreed cubic capacity (633 cc) and the resulting weight (590 kg); the power output came to 19 hp (SAE) at 4,600 rpm. The production was initiated early 1955, and public acceptance was immediate; in fact it was so successful that SEAT decided to do its utmost to bring it to Spain, a decision that turned out to be appropriate. The SEAT 600 was born two years later in Barcelona, and its market launch exceeded all expectations.

Succeeding models: N, D, E, L. Variants and derivatives

The first 600 produced by SEAT – which later was to be called SEAT 600 N, in order to distinguish it from the succeeding versions – shows very few differences in comparison to the original. It is equipped with the same engine of 633 cc and a power output of 21.5 hp (SAE) at 4,600 rpm, and is sold at a price of 65,000 pesetas. The interior is rather spartan, with two simple front seats, whose backs can be folded down in order to gain access to the rear seat bench, behind which there is a little room for bags and other objects.

From July 1958 on, a further version with a canvas sliding roof is available, the SEAT 600 Convertible, which costs 5,000 pesetas more than the normal version. At the 1959 Barcelona Trade Fair SEAT exhibits a four-door minivan with six seats and a weight of 710 kg, a derivative of the normal sedan, which it calls SEAT 600 Multiple. It is no other than the FIAT 600 Multipla, but unlike the Italian model, this one will not go into serial production.

In February 1961, the SEAT 600 Commercial comes out, equipped neither with a rear seat nor back windows, with a very basic finish. It is a small freight vehicle for fleets and commercial use, and is therefore exempted from luxury tax; SEAT itself will use it in its on road technical assistance service. That very year, the SEAT 600 sees a number of technical improvements (a bigger carburettor, stronger battery and dynamo, aluminium fan) which lead to a 3 hp increase in power output and an a higher maximum speed, even breaking the 100 km/h barrier.

In July 1963, SEAT launches the 600 D, the most widespread version - it is produced until 1970 with hardly any changes – which combines a number of substantial improvements, like for instance a bigger carburettor, already featuring an accelerator pump, a larger capacity petrol tank and reinforced crankpins. The cylinder capacity is increased to 767 cc and the power output rises to 29 hp (SAE) at 4,800 rpm; the weight also increases (605 kg), but the maximum speed now amounts to 110 km/h. The choke is replaced by a conventional key, located in the centre of the dashboard. The new cloth upholstery and further details contribute to a more comfortable passenger compartment. The most appealing change on the exterior is the location of the front position lights and front indicators, which are no longer on top of the wings, but are now located under the headlights.

In September, the SEAT 800 is launched, a car with no equivalent model in FIAT’s product range. This four-door sedan of the SEAT 600 series was realised outside the SEAT factory by Carrocerías Costa, from Terrassa, based on the monohulls sent by SEAT, which would return to the SEAT's Zona Franca facilities 18 cm longer and with two additional doors. The rest of the chassis and the mechanics were identical with the SEAT 600 D, and the price amounted to about 70,000 pesetas. Around the same time, another derivative of the SEAT 600 came out, this one, though, with commercial aspirations, the Formichetta. This van was built in Tarragona by the SIATA Company on their utility vehicle platform, a car with a load capacity of 300 kg. Later on, in order to satisfy the demand, Costa started to build an almost identical model (in fact copied from the Formichetta), which it called SEAT Costa Van.

During the seven years it was marketed, the SEAT 600 D saw a number of both technical and aesthetic modifications (seats, shock absorbers, headlight visors, etc) which aimed at improving it where possible, without modifying the essential features. Maybe the most significant event of that period was the launch of the new SEAT 850 in 1966, with the same mechanical base as the SEAT 600 but increased performance and comfort.

In February 1970, the production of the 600 in Italy comes to an end, and its third evolution is presented in Spain: the SEAT 600 E. The most important modification is the design of the doors, which finally open in the conventional way and include locks on both sides of the car. There are no mechanical changes, but aesthetic and practical ones in order to improve the comfort and the user friendliness (headlights, upholstery, etc).

In 1972, the last and most powerful version with the best finish of all the versions of the 600 is launched: the SEAT 600 L. Without any modifications to the cylinder capacity, the compression ratio has been improved (increased to 8.5:1), the distribution has been modified (incorporating the camshaft of the 850 Especial), just like the carburetion (increase of 1 mm in the diameter of the diffuser) and the exhaust manifolds; thus, the power output increases to 32.5 hp (SAE) -28 DIN – at 5,500 rpm, and the maximum speed amounts to 120 km/h. The interior finish is more sophisticated and can include extras like an alternator, a heatable rear window or a carpet-covered floor. It costs 3,800 pesetas more than the E, but it is still the cheapest car on the Spanish market, even cheaper than the Citroën 2CV6.

