SEAT Leon Cupra R arrives in the UK

The SEAT Leon Cupra R gets launched in the UK

It was August last year that SEAT sent us a pile of bumph on the Leon Cupra R - the quickest SEAT to date – including a Cupra R press release we put up. We then had the Cupra R launch proper at Frankfurt in September, but it’s taken a further six months for SEAT to open up the order book in the UK (officially from 1st April) and no doubt a month or three more until the first UK customer gets to go and play.

So was it worth the wait, this SEAT Leon Cupra R? Oh, yes. Especially if you like your hatches on the sizzling side of warm and prefer a bit of a bargain to boot. For the Leon Cupra R is SEAT’s take on the Golf R, except at £25,205 it’ll cost you £5k less than its Teutonic sibling. And it’s a far less ubiquitous site on UK roads (the Leon in general, that is).

The SEAT Leon Cupra R gets the Golf’s 2.0 litre turbo 4-pot with 261bhp, 258lb/ft of torque, a 0-60mph of 6.0 seconds and SEAT’s XDS electronic diff. It goes on to a top speed of 155mph, but why it’s half a second slower to 60mph than it’s VW sibling is open to debate. Internal politics, perhaps?

Beefy bits added to make the Cupra R stand out from the rest of the Leon range include 19″ double-spoke Potenza alloys, bigger brakes, integrated diffuser at the back, a rear spoiler and black gloss trim. Inside you get grey Alcantara competition-style bucket seats, white LED lighting for the dials, a leather multi-function steering wheel and aluminium pedals.

Also on offer on the Cupra R are set of ‘Sunny Catalan’ colours including the new Tribu Yellow in the pictures here. And you may have noticed SEAT have taken a leaf out of a 1980s Peugeot commercial with a couple of the shots. Which we initially though was a bit naff. But we changed our minds. How good is it to see a car maker – in this age of fluffy-bunny, eco-mentalists – actually advertising their car  as something that’ll set the world on fire? You’re not going to get the Germans doing that with the Golf. Good on the Spanish, we say.

Despite all the butchness and performance SEAT are quoting an average of almost 35mpg. Which you will get if you drive like your Granny. But if you do you shouldn’t buy the Cupra R in the first place. In the real world you’ll probably get mid 20s, even if you avail yourself of all the fun on offer.

And fun is what the SEAT Leon Cupra R is all about.

By Cars UK