SEAT León Cupra R review
by David Finlay (5 January 2011)
There have been SEAT León Cupra Rs before, but nothing quite like this. The car of that name which appeared in the UK last summer is by far the most quickest of the series, and is in fact the most powerful production SEAT in history with its 261bhp two-litre turbo petrol engine. This is, broadly speaking, the same unit, as the one found in the Volkswagen Golf R, but that car has a slightly higher output and four-wheel drive. Despite the constant temptation to refer to the León as little more than a rebodied Golf, it would be more accurate to describe the Scirocco R as a closer relative.
I think it's also fair to say that the León is the sportiest of the three. High-performance Volkswagens are exceptionally fine machines, but they feel a bit clinical. The León, though not short of outright ability, has a bit more jazz to it, as if it actually wants to go through corners really quickly, rather than simply agreeing to do so if that's what you want.
Like most other modern hot hatches, this one has so much grip that you're simply not going to be able to find out where the limits are on the road, unless your driving technique is catastrophically awful. You have to go to a test track of some sort to find out what happens when, in Martin Brundle's splendid phrase, ambition exceeds adhesion. The UK press launch of the Cupra R involved some unbridled lappery on the infield circuit at Rockingham Raceway, where it sounded a lot better on full throttle than either of the equivalent VWs would have done, as if Volkswagen doesn't see why a car's exhaust should sound sporty and SEAT doesn't see why it shouldn't.
More to the point, the León remained very well-balanced at far higher cornering speeds than you could sensibly expect to achieve on a public road. Driven even harder, it eventually smudged into understeer which never became terminal because the electronic safety aids cut down on the available power before it could, even with the driver's right foot trying to push the throttle pedal through the back of the headlights.
Whatever anyone may say, this is not race car behaviour, but it is excellent fast road car behaviour. There comes a point where no vehicle can overcome the silliness of whoever is behind the wheel, but the Cupra R is so secure that you really would have to be twenty types of numbskull in order to cause an accident while driving it.
Fortunately I was no more than nineteen types of numbskull during this test, which passed without incident and was in any case not really intended to explore the Cupra R's handling limits since I'd pretty much covered that at Rockingham. Many cars which handle beautifully on the road feel like bowls of porridge as soon as you take them on a track, and in the same way many which are pleasant and comfortable on the track are unbearable on the road.
That last description would serve for previous hot SEATs, which were so ferociously sprung and damped that they didn't so much soak up the bumps that are so typical on most UK roads as bounce one from to the next. I didn't make myself popular among SEAT people by saying this (I think my picture may have been attached to the office dartboard) but, damn and blast, it was true.
It's not true now. As I've mentioned before, SEAT seems to have had a radical change of policy since the introduction of the Ibiza Cupra back in 2009, and all of its high-performance models since then have had noticeably softer suspension which improves both the ride quality and the handling no end. In the case of the Cupra R, this means that you can now buy a León which is both a lot faster than equivalent models of three or four years ago while also being very much more pleasant to drive. It's just the sort of thing that the term "win/win situation" was coined to describe.
So, during this test I enjoyed driving the Cupra R slowly, not so much because it was a wonderful experience in itself but more because I knew that very high standards of acceleration, braking and direction-changing were available within less than a second if I needed or wanted them. And, as with other cars with this dual personality, it was possible to travel over certain routes no faster than in less powerful models but in a much more relaxed manner, and I rather liked that.
Perhaps not everyone who wants a Cupra R in their life will be interested in that last bit. If you're not, all I need to tell you is that this car goes like stink and costs about £3000 less than the mechanically identical Scirocco R. Over to you.
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