INSIDER TRADING

NEWCOMER CUPRA LEON 300 SHARES ITS ENGINE AND PLATFORM WITH AUDI’S FEISTY S3 HATCH, SO WHICH DELIVERS REAL DIVIDENDS FOR THE DRIVER?

- DANIEL GARDNER

IN 2022, THE Australian automotive landscape will gain an all-new premium European brand bringing a range of sporty passenger and SUV models carrying the Cupra moniker. But not only is the intriguing line-up completely new to the nation, its closest relation SEAT hasn’t been sold Down Under since a brief tenure in the mid-1990s and, since then, the contextual trail has gone decidedly cold. If the Australian new-car market was a rental house, then Cupra would be the suspicious tenant that applies without a reference and lists previous addresses starting with Her Majesty’s…

Except this hopeful newcomer actually has one very reputable referee to its name – Volkswagen. A complete understanding of exactly how the Cupra brand will slot into Australia – fronting one of the world’s most pragmatic and demanding audiences – will have to wait until next year, but its strong family DNA and relationship to already high performing models offers a decent glimpse at the potential.

In the case of Cupra’s Leon small hatchback, the underpinnings are the VW Group MQB Evo platform which provides the structure for the current generation VW Golf, new Skoda Octavia and new Audi A3. But the car you see here is the high-performance hero 300 version, and it shares more in common with the new Golf R and Audi S3. So what better way to preview the latest contender in the hot-hatchback arena than pitching it head-to-head here in the UK with the next-generation Audi S3 that will arrive in Aussie showrooms at about the same time?