Past Master Seat’s sporty beginnings revisited
Seat’s first proper hot hatchback has the air of a grand tourer packed into a supermini body, as Alex Robbins discovers
It’s a recommendable bargain-basement daily driver with buckets of character
Seat of the mid-1990s was a very different animal. The idea of the company launching a performance car would have evoked a snort of derision from many a punter, accustomed as buyers were back then to a diet of reheated Fiats and pretty, but crummy, first-generation Ibizas.
But with the aid of the financial reserves of the Volkswagen Group, Seat gradually started to reinvent itself as a sporty brand. Of course, to do that, the company needed some suitable performance offerings – and with the second-generation Ibiza came its opportunity.
First, in 1993, there was the Ibiza GTI – a tentative toe in the water that used the VW Golf GTI’S 8v engine to provide 113bhp. The toe became a foot in 1994, when the GTI 16v arrived, using a 1.8-litre 16v engine based around the Mk2 Golf GTI’S.
These early hot Ibizas helped to establish Seats as sporty alternatives to modern VWS. And they proved popular, too; so much so that Seat refined its offering in 1996, upgrading the 16v version’s engine to the 2.0-litre from the Mk3 Golf GTI and tweaking the 8v to offer up its torque lower in the rev range.
It’s one of these later 8v models that we’re driving today. Why not the 16v? Well, partly to find out whether this is one of those cars in which the less powerful model is the sweeter.
So is it a case of less is more with the Mk2 GTI Cupra? Er, no. Frankly, the first thing you notice is the underwhelming engine note. What grunt there is peters out higher up in the rev range, at which point you find yourself aching for the greater ability of the pokier engine. Still, the useful glob of low-down torque provides brisk performance. And the clean, predictable responses of the Ibiza’s chassis, combined with the nicely weighted steering and high levels of grip, result in a hot hatch that will satisfy, if not exhilarate.
Push it hard and it’s still possible to cock an inside rear wheel, though, like all the contemporary Golf GTIS, and even its more powerful 16v sibling, used to do, but if you were hoping for a road-going version of those racing Ibiza Kit Cars that clocked up three successive victories in the FIA 2.0-litre World Rally Cup, you might feel disappointed. In fairness, it still feels light on its toes, maybe as a result of some careful shedding of what Seat saw as unnecessary luxuries, such as the aircon and the sunroof, and you do get ABS and traction control as standard, which was a rarity back then.
Teamed with the 16v engine, you feel, this could really be an exciting little car, albeit not one endowed with the incredible finesse of the contemporary – and similarly powerful – Renault Clio Williams. But use a Clio Williams on a daily basis and you’ll soon tire of the paperweight dashboard, buzzy engine and squishy seats. And this is where the Ibiza plays its trump card: what it lacks in outright excitement, it makes up for in its solidly built interior, endlessly comfortable chairs, and smooth, well-resolved ride quality.
At these prices – £1000 should secure a tidy, low-mileage example – that makes for a very recommendable bargain-basement daily driver with buckets of character. Seen in those terms, the Ibiza has plenty going for it – even if, in the context of the hot hatch purple patch that was the 1990s, it doesn’t quite offer the outright sportiness the Cupra badge has come to represent.