Review: Seat Leon Cupra 300

The outgoing Leon Cupra 290 was an exciting hot hatch, but it could be a little unruly at times. Clearly Seat didn’t agree though: it’s now added even more power and torque to the gifted hot hatch, meaning it now offers even more bang for buck. Has it gone too far or is it now even more compelling than ever?

Well, one thing’s for sure. It’s even more mightily fast. 0-62mph takes 5.8 seconds and, on a race circuit near Seat’s Barcelona HQ, it proved extremely thrilling. At seemingly anything above idle, the engine surges forward with vigour and has no qualms revving right through to its redline.

You have to concentrate though: boot the accelerator with abandon and it quickly becomes unruly. The Haldex differential can struggle to manage all this force. It’s also a pity the steering remains slightly numb and lifeless, meaning you have a few too many questions when steering between apexes. The brake pedal is also too sharp.

All these details matter. The price of the Leon 300 is now moving ever-closer to cars such as the Ford Focus RS and BMW M140i; they’re cars that feel like more has been spent on engineering the details, rather than simply making them go fast.

The Leon Cupra 300 does have one trick up its sleeve though – a surprisingly comfortable ride by hot hatch standards. If you choose to leave the adaptive dampers in their most relaxed setting, you’ll find a surprisingly sensible car emerges, one that will take everyday driving in its stride without leaving you breathless.