RE: Seat unveils Leon Cupra
Wednesday 19th July 2006
Seat unveils Leon Cupra
Hot hatch spotted at the Motor Show
  Seat Leon Cupra at the British Motor Show |
Seat launches the new Leon Cupra at the British International Motor Show today. Billed as Seat's "most powerful and exciting production model to date", the unveiling marks the first time the Spanish brand has used a UK show for a world premiere.
The 237bhp 2.0-litre T FSI powerplant is a more potent version of the VW 197bhp engine used in the just-launched Leon FR. As a result, this hottest Seat will hit 62 mph in 6.4 seconds, before going on to a maximum speed of 153 mph.
As ever, exterior design tweaks distinguish the Cupra, including new front bumpers – similar to those on the FR, but with extra black elements – 18-inch alloy wheels, black door mirrors and a polished steel oval tailpipe. Inside, the atmosphere is sporty, with bucket-style sports seats, exclusive Cupra steering wheel, gearknob and pedals, and black trim.
The Cupra tops the new Leon range, with more details closer to its official availability early next year.
Discussion
The Golf5 based Seat Altea and Leon are such good alternatives to the equivalent VWs, I can't think of a reason to buy a Golf or a Golf+, which cost 25% more, don't drive as well for some strange reason, and are so common. We've been running an Altea 1.6 as a kid mobile for 2 years and this is the best family car we have owned bar none. Total reliability and very cheap to run.
I do worry about this new generation of superhatches. 
It's all very well upping the bhp-ante with each addition to the class, but lots of power plus fwd equals potential understeer hell.
My previous car was the 210hp Leon Cupra R and although it was plenty quick in a straight line, it was wrongfooted on the twisties.
No doubt this thing weighs twice as much as my MR2 as well.
It's all very well upping the bhp-ante with each addition to the class, but lots of power plus fwd equals potential understeer hell.
My previous car was the 210hp Leon Cupra R and although it was plenty quick in a straight line, it was wrongfooted on the twisties.
No doubt this thing weighs twice as much as my MR2 as well.
For this type of car its a realy nice design, I'm impressed
its a new hot-hatch era... same as the new Honda Civic Type-R I like the new modern look of those cars, not that I'm in for hot hatch cars like those, but stil, I'm impressed very nicely shaped engine cover hood? nice lines...think it will sell good, though sad that most Hot hatch cars are so heavy...maybe a good comparison with the old Ford focus RS and this car and the new Civic type R and some other new hot hatch cars would be nice! Ted? Top Gear?
GTRene
its a new hot-hatch era... same as the new Honda Civic Type-R I like the new modern look of those cars, not that I'm in for hot hatch cars like those, but stil, I'm impressed very nicely shaped engine cover hood? nice lines...think it will sell good, though sad that most Hot hatch cars are so heavy...maybe a good comparison with the old Ford focus RS and this car and the new Civic type R and some other new hot hatch cars would be nice! Ted? Top Gear? GTRene
Come on, this is a womans shopping car designed for emasculated pratts who cant afford a decent motor or wouldn't know one if it ran them over. You cant take a crappy little car like a subaru imprezza or golf and create supercar by sticking a big engine in it. Its a turd and you cant polish a turd, get a life and get a porsche, even if its an older one. This is a car for blokes who who would by a man bag if advertisers told them it was cool. Get real!
fatjon said:
Come on, this is a womans shopping car designed for emasculated pratts who cant afford a decent motor or wouldn't know one if it ran them over. You cant take a crappy little car like a subaru imprezza or golf and create supercar by sticking a big engine in it. Its a turd and you cant polish a turd, get a life and get a porsche, even if its an older one. This is a car for blokes who who would by a man bag if advertisers told them it was cool. Get real!
Not a fan of the 205 GTi then?
fatjon said:
Come on, this is a womans shopping car designed for emasculated pratts who cant afford a decent motor or wouldn't know one if it ran them over. You cant take a crappy little car like a subaru imprezza or golf and create supercar by sticking a big engine in it. Its a turd and you cant polish a turd, get a life and get a porsche, even if its an older one. This is a car for blokes who who would by a man bag if advertisers told them it was cool. Get real!
