Driving Seat's historic Ibiza models

The first Seat Ibiza left the production line on 27 April 1984, just over 30 years ago. It was the Spanish car maker’s attempt to stand on its own feet after splitting from its near three-decade long technological reliance on Fiat in 1982.

To celebrate the occasion, last week Seat rolled out its fleet of historic road and track Ibiza models at the historic, very short-lived (and thoroughly derelict) Autódromo de Sitges-Terramar. The line-up included the very first Ibiza off the line, a car so precious to Seat we were not allowed to drive it.

The Ibiza was born two years after Volkswagen moved in on Seat, initially getting the company to build the contemporary Volkswagen Passat and Volkswagen Polo models at its factories.

Seat’s engineers created the Ibiza hatchback (and the related Malaga saloon) on the floorpan of the Fiat Strada, which the company had been building when it split from its Fiat partnership.

The super-crisp lines were drawn up by ItalDesign and the design industrialised by German coachbuilder Karmann. Porsche’s Engineering arm developed the head for the 1.5-litre engine and Seat was willing to pay a small licence fee on each car to be allowed to have the ‘System Porsche’ script on the cam cover.

The Seat brand arrived on the Ibiza in the UK in 1985, just before Volkswagen finally took a controlling stake in the company. The first Ibiza was pretty successful over its nine-year life, shifting more than 1.3 million units. Poking around, though, it contains a few entertaining quirks.

Most unexpected is the original interior design, which is Citroën-esque in its execution. The indicators are operated by a rocker switch and the headlight switches are also mounted on the steering column (later dropped as part of a facelift). The extremely generous and over-stuffed front seats are a reminder of an era before ‘dynamics’ ruled the automotive world.

Under the bonnet – noting the chassis number – the engine is mounted right in the nose of the car, with the manifold close to the radiator. The four-pot is inclined forwards and is well ahead of the axle line. Indeed, there’s enough room to squeeze in a full-size spare wheel, although it’s extremely close to the wiper mechanism.

The Ibiza was much bigger than contemporary superminis and even spacious by today’s standards. Of course the thin pillars and huge glass make the cabin remarkable and the view out is not unlike sitting on the top deck of a bus.

The Seat team wasn’t going to let us drive ‘old number one’, but they had laid on range of sporting Ibizas from the brand’s own collection and allowed us to make a few laps of the old circuit, which included two 60 degree bankings.

Mk1 Seat Ibiza SXi