Sado 550

The Sado 550 is Portugal’s only production microcar, and one of very few Portuguese-designed cars ever to reach production.source 1source 3 Its maker, Entreposto Comercial, was founded in 1967 to import, assemble and sell Datsuns, by the Lane Motor Museum’s account; Portuguese sources describe a metal-engineering group active since the 1950s, which also built trailers and caravans.source 1source 2source 4 After the revolution of April 1974 the firm was in financial difficulty.source 4source 5 With imports of cars restricted, a car with a high national content made sense.source 1

In 1975 Entreposto began Projecto Ximba. For about three years it worked towards an extremely small car, cheap, functional and reliable, for Portuguese buyers making short trips in town, and with as much Portuguese content as possible.source 1source 2source 3 The technical team included the former racing driver José Megre and Reis Thomaz, and José Galamba styled it; Jalopnik puts the team at 11.source 1source 5 The prototype was built in the commercial-vehicle division’s workshops at Moscavide, in Lisbon, in 1978, and testing of every part of it went on into 1979; Lisbon’s technical university did the noise and vibration tests.source 1source 3source 5

A Japanese heart

The body, a two-box hatchback with three doors, was glass-reinforced polyester on a tubular steel chassis.source 2source 5 The engine was Japanese: the Daihatsu AB20, a 547 cc water-cooled twin of 28 or 29 hp with the Daihatsu Cuore’s four-speed gearbox, mounted lengthways at the front and driving a beam axle at the back.source 1source 2source 4source 5 About 70 per cent of the car, labour included, was Portuguese.source 2source 3source 6 It was built at Setúbal, on the lines that built Datsun commercial vehicles, and Portuguese Wikipedia says that is where its name comes from: Setúbal stands on the River Sado.source 1source 6source 4

Sold out, then stopped

The Sado went on sale in 1982 through Entreposto’s branches, beside the Datsuns, in five versions priced from 70,000 to 290,000 escudos.source 1source 2source 3 Almost all were white; yellow or blue could be ordered.source 1source 2 The first cars sold out quickly and a waiting list formed.source 3 The Automóvel Club de Portugal tested an early car that year, with very positive results.source 1 Turbo describes the engine as flexible and strong enough for steep hills, the visibility as excellent and the car as comfortable for two on short trips, though the suspension was hard; Portuguese Wikipedia adds that its tiny wheels made it unstable under braking.source 1source 2

It cost more to build than planned, and in 1985 sales stopped because the project could not pay its way; the Lane museum and Jalopnik end it in 1984.source 2source 3source 4source 5 One of those responsible blamed the lack of planning and productivity in most Portuguese firms, which drove production costs up despite cheap labour.source 2 Entreposto went back to importing other makes.source 1 How many were made is not settled: about 500 by most accounts, 272 by the Lane museum’s (see the figures). The Museu do Caramulo published a book on the car in 2013.source 1

Portugal had tried before. António Gonçalves Baptista wanted to build a car within everyone’s reach, and in 1952 he built a rustic first prototype with a 125 cc engine at the back, behind the rear axle.source 3source 7 His Lusito of 1954 was a rounded two-door with a single-cylinder engine of 6 cv, and the newspaper O Volante presented it.source 3source 7 He had permission to build it, but the road authority, the Direcção-Geral de Viação, barred him from making engines and gearboxes, and that ended the Lusito.source 3source 7

That year the Lusito broke down outside the metal workshop of the engineer João Monteiro da Conceição, on the main road at Chão da Feira, Porto de Mós. He was called to help, was impressed, and with Baptista formed Indústria Portuguesa de Automóveis.source 7source 8 Its IPA 300 had a two-cylinder engine of 16 cv at the back, of 300 cc by Portuguese Wikipedia, on the mechanical base of the British Astra, presumably the Astra Utility: the gearbox, differential, steering, brakes and some of the electrics had to be bought abroad. It came as a two-seat coupé and as a 2+2 for families with two children.source 3source 7source 8 Between 20 and 25 people worked on it for almost five years, and in 1958 both versions stood at the Feira das Indústrias Portuguesas, which President Craveiro Lopes and Marcello Caetano attended.source 3source 7source 8

The cars were homologated and registered, and five were ordered, but the state refused a licence for series production: the Secretary of State for Industry, named by Turbo as António Ramalho, favoured the assembly of foreign makes in Portugal.source 3source 7source 8 Only two cars and the prototype were finished. After Monteiro da Conceição died in 1987, his son José Charters Monteiro found them in a corner of the works, surrounded by scrap. One was restored, and an IPA 300 was in the Museu do Caramulo’s microcar exhibition of 2015. In 2021 the family agreed to move the three from Caramulo to a permanent display in Porto de Mós’s restored former power station; whether the move has happened is not confirmed.source 8 An English Wikipedia list gives the Lusito a 360 cc DKW engine and about 30 cars, and the IPA a British Anzani engine and ten prototypes, but neither Portuguese source agrees.source 9

No count of survivors has been found; Portuguese Wikipedia calls the Sado almost an icon and a collector’s piece.source 1 A 1983 car is in the Lane Motor Museum, Nashville.source 4 In 2019 RM Sotheby’s sold a 1983 first-series Sado 550, chassis 31-117 83, with its flat windscreen and under 2,300 km believed original, for €6,900, as lot 179 of the Sáragga Collection in Portugal.source 6 No owners’ club has been found.