The year is 1974. A few months earlier the oil crisis had begun, a situation that, although it hit the American automobile industry hardest, also had a great impact on Europe. By the beginning of the decade on the old continent, a new kind of car; the so-called superminis, which were modern front-wheel drive compacts, with great interior space and low consumption.
Among the many models that were created in This new and popular category is worth mentioning two of them as the most important; he Fiat 127 and the Renault 5, both launched on the market in 1971 and 1972 respectively. These two cars would be direct rivals during the seventies, and would top the lists of best-selling vehicles in various countries around Europe.
But the Renault had a clear advantage over the Italian product, the presence of a rear hatch that made the small car a truly versatile and versatile vehicle. For this reason, and although in Italy there already existed a 127 family made by a coachbuilder, the Fiat received a three-door variant at the end of 1972 to prevent the R5 from taking away its market.
1972: THE ARRIVAL OF THE SEAT 127
We had to wait a year for the Fiat 127 to begin manufacturing in Barcelona. The Spaniards were able to see it for the first time in Lanzarote, where the brand decided to present this new model that would make consumers from an entire country fall in love with it. Initially, as in Italy, it was sold only in two-door configuration, although at the end of 1972 the three-door SEAT 127 appeared.
It is worth remembering that at the beginning of the seventies the Spanish brand was experiencing a time of great changes. In 1973, only one year after the debut of the 127, production of what until then had been the most popular SEAT, the 600, which since 1973 had nearly 800.000 units manufactured, changing the history of an entire country forever.
1974: THE FOUR-DOOR 127 ARRIVES
Until then The Spanish brand had developed its own four-door variants on cars of Fiat origin as were the SEAT 800, based on the popular 600, and the four-door 850, both built at Talleres Costa in the province of Tarragona.
With a mastery similar to that of the previous examples In 1974 the brand launched the four-door 127, which manages to adapt this modification while maintaining some of the most characteristic lines of the model such as the curvature of the rear windows. What differentiated it from the 800 and 850 was that the length of the SEAT 127 remained the same in all versions.
With this hatchback car SEAT managed to take a step ahead of Fiat and Renault, since neither the 127 nor the R5 had a version in which they could access the rear seats more comfortably.. It should be noted that in 1974 in Spain the Renault Seven, whose doors would be used in the five-door Renault 5 that came onto the market in 1979 and that did not reach FASA until 1981.
But for some unknown reason The first series of the SEAT 127 did not have a five-door variant, something that could have been achieved very easily by combining the four-door version with the rear hatch, and that would have given extra versatility to one of the best-selling cars in Spain in the seventies. This variant would not make its debut in the brand's range until the arrival of the second generation of the 127.
SEAT 128 3P: THE EXCHANGE STUDENT
By 1974 SEAT was already exporting a considerable number of cars, and with more and more exclusive models in its catalog such as the 133 or the Bocanegra, it is more coherent to sell these vehicles abroad. This was the case of the four-door 127, whose production was never brought to Italy, preferring instead to import Spanish units to provide them with Fiat emblems, becoming a very popular model in the country, especially in the taxi sector.
But the popularity in Italy of this Spanish design was no coincidence, since Fiat, which saw the potential of this 127, allowed the sale of this model in exchange for a production in Spain. SEAT counterpart of the Fiat 128 3p. As planned, the car ended up being a commercial failure that rivaled in sales with another product of the brand, the SEAT. bocanegra, and the last units were manufactured at the end of 1979, although some of these cars were in dealerships until well into 1981.
BEHIND THE 127
We are in the province of Granada, at the foot of the Sierra Nevada, and on a pleasant spring afternoon in May we find ourselves on one of those mountain roads on which driving a classic car is a delight. We get into the car and the first sensation is the same as those who saw this new 127 in the dealerships back in 1974, everything inside is the same.
You have to go to the rear seats to find the difference, and again, the aesthetics are so well achieved both inside and out. The rear doors allow very easy and comfortable access to the back seat, and although the car has not increased in size, the space in these seats seems larger. than in the other 127. It should be noted that the front seats no longer fold forward in this version, since this was done to facilitate access to the rear of the vehicle.
