When we had already entered the new millennium, SEAT showed the Tango at the 2001 Frankfurt Motorshow. It was a bold proposal that combined strength and simplicity with vitality and sportiness, a concept-car that evoked the spirit of the sports roadsters of the '50s and '60s.

With the Tango, SEAT continued with the concept-car series initiated by the Bolero in 1998 and followed by the Formula (1999) and the Salsa and Salsa Emoción (2000). The Tango would be the third and last one of the saga named after a ballroom dance. Its design was the work of Walter De'Silva, then SEAT's head of Design.

The Tango received the Autonis Award for Best Concept-Car Design of 2001. It was a prestigious award with almost four decades of history, awarded by the German magazine Auto-Strassenverkehr. It was the only car design award organized in Germany.

The Tango was a car full of passion, a little 2-seater roadster, with no roof nor folding hood, that showed the main lines of the early 2000s SEAT range, as the third generation of the Ibiza, which was unveiled at the end of the same year 2001. It is a front-wheel drive car, but it actually looks like a rear-wheel drive: the full force of the design is at the rear.

Conceived as a genuine roadster, the SEAT Tango delivers expressive, innovative solutions. The engineers in Martorell's Technical Center and SEAT Sport developed a sophisticated and very stiff tubular chassis, making good use of the experience gained when building the Córdoba WRC for the world rally championship.

So the cabin and body are one and the same, so the seats are fixed and part of the safety skeleton. To reach the correct driving position, the steering wheel and instrument panel can be height and reach adjusted. The same goes for the pedal layout, which also adapts to the driver via an electric control located on the central console.

The Tango is powered by a 180 HP, 1.8 Turbo engine beneath the front bonnet, mated to a 6-speed gearbox and a refined chassis. Firm, efficient suspension and a powerful brake system are in perfect harmony with the agility and performance levels expected of a true sports-car.

The Tango can reach a top speed of 235 km/h and accelerates from 0 to 100 km/h in just 7 seconds, giving driver and passenger high speed fun and enabling them to enjoy the wind and sweet engine noise from a unique approach: a machine conceived by and for car lovers.

Beside, the Tango is fitted with sophisticated xenon fairing headlights with no inner shell, which follow the direction of the corners according to the turn of the steering wheel. The Tango also includes two helmets and two custom-made suitcases that fit in a space behind the headrests, as well as a rear compartment where a tool kit, puncture kit, first-aid kit and vehicle documents can be placed.

That's the SEAT Tango, a prototype that enjoyed such a warm welcome that SEAT seriously considered its production, finally rejected. It would have been just the second production roadster ever made by SEAT, after the 1969 SEAT 850 Sport.