Copperhead Missile
If you are looking for a car that can do almost everything, and still feed your cycling habit, the CUPRA Leon Sportstourer would probably be it.
With a comprehensive model lineup here in Singapore, CUPRA, SEAT’s performance sub-brand is truly making waves. They first began with a logical approach of fielding an SUV, the CUPRA Ateca, which we drove in both pre-facelift and current guises and loved both of them just the same. With the expansion of their range of cars, CUPRA now has something for just about anyone who needs wants a compact-sized performance car.
When they mentioned that they would go on to produce an estate version of the CUPRA Leon, I had to jump at the chance to drive one.
There is always something special about a high-performance estate. Group company, Audi has long been at it, showing the world that high-performance estate cars are cooler than their sedan brethren. Volvo back in the 90s also had their flying brick, the iconic primrose yellow coloured 850 T5R Estate, powered by their oddball 5-cylinder setup (a car I came to be madly in-love with, in a time when Volvo was really-truly Volvo, and bolder too… sorry I digress).
The CUPRA Leon Sportstourer is one of those cars that will have you taking a pause to admire. It is properly pretty from just about every angle, boasting sweeping lines commanding thick shoulders, and three-dimensional tail lights. The Sportstourer’s extended roofline adds to the car’s road presence in a very good way.
There are nine colours to choose from, that includes Graphene Grey (Nardo Grey in Audi talk, Moonstone Grey for Volkswagen), one of two Special Metallic colours our test car is coated in. CUPRA has also provided five 19” rim options, and one standard 18”, and we like that they have even given a few options with copper accents (for those who are not so familiar with the brand, copper is part of the brand’s identity).
With the new Leon, there are quite a few pleasant changes. For one, the cars in this group, which includes the Audi A3, Volkswagen Golf and Skoda Octavia, now rely on a shift-by-wire gear selector, which tidies up the centre console. There are also many reminders that you are in a CUPRA-badged car, like in the copper accents surrounding the air-conditioning vents, on the steering wheel and even in the double top stitching on the seats. Even the dash sports a special touch of copper-colored threads.
Sports seats are coated in supple Petrol Blue coloured leather (there is an option for black, but the blue is cooler). The same leather treatment goes onto the door cards, complete with texture. Something that makes me smile is that CUPRA has followed through with their fancy leather stitching, which is seen in the rear passenger area too. This to me is important, as there are some brands which choose to cut corners, where only the front-end gets the fancy treatment. The attention to detail, does make the CUPRA-badged Leon an exceptionally easy vehicle to fall in love with.
The infotainment is fronted by a 10” touchscreen, that ius seated above the middle air-conditioning vents. The new infotainment which is built upon the new group’s MIB3 architecture, can be operated with the activation phrase “Hola! Hola!”, which lets you work certain features in the infotainment setup. We like that there are physical touch sliders just below the screen, allowing you to easily operate the climate control and to adjust the volume. A wireless phone charger is also included in the mix, so that your device can remain juiced up till the end of your journey.
The cockpit features a 10.25” digital instrument display, offers flexibility on the style of drive graphics you prefer, and also in the display of other information, like your playlist. Speaking about audio, the CUPRA is equipped with a premium Beats Audio Sound System, driven by a 340W amplifier, with a subwoofer stowed in the boot.
As an estate car, the Sportstourer boasts a boot area of 620 litres (20 litres less than the Skoda Octavia Combi, and this is due to the multilink suspension at the rear, which takes up more space), 240 litres more than the hatchback, and is equipped with a virtual pedal at the rear, for easier opening. Practicality is high on the Sportstourer’s design brief, with 60:40 folding seats, which can be folded from the boot, a few hooks to hold your groceries in-place, and no kerb where the boot ends, where the folded rear seats begin. There is also the clever two-stage mechanical cargo cover that can be retracted by just the pressing down of its outer edge, a common feature with Volkswagen, SEAT and Skoda estate cars.
If you are looking for a car that can do almost everything, and still feed your cycling habit, the CUPRA Leon Sportstourer would probably be it. Under the bonnet, the 2.0TSI engine pumps out 310hp and 400Nm, and utilises a 7-speed DSG to deliver drive to all four of its wheels (4Drive in SEAT talk). In contrast, the hatchback variant is a FWD affair, with 10hp less, but with the same torque.
With AWD available, the Sportstourer is able to plant more grip, especially to the rear wheels when taking off, resulting in a 4.9 second century sprint timing, versus the hatchback’s 5.7 seconds; and you can be sure that it will leave many class equivalents in its wake. In ensuring that optimal grip is achieved, wheel slip is minimised with the help of the Electronic Locking Differential, which locks slipping wheels, to maximise grip, making it difficult to get in trouble with the CUPRA estate.
Plant the copper-florished Leon Sportstourer around a few corners, and you will find that the AWD drivetrain responds with neutral characteristics. The added weight at the rear leaves you with hints that it wants to step out a little, but in a predictable way. Perhaps this is one if the reasons that this estate is heaps of fun to drive.
The Dynamic Chassis Control (DCC) is central to how you want the estate to behave. With presets that match three different drive modes - ‘Comfort’, ‘Sport’ and ‘Cupra’, the last one which is their version of ‘Sport+’. You can also set your damping just the way you like, when in ‘Individual’ mode, where there are fifteen shades of stiffness, allowing you to choose anything from “fluffy-so-fluffy” to “viagra”; dial it up or down the way you like, so that you will get your feels… CUPRA won’t judge... CUPRA won’t tell.
As a daily driver, the CUPRA Leon Sportstourer can give you similar driving comfort and versatility as compared to most c-segment bread-and-butter wagons out there; and when you need to split from that pack, the CUPRA Leon Sportstourer even betters some of the very best hot hatches currently offered.
Spanish brand, SEAT took a bold leap with turning CUPRA badge into a whole new sub-brand. A bold leap in the right direction… and one with lots you can look forward to.
I would dare say that if you ever liked fast wagons, the CUPRA Leon Sportstourer is one of the most entertaining, well-built and versatile compacts out there (or perhaps the only one, if Skoda does not bring in their RS-badged Combi).
Credits: Words and Photos by Clifford Chow
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