SEAT LEON CUPRA

OVERVIEW

As you step inside, the Leon Cupra feels sporty and and quite rigid.  There is plenty of room throughout the cabin for a typical family and there is plenty of space in the glove box and door pockets to store your CD's, maps, notes etc.  The boot is also more than adequate for many people.  The interior was free from vibrations and rattles and was put together well even though it looked a little basic.  You get all the gadgets such as door lock control, electric windows, remote central locking/alarm, ABS, Traction Control, MSR, alloys, CD changer, climate control and 4 air bags to keep everyone happy.  Twist the key, and for a second you may mistake the Cupra for a Leon Diesel during the initial start up process. 

On the move, you notice that the Leon Cupra is very civilised as it soaks up bumps in the road as you would expect in a luxury orientated car as you make your way through urban streets heading out to your favourite road.  The pedals have a bit of travel unlike other sports cars but considering its based on a  family hatchback you can overlook this matter as the pedals are not light as feather and allow to to use them with precision.  From the moment I started to press on, I was able to use Heel & Toe perfectly without having to spend any time getting used to the pedals characteristics. 

I was initially impressed with the Cupra's steering, as it had some weight to it and it certainly wasn't worryingly light as many modern cars are.  Once I was out on the country lanes, driving enthusiastically, the steering felt a little light in the hand which was a shame but it managed to give me just enough feel to confidently keep up and increase the pace if I wished.

The chassis, whilst impressive, offering a compromise between ride quality and handling may cause a few drivers to panic as it gets a little bouncy when you start to push harder.  However, whilst bouncing about a little, it remains reasonably stable (tyres retain good traction with the surface) to allow you to carry on pushing to find that extra tenth.  This means that the Cupra loves to be driven on the throttle and subtle drifts can easily be achieved in a smooth manner by many drivers.  Panic braking and poor judgement leading to braking will upset the chassis even further.  Whilst braking in a corner, the rear of the car is reluctant to step out of line, and has to be provoked aggressively, which will cause unskilled drivers to end up in the wrong lane.  Under heavy braking from high speeds, the rear end goes very light and the front of the car does squirm but its nothing that an adjustment in pedal pressure won't rectify.  I was subtly impressed by the level of feedback from the steering wheel dictating clearly how the inside front wheel was coping during a hard drive, this gave plenty of warning about the grip level allowing you to make any necessary adjustments or simply push harder.  I didn't encounter any problems with understeer.  The car stayed on line and if you tried to feed more steering in it wouldn't accept it which driving quickly, which I put down to a subtle traction control system.    

The VAG 1.8 20V Turbo which the Cupra features, offers superb performance in the real world.  Being bored to death by people driving too slowly, the Cupra offered strong and confident power for overtaking from as little as 2,500rpm to allow you to effortlessly overtake as you please.  Once you wound the engine upto 3,800rpm the Cupra meant business as it eagerly revved to the redline as it sprinted towards the horizon.  The Cupra eats its way through 1st and 2nd gear which make the two ratios seems short but if you keep feeding the engine any of the 6 gears it will keep accelerating enthusiastically.  Country lane overtaking can be confidently carried out by using 3rd gear under normal circumstances, as you wont run out of ratio during the overtake and the gear will deliver lots of grunt as soon as you squeeze the accelerator and the next 3 gears will keep you involved and giggling as you leave other drivers wandering what has overtaken them so smoothly and quickly without working up a sweat.  The Acceleration is eager upto 85mph and then it slows a little and offers a comfortable cruising pace of 120mph.  I was running out of road to ahead due to traffic which prevented reaching any higher speeds.      

The only downside to this wonderful car is that I felt as though I could only extract about 85% of the brakes performance.  Whilst the brakes were strong, with a respectful bite, the VERY subtle ABS kept interfering. Knowing that the brakes had more potential, which I couldn't extract to due to the ABS I felt as though the ABS was a serious disadvantage.  The Traction control, although very good, did interfere during a few overtakes where it slightly added to the overall time to execute the overtake mainly using 2nd gear. 

Overall, the Leon Cupra is a very capable sports hatchback with a good ride, great safety features and a high specification level for such a car.  At £14,995 (£16,995 for a Cupra R), this is a lot of car and fun for so little.  If you are not a badge snob, the SEAT can out perform other rivals whilst offering better driver involvement over other marques.  Very few cars make me smile like a Superbike does, the Leon Cupra is one of them!   

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATION

PICTURES