LOL Yes, yes, we should all be buying Fezzas and porkers and nothing else. I think someone else needs to get real and live in the real world.
I had a LCR225 and for the money it was great, with a remap it had 270bhp and approx 290lb torque. Was built by VAG so well put together, good spec climate, brembos etc all as std.
Not everyone in the world can afford "proper" super cars. Grow up.
fatjon said:
Come on, this is a womans shopping car designed for emasculated pratts who cant afford a decent motor or wouldn't know one if it ran them over. You cant take a crappy little car like a subaru imprezza or golf and create supercar by sticking a big engine in it. Its a turd and you cant polish a turd, get a life and get a porsche, even if its an older one. This is a car for blokes who who would by a man bag if advertisers told them it was cool. Get real!
I totally agree - ugly as hell - and I was shocked when I saw the release of Da Silva's first new Leon. He ruined the design of one of the most beautiful GTI's ever made. Take a look at the pefect bullet shape of the old LCR and especially the difficult part where the hood, sides and window frame meet, it's perfectionated. To me the new Leon is a poor attempt in making a sporty MPV, and Da Silva prostitued himself to follow what looks good in an advertise - and then he tried to copy a cross between a MPV and a Megane???
I'm on my 2nd LCR now and was so lucky to get the 3rd last LCR ever to be produced (The 2 last ones where 2 yellow ones ordered by a swiss guy who already had one - he just wanted to be sure he had more when his current one took its last breath). However, Da Silva is still backed by the same team of engineers who made the first Leons. They are probably still a little grumpy at him - but a crappy normal car with a brute engine - have you ever driven one. Mine is now up to 310 BHP, and all I do is change oil, brake calipers and too many tyres. It is not a coincidence that the LCR was on the frontpage of Brembo's homepage all of 2005 - the car is equipped with the finest high-end parts. Comfortable to drive - nope, it's like a race car should be: Stiff, difficult, demanding and you can feel every little pebble one the road. How many cars that can do more than 340 km/hr (- there is one in Holland) do you see without rear-spoiler - aerodynamics are perfect. Somebody mentioned that it was great on the straights but not on the curves. My play ground is the Belgian mountains of Ardennes, and sure it takes a little bit of guts, but when you get the hang of it, you need a fully loaded Impreza STi to follow me - oh yeah, you didn't like that one either.
GTRene said:
For this type of car its a realy nice design, I'm impressed its a new hot-hatch era... same as the new Honda Civic Type-R I like the new modern look of those cars, not that I'm in for hot hatch cars like those, but stil, I'm impressed very nicely shaped engine cover hood? nice lines...think it will sell good, though sad that most Hot hatch cars are so heavy...maybe a good comparison with the old Ford focus RS and this car and the new Civic type R and some other new hot hatch cars would be nice! Ted? Top Gear?
GTRene
its a new hot-hatch era... same as the new Honda Civic Type-R I like the new modern look of those cars, not that I'm in for hot hatch cars like those, but stil, I'm impressed very nicely shaped engine cover hood? nice lines...think it will sell good, though sad that most Hot hatch cars are so heavy...maybe a good comparison with the old Ford focus RS and this car and the new Civic type R and some other new hot hatch cars would be nice! Ted? Top Gear? GTRene
So you're also here :=)
fatjon said:
Come on, this is a womans shopping car designed for emasculated pratts who cant afford a decent motor or wouldn't know one if it ran them over. You cant take a crappy little car like a subaru imprezza or golf and create supercar by sticking a big engine in it. Its a turd and you cant polish a turd, get a life and get a porsche, even if its an older one. This is a car for blokes who who would by a man bag if advertisers told them it was cool. Get real!
That's a bit harsh but I agree, FWD will always be second best even if the next ST/GTI/Cupra has 400bhp and more stick on plastic bits than Jordan.
