Cupra Leon Estate

HELLO

£40,535 OTR/£42,305 as tested/£644pcm

WHY IT’S HERE

To expose “sports crossovers” as the silly idea they are.

DRIVER

Paul Horrell

OH WE DO ALL LOVE A FAST HANDSOME ESTATE, AND HERE IS ONE.

A stablemate of the Cupra Formentor that Tom Ford is currently running, it has 310bhp and 4WD, and a seven-speed DSG is mandatory.

A quick rundown of the other specs. Beginning with the fact it’s £40,535 plus a glass sunroof and Desire Red paint. At that money it’s going to have to be good. It’s certainly quick. Under five seconds 0–62. Doesn’t actually feel quite that rabid, but of course its drag-sprint time will have been flattered by the traction of 4WD and the quick DSG shifts.

This is the top VZ3 trim level. It has adaptive damping, and a heated electrically adjusted leather seat for my backside. The passenger gets the leather, but DIY adjustment. It also has an electric tailgate which is supposed to open with a sweep of your foot under the bumper, but it seldom works for me. The sensors can’t detect my feet of clay.

The moment it arrived we put it to use. Off for a family camping trip, we folded one third of the rear seat, so as to swallow my pushbike upright. Even with the bike in, we couldn’t fill the rest of the boot. But then we have very little camping gear. Most people take a tent the size of a cathedral, full field kitchen, four-poster beds. But anyway, it’s a big space back there.

Then up from London to north Lincolnshire for a day at Blyton Park track, where the most excellent coach Mark Hales was charged with polishing the turd that is my track driving technique. Then a trip in the opposite direction, south-west to Cornwall, as far as Falmouth in one day.

I still have trouble calling this a Cupra. It’s only recently that you’ve been able to say, with a Seat, just “It’s a Seat” rather than “It’s a Seat, a sort of slightly cheaper VW”. And now we have to start again: “It’s a Cupra, a sort of souped up Seat”.