Car Of The Day: December 1, 2010

Today's car of the day is Mira's 1975 SEAT 1200 Sport.

The SEAT 1200 Sport is a 2-door coupé produced by SEAT from 1975 to 1979. It was based upon the underpinnings of a Fiat 127, but with the bigger 1197 cc engine of 67 PS (49 kW) from the SEAT 124, which in this application was transversely mounted and canted forwards by 16°. This engine gave the little 2+2 a top speed of 157 km/h (98 mph). Despite its sporting aspirations, power output was limited by a relatively low compression ratio, reflecting the fuel octanes available on its home market.

The body design was one purchased from NSU of Germany.

In 1977 the SEAT 1430 Sport Coupé appeared, using the same body, but with a retuned version of the engine from the SEAT 1430. In this application the 1438 cc engine provided a power output of 77 PS (57 kW) .

The Sport versions were offered mainly in the Spanish market, but also some cars were officially offered in other European countries like Germany, Holland, Belgium or France. Both models, 1200 and 1430 were discontinued in 1979, along with the Seat 128 the Seat 133 and the CKD built Lancia Beta and Beta HPE, as part of the important re-estructuration of the Seat ranges for 1980. A total of 19,332 units were sold.[2]
The car was known as the "Bocanegra" because of the shape of its always black plastic front panel, which embraced the front grille and the headlights and incorporated, by 1970s standards, a prominent front bumper. "Boca negra" means "black mouth" in Spanish.

In 2008, SEAT presented the SEAT Bocanegra concept car at the Geneva Motor Show. It received this name as a homage to the classic 1200 Sport, and it also had a black front end. It will be sold as a special edition Ibiza model from the second half of 2009, based on the SEAT Ibiza FR and Cupra versions.

For more information and pictures of the real car please visit: SEAT 1200 Sport

Unlike a few weeks ago when we had a car well-versed in world geography (manufactured by Siku of Germany, replicating an Italian car named after a Canadian city), today's car is a Spanish car replicated by a Spanish diecast manufacturer, and as an added bonus, was actually made in Spain as well.  Much like the Road Champs featured earlier this week, this model has conflicting sponsorships- in this case, three different tire manufacturers sharing space on the same car! Albeit Fulda is owned by Goodyear, so it's more like two and a half...