SEAT's first full year as a Partner of the forthcoming Barcelona ’92 Olympic Games was 1989. With the preparations for the great Olympic event in full swing, at the 1989 Barcelona Motor Show the brand unveiled a special version of the Ibiza, unequivocally called Ibiza Olímpico.

The SEAT Ibiza Olímpico anticipated a future production version of the Ibiza, which would be launched later, closer to the Games. For the time being, then, the Ibiza Olímpico of the Barcelona Motor Show was a one-off prototype.

The basis of the Ibiza Olímpico as seen in the Barcelona Motor Show was a hot hatch Ibiza SXI, but the restyled model launched as 1989 model year, and called Ibiza II at the time. The redesign focused mainly on the interior. The new dashboard stood out, much more modern, in which conventional indicator and windscreen wiper stalks replaced the distinctive satellites of the first Ibiza.

On the outside, the Ibiza Olímpico had all the SXI enhancements: the larger front spoiler with integrated fog lights, side mouldings, black extensions on the wheel arches and the grill with four horizontal slats instead of seven and painted in body colour (the latter shared by the whole Ibiza II range). It also sported a Games-related livery, with Olympic motives on the white paint, in addition to the word "Olímpico" on the front of the doors and on the tailgate.

Inside, the Ibiza Olímpico was very colourful, with a combination of yellow and blue in the seat’s upholstery, dashboard and interior cladding, while the floor was green.

The idea of an Ibiza Olímpico had been in the pipeline since SEAT became a Partner and Supplier of the Games in mid-1988. On 27 June 1988, an all-white SEAT Ibiza with the Olympic logo had greeted the signing of the agreement. The model predated the 1989 restyling, so it still had the original dashboard of the 1984 Ibiza.

Finally, the production version of the SEAT Ibiza Olímpico was launched at the next edition of the Barcelona Motor Show, in May 1991, when the Games were one year away. In March the Ibiza New Style had been unveiled, the last restyling of the Ibiza’s first generation, with an exterior style close to the new Toledo, the great SEAT novelty from 1991.

Therefore, the production Ibiza Olímpico was a variant of the New Style. Like the 1989 prototype, it was white with Olympic anagrams, although more discreet. It was available with the 1.2 and 1.5-litre SEAT System Porsche engines and 3 and 5-door bodies.

The prototype of the SEAT Ibiza Olímpico is part of the SEAT HISTÓRICOS Collection, together with another concept car based on the Ibiza II, the Ibiza Cabrio, also from 1989.