Cupra’s shoved the lovely 2.5-litre 5cyl into the Formentor, and it’s UK-bound

Cupra has done the decent thing (again) and shoved the Volkswagen Group’s rather delightful 2.5-litre five-cylinder combustion engine into the nose of the Formentor and set it loose. Everywhere. Including the United Kingdom.

Yup, the ‘VZ5’ trim returns for this facelifted Formentor (no, still not a Harry Potter villain but a decent Spanish SUV), and Cupra is building a limited number of them in both left- and right-hand-drive.

So you’d better be quick if you want an Audi RS3-engined SUV/crossover that’ll do 0-62mph in… well, we’re not quite sure. Cupra hasn’t revealed full performance details, but we know the last Formentor VZ5 with the 2.5-litre five-pot did it in 4.2s. That’s outrageous pace for something so chunky.

Speaking of chunky, there’s also 354lb ft available, matched to a seven-speed dual clutch ‘box sending drive to all four wheels. Should be fairly rapid point to point, then. Especially since it gets the RS3’s fancy torque splitter tech.

Elsewhere on this VZ5 you’ll find fatter arches, new bumpers, 20in wheels finished in copper, dark chrome lettering, a dark colour palette, and a set of bucket seats inside. Among other things like a ‘steering wheel’, ‘pedals’, and ‘infotainment’ of course.

No word on pricing – the current top trim is the hybrid VZ3, which kicks off at just under £50k – but word on numbers: Cupra’s building just 4,000 of these VZ5s.