Photo: CarPix
We haven’t heard much from SEAT’s Cupra sub-brand for a while, but this year is going to be different, especially after the carmaker’s most powerful road car ever is going to the hit the market.
We are talking about Cupra’s halo model, the Formentor crossover, which is about to receive a 400-horsepower version in the second half of 2021.
For the first time ever, Audi will share its mighty quattro-developed 2.5-liter inline-five with another brand part of the Volkswagen Group, so the most powerful Cupra Formentor will also have a soundtrack like no other Cupra or SEAT before it.
This isn’t the first time Audi and the Spanish branch of VAG have collaborated this closely, with the old SEAT Exeo being just a rebranded Audi A4 for a while, but it’s the first time we will get to experience the raspy sound of that inline-five in a non-RS model.
Even though the Formentor is not based on any other SEAT or Volkswagen Group model, it does use the same architecture underpinning cars like the Volkswagen Tiguan.
Tentatively to be called the Cupra Formentor VZ, with VZ coming from ‘veloz,’ which is ‘speed’ in Spanish, the feisty crossover was recently spied during some cold weather testing in northern Sweden.
Only the front and rear end of the car are covered by some mild camouflage pieces, suggesting that the visual modifications will stick to a minimum compared to the standard Formentor.
On the other hand, those four stacked exhaust tailpipes do announce that the car means business, and so do the copper accents visible on the oversized wheels.
The sports crossover is expected to offer around 400 horsepower from the turbocharged 2.5-liter mill, which will be sent to all four wheels through a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission. Apparently, the next iteration of the engine in upcoming Audi cars will be slightly more powerful so that the Cupra won’t be the bigger dog in the five-cylinder VAG lineup.
For the first time ever, Audi will share its mighty quattro-developed 2.5-liter inline-five with another brand part of the Volkswagen Group, so the most powerful Cupra Formentor will also have a soundtrack like no other Cupra or SEAT before it.
This isn’t the first time Audi and the Spanish branch of VAG have collaborated this closely, with the old SEAT Exeo being just a rebranded Audi A4 for a while, but it’s the first time we will get to experience the raspy sound of that inline-five in a non-RS model.
Even though the Formentor is not based on any other SEAT or Volkswagen Group model, it does use the same architecture underpinning cars like the Volkswagen Tiguan.
Tentatively to be called the Cupra Formentor VZ, with VZ coming from ‘veloz,’ which is ‘speed’ in Spanish, the feisty crossover was recently spied during some cold weather testing in northern Sweden.
Only the front and rear end of the car are covered by some mild camouflage pieces, suggesting that the visual modifications will stick to a minimum compared to the standard Formentor.
On the other hand, those four stacked exhaust tailpipes do announce that the car means business, and so do the copper accents visible on the oversized wheels.
The sports crossover is expected to offer around 400 horsepower from the turbocharged 2.5-liter mill, which will be sent to all four wheels through a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission. Apparently, the next iteration of the engine in upcoming Audi cars will be slightly more powerful so that the Cupra won’t be the bigger dog in the five-cylinder VAG lineup.
Google News