Confirmation of the production of the Seat Bocanegra Concept revealed at Ginevra has arrived. The prototype seen at the show previews the aspects of the next three-door Ibiza, expected for November with the name Sportcoupè: but especially it will have the black nose reflecting the mean look of the Cupra, 2009, which as a showcar makes itself noticed for its chrome finish.

The good news is that the Cupra will maintain most aspects of the Bocanegra such as the front air vent design. Designer Luc Donckerwolke, ex-Lamborghini, has declared that given the success won for the prototype, it would be unthinkable to change the series’ version.

The Cupra will be equipped with a 1.4 TFSI at 180 hp and the new DSG seven gears and together with the new Toledo will be the most important news in 2009. The Toledo will be based on the old Audi A4 series but dressed up in Seat style.

Continue reading: Seat Ibiza: three doors in November and the Cupra in 2009

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Seat has published new photos of the Ibiza, Martorell’s base model presented at the beginning of April and expected on the market between June and July.

The shots are the first official pics from the photo studio. Seen on the road this new Ibiza shows its dynamic and sporty aspects, characterised by the unusual lateral lines running along the sides of the car.

The large gallery includes new photos of the interior and its dynamic style, reflecting the bodywork of the car.

Seat Ibiza 2008

Continue reading: New photos of the Seat Ibiza

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Maybe, what we heard in the last months about a boost for Seat’s sporty image wasn’t just talk, if we go by the new Seat Leon Cupra, which will be shown at next week’s British International Motor Show.

First, the Leon Cupra will be the most powerful Seat ever, with its 2 liters turbo-charged direct injection gasoline engine that outputs a hefty 240 PS. Second, the choice of a Seat for the debut of this new (and important: +40 ps) power-step for the Golf GTI’s TFSI engine.

All this power results in impressive performance figures for this spanish hot-hatch: top speed is 247 km/h, acceleration from 0-100 km/h in 6.4 seconds. In an in-house comparation with the Golf R32, the Leon Cupra boasts 3 km/h less in top speed (who cares …) but better acceleration: -0.1 seconds notwithstanding the fact that the R32 has a bigger V6 engine and 4WD. The Leon Cupra’s figures are very similar to the Opel Astra OPC, which should be its main rival.

Continue reading: Leon Cupra - the most powerful Seat ever

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The Seat Leon Cupra will debut on the july 18. It’ll be sportier and more muscular than the Leon FR: it will feature the most powerful (up to now!) incarnation of the 2.0 liters Turbo-FSI engine, with 240 ps.

The Seat Leon Cupra will thus contend with the Astra OPC the title of most powerful FWD hot-hatch on the market.

Later this year the Cupra will get a cousin with an even more powerful version of the 2.0 TFSI: the Audi S3, which luckily will couple it with an Haldex 4WD system.

Details on prices and performance of the Leon Cupra will follow later, nearer the launch date.

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So. It seems that rumors of Seat’s demise (or incorporation into Audi, or a sale to a Chines producer) were exagerated.

Volkswagen has promised an investment of 700 million € in three years, to restructure and revitalize the spanish brand. The project is called “Nueva Seat”.

What isn’t known at the moment is how great a part of these 700 million is going to be used to develop new models and how much is going to be used to ease the pain of the 1,400 redundancies that Volkswagen Group believes to be necessary because of Seat’s slowing sales in recent years (from 516.000 vehicles in 2000 to 390.000 in 2005).

[From Auto Motor und Sport]

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