Friday 25th April 2003

Cupra GT

500bhp GT car tops SEAT's range

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SEAT goes from strength to strength (happy now CupriBri?) and has revealed one of its most exciting sporting projects to date at the Barcelona Motor Show.

The Cupra GT is the result of joint design and development work by SEAT Sport and the SEAT Design Centre. Under the swooping body is a 3 litre twin turbo V6 borrowed from Audi which pumps out almost 500bhp - good for 180mph.

The engine is mid mounted and is mated to a six speed 'box. Spoked 18" alloy wheels, secured with a single bolt for speed of change are mounted over dark titanium coloured AP brake callipers. The front wheels are shod with 265/650 tyres and the rear, 285/680.

To complete the sporting picture, the whole carbon fibre chassis is painted a vivid metallic orange with titanium coloured wheels, headlamp casings, grille surround, twin tailpipes and spoiler brackets.

Any car to be used for GT racing needs to be rigid and the Cupra GT achieves that through use of a tubular structure with intertwining anti-roll bars. At the front, the sub-chassis is reinforced by the arch formed by the dashboard beam and windscreen frame. The reinforced rear lends rigidity to the central section and the tubular structure, reinforced with a series of buttresses distributes stress in several directions. The solid sub-chassis is the anchorage point for the rear suspension system.

The final version of the SEAT Cupra GT is expected to race in this year’s Spanish GT series and SEAT Sport will commence building GTs to customer order later this year.

Seat's transformation from building Panda clones to supercars is complete. It's a testament to the VAG Group's marketing skills that they have turned around the brand so dramatically.

[mr_tony]

What's it going to cost then?

[d_drinks]

Shame that the wheels are from a Seat Leon Cupra R !!! not good given the likley gulf in price

[Podie]

er... looks a bit like the "Salsa" concept car... (have I got the right name? )

[CVP]

I've always thought that the guys from VW never took SEAT seriously.

Take the Cupra and Cupra R for example. A quick call from Spain to Wolfsburg

SEAT - "Do you mind if we have a rumage through the parts bin for a few bits and pieces for our new car?"

VW "Yeah, no problem"

SEAT - "OK, 1.8Turbo, a bit more boost please, we'll have the 6 speed gearbox if that's ok" etc etc

If you're spending your own money the Cupra and Cupra R have to take on the mantle of performance bargains from the original Imprezza.

Chris

[mikeylad]

looks pretty mega to me.

btw, whats an intertwining roll-bar?

[tekta]

Looks awesome, just a little tweak of the grille would suit me.

Oh, sorry, I'm not actually buying one, take no notice Seat!

It does have some hints of the Salsa, but they've stretched those cues out to the GT size really well. Should look imposing at 200mph, brum brum

[v8thunder]

Seat are obviously VW's challenge to Alfa Romeo - Alfa had better hurry up with the Brera if they want to fend this one off!
P.S. I think an 'intertwining roll bar' is two crossing roll hoops in a similar style to the Lotus 340R.

[Roadrunner]

Bloody VAG! It's just not on to put 500 gee gee's in a Seat. KNOW YOUR PLACE!

[MadDogSloan]

I think that the Cupra GT will a very hot car if it does go into production. I just hope that it will be an affordable price.

[The DJ 27]

There is nothing wrong with SEAT's thank you (ok im biased, but still). Should look bloody awesome when its racing next year (just wish they'd put a big, howling V12 in it instead of a V6)

[cuprabri]

Ted,

Happy now!

;-)

[F2 Stu]

But thay wont have the balls to make it a road going car