Cupra Leon 300
Can a hot hatch really take the place of a grand tourer?
THERE’S A RECURRING DEBATE AT EVO Towers about what constitutes a grand tourer these days. You’ve still got your actual GTS, of course, such as the Aston Martin, Bentley, Ferrari and Lexus we tested in issue 290, and hallelujah for that. But their kind must be feeling the squeeze from increasingly capable machines from other sectors. There are high-end SUVS, with their lofty viewpoints, plush interiors and equally potent engines. Then more recently we’ve seen the arrival of electric options, their quiet and highly capable powertrains a perfect fit for grand touring duties – if you’re prepared to work around the current range and recharging shortcomings. Ones to watch, I’m sure.
In the meantime, I’d like to posit another, perhaps more easily overlooked option: the hot hatch. Specifically, a hot hatch like our Cupra Leon 300. Its suitability for the role occurred to me while driving our long-termer up to the Highlands for a holiday recently (just days after it had been there in different hands to support our ecoty photoshoot – hence this month’s monster mileage), because it couldn’t have made the ninehour, 500-mile journey north more effortless.
It helps that today’s hatchbacks have grown to the size of a family saloon from not that many years ago, meaning there’s more occupant and/ or luggage space than you’d find in a traditional two-seat or two-plus-two GT. No need here for a bespoke luggage set to work around an awkward boot shape. But just as importantly, hot hatches have become so much more refined, too. Improvements in sound deadening and the proliferation of soft surfaces in their cabins mean the sensation of travelling along in a tin box is long gone. Seats are more ergonomically designed and fine-tuneable than ever before. Dual-zone climate control ensures driver and passenger can have exactly the (inevitably different) temperatures they desire. And adaptive dampers – adjustable through a range of 15 settings in the Leon’s case – mean that a suitably relaxed ride is just a couple of screen taps away.
The driver, meanwhile, can enjoy the ease of an automatic gearbox that’s mated to an engine capable of 40-plus mpg at a cruise, giving a range of 440 miles or more between fill-ups. Yet there’s no shortage of performance should you need it: a power-to-weight ratio on a level with that of an original Maserati Granturismo – a grand tourer if ever there was one – sees to that.
And then when you get to your destination, a few more touchscreen presses can reconfigure the car to something that’s ready, willing and able to tackle any B-road or even single-track road you care to throw it at, without ever feeling unwieldy, overweight or overwide – where a true GT, or an SUV, might.
In fact, so capable is the Cupra on such trips that it perhaps does itself a disservice. It never shouts about what it’s doing, so there’s no danger of it detracting from whatever remarkable landscape you happen to be driving through. But nor is it likely to form a significant part of your memories of that journey, and for me, that’s where it falls short –
I want the car I’m in to be part and parcel of such trips. And I’m sure I’m not alone, which hopefully means there will still be a place for ‘proper’ grand tourers for many years to come.
Date acquired July 2021 Total mileage 6638 Mileage this month 3693 Costs this month £0 mpg this month 38.3