SEAT 1200 and 1430 Sport (1975 – 1980) Review

There’s no doubting the Seat 1200 Sport’s good looks, but its creation was a hard-nosed business one. The Spanish carmaker concluded that it wasn’t going to licence-build the Fiat 128 3P, and decided to build its own, based on the locally-built SEAT 124 instead.It was SEAT's first home-developed car, even if it did use Fiat underpinnings and drivertrain and combined them with the body of the NSU Nergal concept car, dating back to 1970.

It was known as the Bocanegra (Spanish for ‘Black Mouth’) because of its black polymer bumpers – perfect for Mediterranean town driving conditions. The locally produced engine was shared with the SEAT 124, and the car’s underpinnings were from the 127, so it was a real ‘bitza’. But an appealing one, and not too shabby to drive. The body was not suited to northern European countries, due to poor anti-corrosion treatment…