In August 1973, the production of the SEAT 600 comes to an end. The following year SEAT launches the 133, a model conceived in cooperation with FIAT, but without any equivalent in the Italian product range. It follows the thematic scheme of the 850 and the 600 – it is their successor – with the mechanics of the 127 adapted to the “all in the back”-formula, whereas style-wise it is influenced by the 126. The 133 is distributed on the European market through FIAT’s commercial network, and it is assembled under Spanish license in Egypt and Argentina. Its commercial life lasts for eight years, as its production comes to an end in 1981, after the production of more than 200,000 units. The unrelenting advance of the new multi purpose vehicles with front-wheel drive and the engine in the front have made obsolete models like the successor to the 600, one of the last representatives of the “all in the back”-concept, which was so common among Europe's most popular utility vehicles over almost four decades.

The SEAT 600’s impact on Spanish life
A socio-economic phenomenon

The SEAT 600, quite literally, put the entire country on four wheels. Its profound influence on the life of the people of Spain still provides material for social science scholars. When historians and sociologists talk of “the Spain of the 600” they refer to a crucial period in the country’s recent history, when the ghost of war was finally laid to rest, giving way to a new period in which hopes for a better future were uppermost. This period has no better symbol than this small utility car, one that made an outstanding contribution to improving the lives of a good many Spaniards by providing them with an affordable means of mobility and thereby independence.

When the car was initially launched half-way through 1957, the Spanish domestic car market had precious few brands to choose from, and an even more limited production capacity. There was SEAT’s own 1400, a middle-to-upper range saloon (10,590 units produced in 1956; price 140,000 pesetas); the Renault 4/4 made by FASA in Valladolid, (5,780 units in 1956, and with a price-tag of 73,000 pesetas, more expensive than the 600), plus the unaffordable Pegaso Z-102, a sophisticated sports car only for the well-heeled (starting price 330,000 pesetas) and almost entirely hand-built (only 84 produced in six years), in addition to imported vehicles subject to quota restrictions.

On another front, the launch of the SEAT 600 sounded the death-knell for another sector of the automotive industry – it literally swept away the host of microcars, three-wheeler vans and motorcycles-with-sidecar which had dominated the country’s streets and roads till that fateful year. Most manufacturers of these vehicles stopped production within a few years or else began re-inventing themselves under duress. The fact was that the 600 was, at last, a car – no great pretensions certainly, but to all intents and purposes a real car with metal doors that opened and closed, glass windows that went up and down, seating for four and even heated. It could also be equipped with a radio, although this was not included in the standard price.

The new SEAT generated enormous excitement. Orders reached unimaginable heights – more than 100,000 in March 1957, so many in fact that the order books were closed. Delivery times could be as long a four years, giving rise to all sorts of cunningly-laid plans and intrigues in order to get one. Production saw a six-fold increase in 1958. Within the first quarter of 1961, the production rate increased from 80 to 100 cars per day, and then to 120, eventually reaching a figure of 240 vehicles a day towards the end of 1964.

It was the advent of the SEAT 600 D that marked the beginning of the halcyon days of the model, converting it into the dominant, almost hegemonic, model of Spain’s automobile industry for almost a decade. Strong demand gave rise to increased production, bringing down costs with a knock-on effect on the street price, leading in turn to greater demand - a virtuous circle. Concurrently the phenomenon reinvigorated Barcelona’s industrial fabric thanks to demand generated by the Zona Franca production plant for all sorts of components. It was the beginning of a prodigious era for SEAT, one during which it consolidated its distribution network, and established its primacy as a Spanish brand on its home market. The labour force stood at 10,000 workers, producing 300 cars a day. Export came to form part of its plans for expansion, and eventually from the initial shipments of SEAT 600s to Columbia, exports expanded to include twelve countries.

Spaniards had swapped their motorbikes for their 600s, and together with their families, soon got into the habit of a week-end trip in the car. Many women began to drive with the SEAT 600; later still it would be kept as a second car for city trips, and at its steering-wheel both children and even grandchildren learned their roadcraft.

This increase in weekend driving and motoring holidays planted the seed of pleasure motoring that divided the country into pedestrians and Seatestrians - “man of the 600, the nation’s roads are yours” as Moncho Alpuente was to sing years later. Thanks to the SEAT 600, travelling intensified and was not confined to the Spanish mainland - many people ventured further afield into Europe, territory as yet unknown to a good part of the Spanish populace.

According to economist Fabián Estapé, who in turn attributed the axiomatic phrase to his mentor Joan Sardà Dexeus, “the basic, and practically sole, reason for Spain’s economic stability is to be found in the SEAT 600”. When increasing numbers of people from very modest social classes can afford something as symbolic as a car, the concept of private property acquires defenders from unexpected quarters. Even though paid for on instalments and used only at weekends, the SEAT 600 represented an ideal of freedom that was within practically everyone’s reach. Even those who could afford a more expensive car used the 600 for practical reasons. Its compactness and great manoeuvrability made it unbeatable in town and city traffic. Thanks to its simplicity, fuel economy and ruggedness, it was the workhorse of many driving schools, car rental companies and company fleets.

