Seat Bolero 330 BT (1998)

SEAT is a Spanish company owned by the Volkswagen concern. It has a rather faceless history, being originally not much more than a local manufacturer of FIAT products. Volkswagen wants to turn SEAT into an Alfa-Romeo kind of brand (you know, sporty and temperamental) and are trying to accomplish that by showing flashy new designs like this Bolero.

This car was introduced at the Geneva car show in 1998 and its full name is Bolero 330 BT, where 330 stands for the power output of the engine (330 hp) and BT for Bi-Turbo. Quite a powerful engine also: it produces 500 Nm torque and it’s a V6 with 2.8 litre displacement. To get the power on the road it has permanent four wheel drive and a sequential gearbox. The cars weighs an impressive 1615 kg and accelerates from 0 to 100 kph in about 5 seconds; top speed is 273 kph.

The designers claim it’s a GT limousine and they’re probably right. It looks like a coupé but has four doors and four seats. Also we see the current trend in car design: no B-pillar between the doors. But instead of opposing opening doors the SEAT designers choose to fit sliding back doors.

The Bolero is a spectacular looking car, sporty and powerful, but there are no plans to take up production. Certain aspects of the car will however reappear in normal SEAT production cars. The new Toledo is a good example of that, especially the design of the front of the car.