The SEAT 1200 Sport is a 2-door 4-seater coupé

Coupé

A coupé or coupe is a closed car body style , the precise definition of which varies from manufacturer to manufacturer, and over time...

 presented officially by SEAT

SEAT

SEAT, S.A. is a Spanish automobile manufacturer founded on May 9, 1950 by the Instituto Nacional de Industria , a state-owned industrial holding company....

 in December 1975 and commercially launched from February 1976 to September 1979. Its huge importance for SEAT lied on the fact it was the first model of the Spanish brand entirely developed in its newly-opened Martorell Technical Centre. When launched it was powered by the bigger 1,197 cc engine of 67 PS carried from the SEAT 124

SEAT 124

The SEAT 124 is a mid-sized family car produced by the Spanish manufacturer SEAT in its Barcelona Zona Franca and Landaben Pamplona plants between 1968 and 1980...

, which in this application was transversely mounted and canted forwards by 16°. This engine through a four-speed gearbox transmission 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 sharp-edged body design had a drag coefficient (c_d)

Drag coefficient

In fluid dynamics, the drag coefficient is a dimensionless quantity that is used to quantify the drag or resistance of an object in a fluid environment such as air or water. It is used in the drag equation, where a lower drag coefficient indicates the object will have less aerodynamic or...

 of 0.37 and was purchased from NSU

NSU Motorenwerke AG

NSU Motorenwerke AG, normally just NSU, was a German manufacturer of automobiles, motorcycles and pedal cycles, founded in 1873. It was acquired by Volkswagen Group in 1969...

 of Germany, after the German firm had abandoned its plans to launch its own small car, the based on the NSU Prinz

NSU Prinz

The NSU Prinz is an automobile produced in West Germany by the NSU Motorenwerke AG. The car was built from 1957 to 1973, and received a model change in 1961 .-NSU Prinz 30:...

 rear-engined NSU Nergal model, presented as a prototype in the 1970 Turin Motor Show and designed by the Italian designer Aldo Sessano. It was Antoni Amat, the technical director of Inducar (Industrias de la Carrocería) i.e. an external provider for SEAT, the man who conceived the idea of proposing the whole project to SEAT with the mediation of Günter Óistrach, after the former's visit and contacts at the Turin Motor Show, with the Terrassa-based Inducar company undertaking from SEAT the production of the chassis for its SEAT 1200 Sport car. The purchased rights Nergal design had been sublimed to modifications in a mixture of elements with another Sessano's concept car i.e. the OTAS KL112, in order to fit in with the underpinnings meant to be used by SEAT, as it was based upon the ones of a Fiat 127

Fiat 127

The Fiat 127 is a supermini produced by the Italian automaker Fiat between 1971 and 1983. It was introduced in 1971 as the replacement for the Fiat 850...

. However the remainings of the original NSU Nergal design were still present in the SEAT production model: the air-vents in the third pillar just above the rear wheel arch were likely indicating the presence of the rear-mounted engine in NSU's donor design. In fact though SEAT's engineers first examined the possibility to keep the rear-engine layout in the SEAT 1200 Sport, they made the final choice in favor of a front-engined one. Its boot featured a remote opening through a handle on to driver's door and had a capacity of 339 litres.

In 1977 the SEAT 1430 Sport Coupé appeared, using the same body, but with a retuned version of the engine from the SEAT 1430

SEAT 1430

The SEAT 1430 was a 4-door sedan made by SEAT in Spain from 1969 to 1975. The car was based in the FIAT 124 Special, but the front lights were the square ones from the FIAT 125 instead of round. In 1973, the GTI version of the SEAT 1430 was introduced as the 1430 Especial 1600 model, popularly...

. In this application the 1,438 cc engine provided a power output of 77 PS and a a top speed of 164 km/h (102 mph).

The Sport versions were offered mainly in the Spanish

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

 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-structuring of the SEAT range for 1980. A total of 19,332 units were sold in the Spanish market, with 11,619 cars being equipped with the 1200 engine and some 7,713 units with the more powerful but late launched 1430 motor

The car was widely known as the "Bocanegra" because of the color and shape of its always black plastic front panel, which embraced the front grille

Grille

A grille or grill is an opening of several slits side by side in a wall or metal sheet or other barrier, usually to let air or water enter and/or leave but keep larger objects including people and animals in or out.-Spelling:In the United States, "grille" is used to differentiate the automotive...

 and the headlights and incorporated, by 1970s standards, a prominent front bumper. "Boca negra" means "black mouth" in Spanish

Spanish language

Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...

.

In 2008, SEAT presented the SEAT Bocanegra

SEAT Bocanegra

-SEAT Bocanegra concept car:The SEAT Bocanegra is a three-door supermini concept car, built by the Spanish automaker SEAT and designed by former Lamborghini designer Luc Donckerwolke who at the moment had been assigned SEAT's design director....

 concept car at the Geneva Motor Show. It received this name as a homage to the classic 1200 Sport, as it also had a black front end. It is sold as a special edition Ibiza

SEAT Ibiza

The SEAT Ibiza is a car in the European supermini class, constructed by the Spanish car maker SEAT S.A., is SEAT's best-selling car and perhaps the most popular model in the Spanish firm's range....

model from the second half of 2009, based on the SEAT Ibiza FR and Cupra versions.

Production figures

Since its launch in 1975 up to 1981, 19,332 SEAT 1200 and 1430 Sport cars have been sold and produced (11,619 units for the SEAT 1200 Sport and 7,713 for the SEAT 1430 Sport version).

The total production per year of SEAT 1200 Sport and SEAT 1430 Sport cars is shown in the following table :

Model	1975	1976	1977	1978	1979	1980	1981
SEAT 1200 Sport	391	7,322	2,478	1,271	156	1
SEAT 1430 Sport			1,588	4,267	1,856	1	1
Total annual production	391	7,322	4,066!!5,538!!2,012!!2!!1

External links

• CLUB SEAT 1200 y 128 SPORT de España