Refreshed Cupra Leon Gets 296bhp FWD Version

Has Cupra just given the old-school hot hatch a stay of execution? The old Leon 300's drivetrain carries forward on the refreshed version

Mike Bartholomew

26 Jul 2024

It was just the other day we were mourning the apparent death of the properly hot, petrol-powered hatchback from Cupra, with the new Leon’s top drivetrain set to be reserved for the Sportstourer and the electric Born VZ now top of the hatchback pile in terms of power. UK pricing and specs for the new Cupra Leon have just been revealed, though, and it turns out we might have been a bit premature in our sadness.

As expected, if you want the full-fat 328bhp four-wheel drive setup shared with the new Audi S3 and Volkswagen Golf R, you’ll need to plump for the Sportstourer, which is no bad thing, because everyone loves a fast estate. It also gets its German cousins’ torque splitter tech for oversteery antics, too. That top rung powertrain will set you back from £45,190.

What we didn’t know at the car’s reveal, though, is that the old Leon 300’s powertrain will be carried over too. Exclusive to the hatch, it makes 296bhp from a 2.0-litre turbocharged four-pot, driving the front wheels through a seven-speed DSG automatic. That’ll cost from £41,465 in VZ1 trim.

Other powertrain options include a 1.5-litre, 148bhp petrol – the only one available with a manual gearbox – and two plug-in hybrids, providing total peaks of 201 and 272bhp.

Unveiled alongside the updated Formentor, both hatch and Sportstourer versions of the Leon get the same new ‘shark-nose’ front end and triangular lighting signatures. It’s arguably a bigger deal with the Leon, though – while the Formentor is a standalone Cupra model, you can still buy a SEAT Leon, and the Cupra version’s new look differentiates it significantly from its more pedestrian cousin, which just raises further questions around the still slightly murky future of SEAT.

The interior tweaks are the same too, with a new 12.9-inch infotainment screen, a 12-speaker Sennheiser sound system, and a range of more sustainable materials.

All versions of the new Leon are on sale now, with the 296bhp hatch providing a welcome respite for the more traditional hot hatch at a time when it feels more under threat than ever. Any chance of another R version, Cupra?

The first full sentence spoken by an infant Mike was a review of the ride quality of a Volvo 850. It was “Daddy’s car goes bumpy-bump on a bumpy road,” so would probably need proofreading a bit, but it was a start.