The last SEAT 600, a white ‘L Especial’ rolled off the assembly line on 3rd August 1973; workers had put a farewell placard on it that proclaimed “you were born a prince, you died a king”. The end of the production run was the chronicle of a death foretold which filled the front pages of daily newspapers and weekly magazines like Autopista, commenting in its valedictory gloss that – “All of us know what the SEAT 600 has meant to Spain – a starting point for modern life, a focus of attraction for thousands of families, an aspiration for many studious and enthusiastic young people, a focal point for many efforts, a compendium of realities and dreams to go even further….”

The SEAT 600 can be favourably compared in terms of popularity with the German VW Beetle, the French Deux Chevaux (2CV) or the British Mini. In Spain it has been nicknamed the Seílla o Garbancito (Chickpea). Reproduced as a toy, a miniature or Scalextric car, the butt of numberless jokes and funny stories, as well as featuring in a film and even a song, the mystique of the 600 springs from this 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 week-end trip from which they have not yet returned”. The SEAT 600 will, for ever more, be the car of all Spaniards.

Rallies and Hill-climbs. The first ‘600 Clubs’
Abarth, Conti, Nardi and other tuning specialists

Despite its unequivocal calling as a small car with modest performance, it was not long before the small SEAT 600 was taking part in diverse sports events. There were competitions of all shapes and sizes, spread over the length and breadth of Spain, though Barcelona and Madrid were the main focal points for competition: rallies (Costa Brava and RACE) began in 1953 and really pulled in the crowds, making them very popular; there were also the equally popular hill-climbs, race stages on improvised circuits even in built-up areas and industrial estates, or else regularity tests on the open road which gradually evolved into disguised time trials, since the increasingly fast average speeds established by the organisers meant that teams had to pull out all the stops so as to make it in time to the control points.

Thus the racing SEAT 600 became a household word in Spanish motor sport, and gave a foot up to a good many drivers who were later to make a name for themselves in all disciplines. In 1960 the brothers Luis and Fernando de Baviera won the RACE (Royal Automobile Club of Spain) trophy in their 600, beating much more powerful cars in the process. That same year the Castille Gymkhana & Slalom Championship, sponsored by the El Alcázar newpaper and organised by the 600 clubs, was held with great success. The first of these clubs was created in Madrid just after the model’s appearance on the market; the next saw the light of day in Barcelona, and the third in Vigo. Born under the aegis of SEAT itself so as to promote its new utilitarian car, these clubs played a decisive role in the sporting side of the 600, while not forgetting social and marketing aspects (belonging to a SEAT 600 Club provided members with certain advantages such as smoothing the way to ownership at a time when demand began to outstrip supply).

The Barcelona SEAT 600 Club, created in 1960, was one of the most active in this respect; in its halcyon days it had more than a thousand members. The first event it organised was the so-called ‘Rallye Fémina’, followed by the ‘Rallye 600’, with points won counting towards the Championship of Catalonia, and later that of Spain. This club was active until the end of the seventies, long after production of the SEAT 600 had been phased out, and continued to organize well-known races - even international meets such as the 1000-kilometere race held on Barcelona’s Montjuic circuit – and became the seed from which other sports events grew and which in turn produced important names in Spanish motor sport (drivers, co-drivers, journalists, commissioners and organisers)

Preparing the SEAT 600 for motor sport was not a particularly complicated affair, since its simple robust mechanical was easy to tweak. Very soon sprucing up came into fashion: chrome embellishments – such as the front moustache –and wheelcaps were eliminated; the wheels were turned round, the rear engine cover fixed in a half-open position, and the steering wheel replaced by a smaller, leather-covered one. The second stage involved getting more out of the car’s other qualities. Given that the car was so small, easy to handle and light, by lowering the suspension slightly, much greater stability was achieved; its road handling was fairly forgiving and easy to control for many aspiring motor sport drivers.

Major or minor tuning of the engine depended on the depth of one’s pocket, but although the idea was to squeeze out the greatest amount of power without spending a fortune, the essential thing was to plan the engine block to increase compression and put in a twin exhaust pipe.

Special parts were easy to come by, thanks to the model’s enormous popularity, making the sprucing up process easier. Lest it be forgot, the SEAT 600 had been born in Italy, where the same process had already been gone through a few years earlier, and a good number of car preparation specialists (Abarth, Conti, Gianni, Nardi, ZM and others) sold all manner of elements and tuning kits. After a while similar specialists began to sprout up in Spain, some of which slavishly copied the Italian originals, although there were also innovators like the Juncosa brothers in Barcelona, or else Antonio Madueño, the heart and soul of Autotécnica in Madrid.

The modifications which could be achieved in the long-suffering mechanical parts of the SEAT 600 were infinite: distribution, engine size, carburettors, engine block, camshaft, manifold, pistons, springs, valves and the rest. There was a seamless run of all possible engine sizes from the 633 cc of the original SEAT 600 right up to one litre, in combination with changes and improvements in other components. The end result was a power range from under 30 hp to up to more than the 100 hp in the Abarth 1000 Corsa, taking the vehicle to the verge of 200 kph.

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