Save up and buy a proper sports car, it's more fun!
fatjon said:
Come on, this is a womans shopping car designed for emasculated pratts who cant afford a decent motor or wouldn't know one if it ran them over. You cant take a crappy little car like a subaru imprezza or golf and create supercar by sticking a big engine in it. Its a turd and you cant polish a turd, get a life and get a porsche, even if its an older one. This is a car for blokes who who would by a man bag if advertisers told them it was cool. Get real!
Utter crap, but great first post 
Welcome!Must admit that I am not a fan of the new style Leon Cupra. I had the previous model Cupra a couple of months back but when I was thinking of changing the car for something with more oomph I did not even think about the new style Leon as I did not like the styling. They had the opprotunity to do something more radical (like the civic) and they went down this MPV euro bubble route. The styling could have been a lot more radical on the Cupra as it is not aggresive enough.
Glad I choose an Evo over the Cupra as it is a much better performance car, although the quality of the interior is nothing like the Seat but the perfomance more than puts up with this small foible.
Glad I choose an Evo over the Cupra as it is a much better performance car, although the quality of the interior is nothing like the Seat but the perfomance more than puts up with this small foible.
GTRene said:
cupra said:
GTRene said:
For this type of car its a realy nice design, I'm impressed its a new hot-hatch era... same as the new Honda Civic Type-R I like the new modern look of those cars, not that I'm in for hot hatch cars like those, but stil, I'm impressed very nicely shaped engine cover hood? nice lines...think it will sell good, though sad that most Hot hatch cars are so heavy...maybe a good comparison with the old Ford focus RS and this car and the new Civic type R and some other new hot hatch cars would be nice! Ted? Top Gear?
GTRene
its a new hot-hatch era... same as the new Honda Civic Type-R I like the new modern look of those cars, not that I'm in for hot hatch cars like those, but stil, I'm impressed very nicely shaped engine cover hood? nice lines...think it will sell good, though sad that most Hot hatch cars are so heavy...maybe a good comparison with the old Ford focus RS and this car and the new Civic type R and some other new hot hatch cars would be nice! Ted? Top Gear? GTRene
So you're also here :=)
Yes
I open PH in home page, so I can react on news and see whats coming also... Not that I would buy such sort cars soon, but for some sort people at some age?
I can understand what they like or can buy, in my days it where 205 GTI 1.9 also gutmans and I had a DIMA version like the 205turbo cars(rwd) with a 160hp engine...later on I moved to Lancia Delta evo's again later to E30 M3 cars(also a lot diferents top was one with a E36 320hp engine in it and a 270hp 3.5 alpina B6S version of that) but I also had a Compact 3 with a M3 E36 320hp engine and a E30 with a M5 340hp engine in it haha fun that was...also had 5 Nissan Sunny GTI-R cars 4wd and most tuned to around 280<>300hp.. then I moved to porsche 911 also a RS and 2 TVR cars, Z3 m roadster and now my third Z3 M coupe S54 I've had more then 100cars but now I'm complete looking at cars with a heart and soul karakter in it, like some TVR or that new Marcos and wjhen money aloud that uber Wiesmann GT or a fast Lotus Exige/Elise with more then 300hp under the bonnet
so a bit lightweight special low volume cars! so I have a future to look for have fun
GTRene
fatjon said:
Come on, this is a womans shopping car designed for emasculated pratts who cant afford a decent motor or wouldn't know one if it ran them over. You cant take a crappy little car like a subaru imprezza or golf and create supercar by sticking a big engine in it. Its a turd and you cant polish a turd, get a life and get a porsche, even if its an older one. This is a car for blokes who who would by a man bag if advertisers told them it was cool. Get real!
Nice collection of stereotypes. I ran a Boxster for 3 years - Mind you it was a 1998 LHD 2.5. I have a psychological limit of £20k for a car, any car. So I am considering a hatch. The Leon and the new CTR appeal to me, despite being FWD. I don't care about marketing bull and / or image and / or badge. You seem to be the one who is image obsessed and the one judging others by your own standards mate. Good post though.
Edited by nickfrog on Thursday 20th July 08:00
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