Cupra Formentor VZ5 review: 5cyl RS3 power in a posh SUV

What's this?

Much like smoking cigarettes or listening to music off vinyl, stuffing a big multi-cylinder engine into a compact car is an idea whose time has gone. But like the latter if not the former, it still has immense appeal.

So welcome please to the Audi five-cylinder turbo, on a surprise comeback tour in a Cupra. Spotters might know there was actually a Formentor 5cyl pre-facelift, but we Brits were denied it. This time it'll be delivered in right-hand drive from summer 2026.

Give me the numbers.

It's a 2.5-litre producing 390bhp and 354lb ft, going through a seven-speed DSG and four-wheel drive for 0-62mph in 4.2 seconds. Six-piston front brakes, by Akebono, slow it down again. It's likely to cost £60,000 when it arrives here, which is one reason why the British allocation is just 50 cars out of the 4,000 limited run. A two-year-old Porsche Macan GTS isn't much more, FYI.

Yup, obscure alright…

To students of the classifieds who scrape around for five-cylinder Ford Kugas, VW Golf V5s, Peugeot 406 V6s, Audi RS Q3s, and the like: yes, we know cars like this were sparse sellers, even before the days of punitive CO2 tax. But petrol is in real terms cheaper than for most of this century, so to private buyers treating themselves – or the minted dealer principal – this must have a distinctive leftfield appeal.

Never mind rarity, is it any good?

Ooooh yes. The faster Cupra Formentors have always been an appealing drive. The body isn't much higher than an estate's so it's not hindered by pitch and rock. Cupra engineers have always been good at marrying suspension control with useful suppleness. 

And this one has quite a spec. This 20v TFSI turbo engine needs no introduction. It feeds through the Group's seven-speed DSG and torque splitter rear clutch packs, and with that a selectable drift mode which your tester was far too self-conscious to sample. There's no digital sound augmentation, either, for none is needed. 

This alloy-block engine doesn't throw too much weight forward. With the battery moved to the boot, nose weight is up just a couple of kilos versus the iron-block, four-cylinder AWD Formentor.

Visible upgrades include widened arches to cover the 235-section 20-inch wheelset, four obliquely mounted tailpipes in copper finish, and carbonfibre air management around the lower bumpers. Indoors you get excellent electrically adjustable bucket seats.

Tempting on paper. Can't you just stop teasing and hit the road?

Sorry. TBH, the engine is a little droney below about 2,500rpm. So rev it. Then the five-part choir really starts to sing. You're also pretty much free of lag after that. It hardly feels like a turbo engine, just a big broad-shouldered one that aims to please. It actually holds peak torque all the way to 7,000, so rev it you must. 

In manual paddleshift transmission mode, there are even change-up lights around the tacho, which is just as well as you hit a hard rev limiter 200rpm short of the clock's 7,500 redline. Boo. Anyway, this can be a joyfully hectic car.

There is of course all the traction, so it's happy to squirt off the line or make a very smart exit from second-gear corners. You can use the looser ESC sport setting without jangling your nerves.

Can the chassis make sense of it?

Use the spicier modes ­– Sport and Cupra – or Individual where you can dictate how sternly the adaptive dampers do their thing and how keen it is to send torque rearward. Then it's well-controlled, and happy to play a little.

Dips or crests or throttle adjustments give a good sense of little wiggles from the front or rear tyres, so you know you're properly on it. There's little roll or float, and the steering's pretty responsive, although short of glassy transparency. 

Yet soften things back to Comfort and it's absolutely a car for everyday. Freed from damper clenching, the springs allow the wheels to ease their way over an irregular roadway. At least, the irregular roads of Spain, which have a better surface than ours. We might have to update this opinion when we get the VZ5 over here.

So it's a tolerable regular crossover then?

Oh, more than. Cupra's control layout is a great combination of hardware switches and a logical screen. There's decent rear legroom despite the racy front seats. The boot's OK, although the rear diff, tyre kit and Sennheiser sub deny you any underfloor storage. So it loses almost nothing in comfort compared with a regular high-spec Cupra Formentor.

Sounds like quite an all-rounder…

You probably ought to be quick to order one. And sign up for a fuel loyalty card. Next stop after this is the big-power, big-body, big-badge crossovers, and in many ways this is cheekier fun than them.