Advertisement
BBC TopGear
BBC TopGear
We're changing how you comment on TopGear.com
Find out more
Hot Hatch

Seat Leon Cupra gets more power

Cupra is the most powerful Seat road-car EVER

Published: 05 Dec 2016

Internet, be upstanding for the most powerful Seat road-car EVER. It’s the Leon Cupra 300, and it has an entirely predictable 300PS. In old money, that’s 296bhp – a 10bhp increase over the outgoing Cupra 290. Torque is also up from 258lb ft to 280lb ft, and you get a load of active safety tech and a new infotainment system. 

All very good news, but the big story is that the Leon Cupra ST is now DSG and all-wheel drive only. The SC three-door and five-door hatch get either a manual or the auto plus FWD – it’s only the estate that gets AWD. Prices and performance figures haven’t been released, but we’d be very surprised if they didn’t more or less mirror the mechanically similar (ahem, identical) Golf R Estate’s. That means 0-62mph in 5.1 and 155mph. 

Advertisement - Page continues below

AWD could well make the ST the fastest Leon Cupra of them all. The three-door Leon 290 does 0-62mph in 5.7secs, and no way a 10bhp bump is shaving half a second off that. Good news, as the estate’s probably the one we’d have anyway. 

Leon 300s arrive in March. Prices are unconfirmed but aren’t likely to be that much more than the 290, which starts at £28,380 for a three-door manual. Expect the AWD ST to command a bit more of a premium.

Advertisement - Page continues below

Top Gear
Newsletter

Get all the latest news, reviews and exclusives, direct to your inbox.

More from Top Gear

Loading
See more on Leon

Subscribe to the Top Gear Newsletter

Get all the latest news, reviews and exclusives, direct to your inbox.

By clicking subscribe, you agree to receive news, promotions and offers by email from Top Gear and BBC Studios. Your information will be used in accordance with our privacy policy.

BBC TopGear

Try BBC Top Gear Magazine

subscribe