rickj

I went on a fast lap ride in a Cupra R with a race driver during a Ferrari track day last year.

The car blew me away, okay I know its was a fast track and this guy was a proper driver but the car was mentally fast. I doubt he would have made my scoob go any quicker. We went through one corner and I was staring forwards up the track through my passenger window, he had it going sideways a lot and the grip was amazing even for a FF car. The acceleration and top end speed was suprisingly strong. Asked the man if it has any jiggery pokery under the bonnet and he said it was stock, just new tyres for each event.

Everytime I see one of these at the traffic lights I have a little more respect for them than I had previously...

Rewolf

Cupra R has a reputation for scraping speed bumps with the low front wing - never had that on the scooby. Just a thought, but there are some areas around here that you couldn't get to in a Cupra R!

WRBlu

Yes in the 2003 EVO group test they rated the Cupra on a track and it was only the 210hp version, overall it came 3rd, 03WRX second and the Golf R32 by a slim margin came top although they slated the Golf later after they had it on long term test However the Cupra had the 2nd slowest lap time, WRX was fastest (all wet laps). The Cupras 0-100 of 18.3 was a little slow compared to the WRX at 15.7. The 225HP version Cupra will obviously be better.

matchmaker

(Flame suit on) What about an Octavia vRS? Under the skin same as the Seat. Can be punted up to 210+ bhp for about £500. Theres also an AWD (estate only though, although AWD hatches are available 2nd hand - not vRS, 150 bhp, but can be chipped easily)

colin c

What the F**K are you on about, SEAT is owned by the VW Audi group not Ford

I'm a senior technician at 1 of the UK's largest SEAT main dealers so I know a lot about these. The Cupra R is a very under rated car in my opinion, the main fault is build quality on the interior trim, but it's not that bad really.

Mechnically they are very good, we get quite a few high mileage R's in, some are already between 60 and 70k in less than 2 years and a few of these are Revo'd to 260ish bhp. The only 1 we have had problems with the owner is a very enthusatic driver, he does track days and when he's not on track he drives like he's still on the track, his has been Revo'd from new, has now covered 70k miles and had the clutch replaced at 60k due to starting to slip, but the main problem I found today while investigating a poor performance problem with the car, the problem turned out to be a cracked turbo housing, hopefully this is an isolated case.

Point to point down a local B road I don't think there is much between the R and my 341 bhp Scooby, the R doesn't feel so frantic as my Scooby so it allows me to push it a bit harder in my opinion. The R's traction control and diff set up works well and puts the power down very well for FWD.

If your worried about economy try a Leon FR TDI, every time I drive 1 they put a smile on my face, a very quick every day car that has more torque than most Scooby's on this site and still does 50 mpg, I always said I would never buy a deisel, but it looks like deisel could be the future

Colin.

Sorry about the abusive start to this reply

WRBlu

Well quite a balanced set of views, I still think the WRX is the better car than the Ford Cupra tho