The Bentley Bentayga, Range Rover Sport SVR and even the Porsche Macan Turbo, all offer monster performance in a premium SUV package.
There’s a huge audience for this kind of car, which is exactly what SEAT’s newly launched Cupra brand is trying to capitalise on with its first standalone model: the high-performance Ateca SUV.
Only it’ll do it at a more affordable price, with Cupra aiming to bring the Ateca in under the £40,000 mark when it goes on sale later this year. Of course, it won’t be quite as fast as the aforementioned performance 4x4s, but it has the credentials to pique the interest of even staunch driving enthusiasts.
To think of it as a rebadged, rebodied SEAT Leon Cupra might be underselling it slightly, yet to all intents and purposes, that’s the basic recipe. All cars get a 296bhp 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbocharged petrol motor mated to a seven-speed DSG dual-clutch automatic gearbox driving all four wheels through SEAT’s 4Drive all-wheel drive system.
The motor pulls strongly with a smooth 400Nm swell of torque that builds predictably to a relatively revvy peak – just as we’ve come to expect from this engine. However, this linearity and the Cupra Ateca’s 1,632kg kerbweight means it feels a little flat and not quite as fast as we were expecting.
On paper, the Cupra will do 0-62mph in 5.2 seconds and a top speed of 153mph. However, with launch control, a DSG transmission and solid four-wheel drive traction, the way in which is achieves this performance desensitises you.
Maybe the chassis will inject some of the excitement back into the mix, as the upgraded engine is accompanied by commensurate changes to get the Ateca to contain all that power and handle fairly sweetly for an SUV.
The Cupra Ateca’s MQB chassis sits 20mm lower than the regular car and features firmer springs. The Ateca gets SEAT’s Dynamic Chassis Control adaptive dampers, which offer a Comfort mode and a Cupra setting for sportier driving, too.
In the former it’s acceptable on the road, which is where this car should stay. We tried it on the track in Cupra mode, and while it’ll cling on valiantly, it can’t hide its mass, height or heft. That said, neither can the Ateca’s hot SUV rivals. The optional Brembo brakes come as part of the Performance Pack, and help stop the car from big speeds.
The Comfort suspension setting works nicely as long as the road surface doesn’t throw up any jagged edges. Here, the 19-inch wheels on our car weren’t controlled quite as well, springing back a little aggressively.
The Cupra setting exacerbates this characteristic, but it does improve the Ateca’s resistance to roll. The weightier steering will be down to personal preference, but given the slight lethargy to direction changes compared with a similarly sized hot hatch, the lighter mode enhances the agility.
There’s just enough of this, but a lack of feel means it’s not exactly engaging. Still, judged on its ability to pick apart even a twisty road, the Cupra is an accomplished SUV package. Traction from the 4Drive system is great, and although the Haldex unit can send up to 50 per cent of the power rearwards, it doesn’t ever feel that adjustable. We tried it off road too, and it proved just as capable away from the tarmac as it did on it.
Elsewhere, it has to deliver everything a conventional SUV does, so that means usability, practicality and tech that’s easy to use. The boot capacity is down a little on regular front-wheel drive Atecas – thank to four-wheel drive system’s rear differential for that – but 485 litres is more than enough for a family’s needs.
Up front, there are a few more features that carve the Cupra out as a sporting alternative to a regular SEAT. Our test car sported some supportive two-piece bucket seats and racier trim to match the body kit and burbling quad exhausts. Thankfully, there’s no enhanced sound here.
The Cupra Ateca also gets a digital dash display that’s configurable to show different data and the sat-nav map in front of you. The rest of the infotainment is familiar from models in the SEAT range. Claimed fuel economy and emissions data hasn’t yet been released, but expect a little less than a Leon Cupra with the same powertrain due to the extra weight.
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