PORTARO was the name of a Portuguese 4WD offroad utility vehicle which was based on the earlier Romanian original ARO 24 Series 4X4 model produced under license in Portugal.

[2] The PORTARO 4X4 was manufactured from imported original ARO original parts in CKD form produced in Romania destined for final assembly here by the SEMAL company in Setúbal, Portugal starting in 1975[4] by the entrepreneur and industrialist Hipólito Pires with help from a business partner José Megre[1] and a mechanical engineer Costa Freitas, all three quickly became business partners at the SEMAL Industrial Complex who started the PORTARO project shortly after.

However in addition to several other new 4WD prototypes, two very interesting authentic PORTARO models were also manufactured this time powered by original Volvo Petol 2127cc and 2296cc powerful running gear similar to those used in the original Volvo 240 Series cars at the time, although these were always sold in much smaller numbers intended for general Motor Sports Events like local offroad motor racing and rally racing occurring frequently in the 1980s.

By 1982 the SEMAL company were also assembling extra two more brand new PORTARO 4X4 versions made to order added to their Model Range at the time called the "210 PT TURBO 4WD" and "230 PV 4WD 2300" both are very rare petrol engined models that were much less popular though the lighter 230 PV 4WD soon turned into the most successful original Portuguese made vehicle ever used for offroad racing.

By 1990 the original company who assembled PORTARO 4X4 offroad vehicles SEMAL sold the production rights, the tradename and all the spares parts stocks to the larger "FMAT" company at Tramagal an industrial town near Abrantes east of Lisbon next to the famous Tagus river in rural Santarem who have been making agricultural equipment and industrial machinery since the late 1890s.