After setting off and performing the first maneuvers we can see that the steering wheel offers some resistance when stopped, but it is quite smooth compared to other contemporary models. However, once you start driving the 127 the sensations are very pleasant, with a more than enough revs to make it an agile vehicle in urban environments.
The climb begins, and the small 903 cubic centimeter block It has very good performance to advance at a rate of about seventy kilometers per hour towards increasingly higher routes, yes, in this situation the 127 performs much better in third gear than in drive.
But even when the slope works against you The little SEAT has a very happy handling that few cars with less than a liter of displacement can match.. Once you start the descent you can see the car in a much more dynamic way, although it is advisable to apply engine braking in certain situations.
As for the the car's brakes, these are more than enough, even managing to stop the vehicle quickly in case of emergency, although the absence of a brake booster is missing, since in the event of a more aggressive stomp than expected, the wheels can lock relatively easily.
All this makes the 127 a very reasonable affordable classic to buy, and one understands what dazzled more than a million buyers in Spain from the seventies and eighties to have one, and units like this four-door make it very interesting because of that plus of having been manufactured only in Spain, along with the comfort that they provide.
Furthermore, in the right hands the car has a very mousey behavior with a suspension that perfectly combines comfort with firmness, although it is true that in tight curves and at high speed the 127 can lift one of its rear wheels. The virtues of this vehicle make it an excellent candidate for classic regularity rallies.
Technical sheet | SEAT 127 Four doors |
Motor | transverse front |
Displacement | 903 cm3 |
Cylinders | 4 in line |
Diameter x stroke | 65 x 68 mm |
Maximum power | 47 hp/6.200 rpm (DIN) |
Maximum torque | 6,3 mkg (DIN) at 3.500 rpm |
Meals | Bressel Weber 30 IBA 22/350 Carburetor |
Compression | 9:1 |
Fuel Efficiency: | Petrol |
Traction | Front |
Gearbox | Four-speed manual + ma, |
Front suspension | Independent wheels with swing arms and telescopic struts, shock absorbers and stabilizer bar |
Rear suspension | Independent wheels, swing arms and shock absorbers, self-stabilizing transverse leaf spring. |
Address | Zipper |
Truck Brake Repair | Front discs, rear drums |
Length/width/height | 3.595 / 1.527 / 1.358 mm |
Ways | 1.280/1.285 mm |
Battle | 2.225 mm |
Shot put | 750 kg |
Tires | 4 x 13 " |
Tires | 135 SR 13 |
Deposit | 30 liters |
Average consumption | 7,2 l / 100 km |
Maximum speed | 131 km/h |
year unit tested | 1974 |
A FORGOTTEN AND RESCUED 127
The SEAT 127 protagonist of this test belongs to Javier Molina, a young collector of classic cars from Granada, and the history of this unit was that of one of those cars that are thrown away abandoned years predicting a fatal fate, but in this case, and as can be seen in the photos, there was fortunately the happiest of endings.
This four-door 127 was sold new in Granada in 1974, so it corresponds to the first units of this version. The car was bought by a couple from Granada, but After barely ten years in his ownership, the car went on to sleep the sleep of the righteous in the Rex Garage on Calle Recambios.
The reason for its premature abandonment was the breakup of this couple, and although their love was broken by using it so much, this was not the case with 127, which It would spend almost three decades hidden with barely 36.000 kilometers on its odometer. Since he was a child, Javier saw the poor SEAT covered in dirt and, moved by the desolate scene, he would end up rescuing the 127 from its dusty lethargy in 2013.
Since then he has done nothing but enjoy it, adding another 10.000 kilometers this decade, and both owner and vehicle couldn't be happier. The reward of recovering this diamond in the rough was that behind the dust was its original paint with hardly any wear, something that is also carried over to the interior, which is in the same condition., this being a clear example in which rescuing is sometimes better than buying when it comes to classics.
Images: Javier Ramiro, SEAT, Fiat and Renault