THE SEAT 600 is to Spain what the Carocha is to Germany or the Fiat 500 is to Italy — it democratized access to the car and is one of the main contributors to the mobility of Spanish families. Such was its impact, which is still one of the greatest references in Spanish automobile history to this day.
Produced between 1957 and 1973, its commercial career was mainly concentrated in Spain, despite being the first SEAT to discover exports. However, Portugal was never one of the countries that received it, but the SEAT 600 that we bring you today has national registration — it is one of the rare copies in which this happens.
This was only possible thanks to the action of Teresa Lameiras, Marketing Director of SEAT Portugal who, after a long research process, found this unit in Spain in an excellent state of conservation, with only 50 thousand kilometers covered. Afterwards, it was only necessary to overcome all the national bureaucracy necessary to homologate it and register it in our country.
The small SEAT 600 has, luckily, not been standing still — the cars were made to walk — honoring us with its presence in several historic rallies.
The story behind this “Portuguese” SEAT 600 is just one of several that we can see in the most recent video on Razão Automóvel's YouTube channel, in a conversation between Diogo and Teresa Lameiras.
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We also get to know Teresa's atypical path to reach SEAT Portugal and the evolution that the brand has had, adapting to the times. Nowadays, of course, this means an automobile scene dominated by the SUV typology, where SEAT is present with a complete family of models, the Arona, the Ateca and the latest member, the top of the range Tarraco, its first SUV of seven places.
The association we make between SEAT and young people? It's not the most correct either—age is in attitude, not what the birth certificate says.
Finally, we get to know in more detail SEAT's connection to culture, especially music and urban art, in the latter case, the very successful connection to the artist Vhils, who gave us, among others, a 15 t SEAT Arona made of cement that is still on display in Cascais.
See the full interview: