The SEAT 600 Savio was a special car used by SEAT from the mid-1960s to show illustrious visitors around the Zona Franca factory in Barcelona. Incredible as it may seem, under this exceptional panoramic bodywork are hidden the chassis and mechanics of the popular SEAT 600 D, launched in 1963 and powered by a 767 cc, 25 HP engine.

The origin of the 600 Savio is a 1961 design by Italian designer Pietro Frua for the Savio coachbuilder. It was an open model designed for showing people around industrial facilities. In 1964, SEAT ordered two units of this vehicle from Savio, but with one major modification: a removable glass hard-top roof and practicable side windows. That made the SEAT 600 Savio unique models.

The conversion is based on the 600 Multipla, the four-door, six-seater 600 minivan variant. SEAT did not get to mass-produce the Multipla, although in 1959 it showed two prototypes of its own at the Barcelona Motor Show, called Múltiple. Some units were produced, but the real four-door SEAT 600 would be the 1964 SEAT 800, unveiled the same year as the Savio's commission.

The two SEAT 600 Savio were painted in Cobalt blue bodywork and Purple grey roof, the colours of SEAT's official cars, which give them great elegance. Both were registered in Barcelona in 1966 with the plates B-499.569 and B-505.090, coinciding with the official visit to the factory of the head of state, in which the two Savios and the two 1400 Visitas were used (the Visitas was another conversion for this purpose based on the SEAT 1400 saloon, but carried out entirely in Barcelona).

The 600 Savio is an ideal vehicle for guided tours, offering unmatched visibility, even with the hard-top mounted. The small wheels and their small exterior dimensions allowed it to move with great agility between the aisles of the different production lines. However, the Savio's overhangs make it half a metre longer than a 600, although it maintains the same 2-metres wheelbase.

The entire interior of the Savio is designed to allow the maximum space possible. The driving position is advanced, so the driver and front passenger are sitting literally on the front axle, and the passenger carries the spare wheel to his feet. This frees up enough space to add a second row with two individual seats, which are folding to facilitate access to the third row. The engine is located at the rear, housed in a third volume that isolates it from the cabin and, at the same time, streamlines the silhouette of the vehicle.

SEAT keeps the 600 Savio license plate B-505.090, which has travelled about 13,000 kilometres, mostly within the SEAT facilities. This special car reappeared in public at the 2006 Auto Retro Barcelona classic motorshow, where its original concept caused a sensation.

In 2015, the Savio was also part of the SEAT exhibition at Essen's Techno Classica in Germany, the renowned world show for vintage, classic and prestige automobiles, together with the SEAT 1400 Visitas and the 1982 SEAT Panda Popemobile, two other one-off cars of great rarity created by SEAT.