Test Drive Seat Leon 5 Doors since 2012 Hatchback
Cup & Racing.
He stood at the very edge of the water. Beautiful and assembled. In the view - the calm confidence is strong. In the pumped body - willingness to fight with any challenge. Kupra, Leon Kupra - He seemed to say, introducing ...
So we stood against each other - maybe five minutes, and maybe an hour. I was hot - he doesn't care. I wanted to experience him in the matter - I was indifferent to him. Well, enough, "I said to myself, - in the end, it's just a yellow car. Think, two hundred and small horsepower. Well, 270 nm of torque, well, a four-wheel drive, a six-speed gearbox ... We have seen something and jogging. But something stopped me, prevented open the door and start the engine ... I just could not suck them. Leon Cupra promised me with its solar yellow. There was no such frank color on the Moscow streets for a long time. And it is unlikely that he will soon appear in abundance. Muscovite's eye is not used to some special color car diversity. For Mercedes, the black is most accustomed to Mitsubishi Pajero - probably silver, for small age pieces Peugeot, Renault and Volkswagen - blue or green ... But Leon Cupra should be yellow. Yellow premier. Of course, Seat is not Ferrari, and in whatever color it is painted it, he will never surrender as a red stallion from Maranello. But I assure you, a small lion has breed.
Recall, Cupra is from Cup and Racing. However, in the appearance of the car there are not so many sports traits. Modest antiques over the rear glass, V6 signboard on the front wing and good seventeen-seed sports shoes. However, these small bellows, there were quite unlikely to make Leon. Bright, summer, in good warm, he hypnotizes, not allowing you to take a look from myself ...
Further more. In the cabin installed four (!) Recaro seats. This is not a 2 + 2 scheme used on a expensive compartment for two adults and two children. This is a sports car with four sports seats for adults (behind sit no less convenient than in front) and another place for a child. Moreover, the second row is located just above, and from there, even low passengers are perfectly visible the road. The excavation between the two rear seats will delight the small fifth crew member (there is a separate seat belt). Verified personally. My seven-year offspring spent a whole hour with me in the car, not tired of admiring the benefits of his personal seat.
The driver's seat, in addition to standard settings, has an elevator to change the height, as well as an adjustable lumbar roller. The seat can be adjusted under a person almost any dimensions. Three pedals are decorated with racing metal linings. For the left leg there is a wide metallic emphasis.
Two steering switches are standard Volkswagenovsky, with a conventional set of functions. The flap of instrument is a storm, but informative - speedometer, tachometer, coolant temperature and fuel level sensor. The remaining control lamps are hidden in the window of an opaque display. It comes to life only at the moment of inclusion of ignition, and after the system's self-test, all the light bulbs are in turn goes. The steering wheel with a well-chosen diameter and thickness is covered with a pleasant skin-touch - successful, like leather inserts in the door, adding to the dear black interior. On the heater console, the climate control and cd-changer radio control panel is located. The fact that the car inside is an order of magnitude more expensive than outside, took me the entire test. In a driver's chair, I felt like the owner of a prestigious representative car. Chic and comfort Made in Spain - unexpectedly, but very nice. Plus an unusual silence in the cabin. Neither the motor nor noise rubber is practically audible. It is possible to understand that you are moving not in airless space, but by your own planet, you can only after overcoming the boundary of 180 km / h. Stunning!
Salon delights would like to add references to several pleasant trifles: the instrument lights turn on automatically when the car in the shadow is hit, the stereomagnetic sound level increases with increasing speed, on the threshold near the driver's chair there is a small button for disabling the volume sensor of anti-theft alarm. If you have had to leave your child or PSA in a closed car, just click this button, and you will avoid false alarm triggers ...
Six-cylinder V-shaped 2,8 liter motor issues 204 hp at 6200 rpm., Torque is 270 nm at 3200 rpm. and unwind up to 6500 rpm. Rather, the limiter works somewhere by 6,700 rpm., But it is not necessary to strain the motor absolutely. After the first 10 minutes of movement, I realized that I did not want to climb above 4000 rpm. The engine is endowed with a very smooth characteristic and easily accelerates the car almost exactly and equally in the range from 1000 to 6000 rpm. He is absolutely predictable, and there are no unexpected sports jerks and pickups from him. This power unit probably could move not only a semi-trial leon, but also a truck of impressive sizes.
(Actually Cupra 4 is no longer the fastest Leon. In the spring of this year, the version of Cupra R appeared on the market. For six horses more powerful, two kilometers per hour is faster, for one tenth second, it accelerates to hundreds for one tenth seconds - all because of that its 1.8 l motor is equipped with a turbocharger. And, therefore, a priori cannot have such an smooth characteristic as the Cupra atmospheric engine 4.)
Motor Cupra 4 is aggregated with a manual six-speed gearbox. Transmission numbers of the CAT are optimal for both urban and country conditions. In my opinion, a few short-term transfer - apparently, it is inherited from a car with a small engine. But it quickly cease to pay attention. At the same time, the sixth is not an empty pseudo-alone accessory and is intended for movement at speeds more than 180 km / h - it is to this high-speed turning over the fifth transmission to give way to the highest. Folkswagenov's lever lever stroke is long, but in general, quite acceptable. The car suspension is optimal for both acute driving, and for calm movement in the Sunday stream of summer houses. It does not provoke a driver's aggressiveness, as it was, for example, in the case of Honda Civic Type R (Motor # 7, 2002), but at the same time will allow fans of acute ride to play racing - will provide the honed control of the sports car. At the same time, even elderly people in Leon Cupra will be comfortable and pleasant. Neutral turning, sufficient rigidity and a single breakdown for the entire test. Bravo!
I can not say anything about the advantages or disadvantages of the full drive (permanent, with the Haldex coupling) and the ESP coursework system (I did not even try to disable it). Whether the MICHELIN Sport MICHELIN Sport width is to be guilty here, or the quality of the coating of Moscow streets has improved, but I have never been able to put the car into a skid. All day she was stable and safe ...
The author is not blessing, "you say," fell in love with Leon Cupra, lost a sense of reality and described the perfect car. I repent, I really found my car. Cupra combines all I need. She is a measure of fast and sports, very comfortable and endowed with me a cute aggressive appearance. But I did not quite lose my head, and I am ready to mark the shortcomings of the car. There are two. The first is the disgusting work of the ABS. The system works in the case without - when slowing down in a turn, when braking on irregularities, than delivers a bunch of anxiety, interfering to get the true driving pleasure. I know that there are methods for reprogramming the brake helper. In the sports department of the Volkswagen Concern, this is done by this, for example, when preparing POLO for highway-ring racing. And if Cupra was mine, I probably would try to improve her abs.
The second and more substantial, in my opinion, minus is the price of 34.600 American dollars, which is explained by a high level of configuration (only the CD changer is offered from the options, the navigation system and a hatch with an electric drive - everything else is already available) ... Pros are obvious, minuses are noticeable, but be that as it may, I received present pleasure from communication with this powerful comfortable car. SEAT Leon Cupra 4 is not a sports car and not a family hatchback, but the most successful compromise between them. It differs from the sports monster as well as convenient sneakers for every day from specially observed football butsses.
Goodbye, Leo. Maybe we will meet again. Interestingly, how much can you get a loan to buy a car in size at $ 34.600?
Text: Boris Schulmeyster
A source: Motor magazine [№8 / 2002]
