The Angry New Cupra Formentor Starts At £33,450

The Cupra Formentor – the first car to be sold as a standalone Cupra model rather than a SEAT with different badges – was an instant smash hit, and we imagine the sharky new facelifted version will be more of the same. A couple of months on from its unveiling, Cupra has confirmed the range of prices and powertrains it’s set to get in the UK.

The biggest change on the facelifted version comes in the form of that aggressive new front end, with new triangular lighting elements in both the front and rear lights. A couple of new colour options complete the exterior changes.

The inside has been given a light tweak, too. It gets a new 12.9-inch infotainment screen and Cupra has sensibly followed in the footsteps of parent Volkswagen by illuminating some of the touch-sensitive sliders. There’s also a new 12-speaker Sennheiser audio system and more sustainable upholstery options.

It’s the powertrains where the big news is, though. The headliner is a 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder making 328bhp – up from 306bhp in the previous top four-cylinder – and driving all four wheels through a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission. It gets a torque splitter system that can shuffle more power to the rear wheels for tyre-smoking silliness and also features beefy Akebono brakes.

If that’s a setup that sounds familiar, it’s because it’s identical to the one in the newly-updated Audi S3 and Volkswagen Golf R. That setup costs from £45,685.

Most other powertrains are shared with the refreshed Cupra Leon, with the exception of that car’s 296bhp, front-wheel drive setup. That means a 148bhp, 1.5-litre petrol available in either manual or mild-hybrid automatic form, and a pair of plug-in hybrids using a 1.4-litre turbo petrol for totals of either 201 or 268bhp.

No word yet on whether the raucous five-cylinder turbo VZ5 version will return, although we never got that in the UK anyway – sad face. Like the new Leon, it’s available to order in the UK now.