Miguel Martín
A few days ago, in the 2nd Part of this special, we talked about the extravagant Buggy Experience patrios. Well, on this island of national creativity, Antonio Madueño, with his Campero (1972) inspired by the Rodeo and based on SIMCA 1200, builds some 36 units of plastic bodywork. Madueño was an atypical builder and was a SIMCA concessionaire ...
Meanwhile, Italy did not want to lose the leadership of the littoral vehicle. Thus, it goes on to use the platforms of the Fiat 126 (73) in machines such as LeMoon, Automirage's Pick Wick, Tilly and Savio 126 Jungla from 1974. Then there are Bertone's contributions, such as the Dune Buggy, the Village, the Avon campero and the Runabout boat. Special mention should be made of Fissore derivatives such as the Scout -which we will now comment on- and that it was very similar in concept and aesthetics to Moretti's Midi Maxi based on Fiat 127 (71), and Bertone's Hobby (73).
So we return to our history: The national manufacturer Emelba began its large-scale industrial activity by building in 1978 the derivative based on the Seat of the Scout Fiat 127 designed by Fissore, Savigliano's Italian stylist, in line with the multiple Italian beach versions of the moment such as those made by Moretti, Bertone and other bodybuilders.
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Transfer of names
El Scout Assembled in Spain, it will be marketed under the name of Seat Samba and will be relatively successful, with several hundred units sold. Later, Talbot would have to buy the name from Emelba and Emelba, in turn, would use the Campero name that Madueño had already used.
The Samba, despite its appearance, was made of sheet metal and was based on the second variant of the Fiat 127. Its promoters valued various options such as Panissars and the coachbuilder Costa, finally being Indcar who undertook the majority of manufactured units. Later, the industrialist made available to the Spanish market the only three cabrio variants on a national basis, which were the Panda cabrio called panda, the Corsa and the Talbot Samba cabriolet (1982).
The beach offer in the 80s increases with the arrival of the unclassifiable Trabant Tramp (Watch video), from the old GDR and available in the Spanish market for under half a million pesetas, which made it the cheapest car in the catalog. The increasingly numerous convertible variants offered by brands such as Peugeot, with its 205 Pininfarina (previously Emelba had tried it), the Opel Corsa and the Talbot Samba convertible, are also marketed little by little, both also designed by Pininfarina.
On many occasions the houses relied on local body builders, as Emelba did with Indcar from Arbucie or with the company Helena proto-design (1986) and the American company ASC Design for the design of the Ibiza I cabrio prototypes.
In the last years of the decade we saw the versions of the Suzuki Santana SJ, the Samurai and the Aro appear, these all-terrain vehicles that were gradually replacing the rustic Land Rover (which was already convertible in its origin) and not subject to tariffs or Quotas that prevailed in Spain until the end of the 80s and that prevented foreign vehicles from knowing them.
In fact, official variants such as the Marbella convertible and the Terra (1983) (See proof), with 903cc and 40 hp morizations and an affordable price slightly higher than that of its base. They would coexist with other summer options launched at the right time and trying to revive their market, as was the case with Ibiza del Sol, Malaga Brisa and Panda / Marbella del Sol.
Back to the beach
To finish, the cabrios of the utilities of the moment burst in in the mid-90s. The offer reaches the Opel Kadett, built by Bertone, the Golf convertible and the Ford Escort convertible, both from the Karmann.
But the last vestiges of the summer versions, in the not yet exhausted line of Sol y la Playa, if only in name, were the Ibiza del Sol (Watch video), the Golf Playa (both the standard vehicle and the living room prototype from 91), the Fiesta Balear and the Marbella Playa from 91.
In the 90s, manufacturers such as the French Mega, with its Ranch and Club models from 93 (which you can see in the header photo), as well as the Brazilian Gurgel, would remain as other representatives of this movement that we must mention and that shared the market with hundreds of small producers of replicas of the buggies and other leisure vehicles.
For its part, Renault, after building several thousand Rodeos as ACLs, including a Rodeo 5, switched to the Tangara model under the Teilhol brand. The decade would close with the convertible versions of the Peugeot 306, the Renault Megane, the Fiat Punto and the Golf III ...
