SEAT 600 BMS Concept brings back to life SEAT’s Fiat past – debuts at Automobile Barcelona

The SEAT 600 BMS Concept is a recreation of one of SEAT’s most iconic models – the SEAT 600D – and is heading for a debut at Automobile Barcelona.

For most, except those of a certain age, and anoraks, SEAT is simply the Spanish arm of automobile behemoth Volkswagen, delivering a slightly sportier, sometimes quirkier, take on its Teutonic masters’ offerings. But it was not always so.

Founded soon after WWII, SEAT was a state-owned enterprise to try and help revive Spain’s economy after the Civil War, but under Franco Spain had little in the way of know-how, or cash, to develop a full scale car manufacturing base. So they asked for help.

Volkswagen had their first crack at moulding SEAT to its will, but its pitch was beaten by Fiat, and SEAT went on to build rebadged Fiats for thirty years until SEAT finally fell back in to the arms, and deep pockets, of VW in the 1980s.

But in a sign that SEAT is finally comfortable with its own history – helped no doubt by its resurgence on the back of a wave of SUVS – it’s reaching back in to its past to recreate one of its most iconic Fiat-era models – the SEAT 600D.

The new SEAT 600 BMS Concept commemorates the 1957 debut of SEAT’s rebadged Fiat 600, a car which is almost as iconic and of its time in Spain as the little Fiat is in Italy.

The new concept stays close to the original – it’s to scale, not like Fiat’s modern 500 – with retractable top and suicide doors, but with an upmarket leather interior with sporty orange stitching and an exclusive ‘Metallic Twist’ paint job.

The SEAT 600 BMS Concept will make its public debut at Automobile Barcelona, alongside the new Ateca FR this month. But what we don’t know is if SEAT are planning to turn the 600 in to a production run to celebrate its 60th birthday.

They should.