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By Jonathan Crouch

Can this top VZ model really be the ultimate Cupra Leon? Jonathan Crouch takes a look.

Ten Second Reviewword count: 32

In the Leon VZ, CUPRA brings us the focused hot hatch the top version of the CUPRA Leon should have had all along. Potential Golf GTI Clubsport customers should take a look.

Backgroundword count: 162

Almost every month, it seems like a new electric hot hatch joins the market. But the combustion part of the shopping rocket segment is still alive and well and CUPRA wants to remind us just how satisfying a petrol-powered GTi-style model can still be. With this car, the CUPRA Leon VZ. There's scope for confusion here, given that the Spanish maker labels its mainstream Leon models VZ1, VZ2 and VZ3. But these are designations of a much lower level of performance. The CUPRA Leon VZ, we're assured, is the real thing. You might still be confused because the brand already sells a Leon hot hatch model, the CUPRA Leon 300. The Leon VZ slots in above that car (think Golf GTI Clubsport level, as opposed to Golf GTI), though strangely, it's still not the most powerful CUPRA Leon (that's still the only 4WD model, the 333PS 2.0 TSI 4Drive estate). Still with us? Let's take a closer look at the Leon VZ.

Driving Experienceword count: 331

So what's on offer here? If your starting point is the existing CUPRA Leon 300, don't think of this Leon VZ as a step like a Golf GTI to a Golf R; it can't be because the VZ's power goes only to the front wheels. Golf GTI to Golf GTI Clubsport is more the kind of thing, though the VZ has more power (325PS) than the Clubsport, sharing its engineering with the Golf GTI Edition 50. As for the more stripped out Leon VZ TCR variant, well that's the kind of thing we got when Renault did a more track-focused Trophy R version of its old Megane RS. Or when Volkswagen bought us a Golf GTI Clubsport S. If you're still with us, you'll now have a better idea of what CUPRA is trying to do here. Apart from the extra 25PS over the CUPRA Leon 300, there's also slightly heavier steering and slightly beefier six-pot Akebono front disc brakes. Plus slightly stiffer damping, aided by the standard fitment of the VW Group's latest and very impressive adaptive damping system, which makes this car cruisy at one end of the scale and sharply focused at the other. It's one of the two things we think might really sell this car to you. The other is the VAQ torque vectoring electronic differential, which in the dry at least will vastly improve cornering traction and which plays a much greater role here than it does in lesser fast Leons. In the wet though, you'll wish you'd found the extra for the 4MOTION system of the Golf R. As long as it's dry though, this car is fast, dispatching 62mph in 5.4s (though that's only 0.3s faster than a CUPRA 300) en route to 168mph. We mentioned the rare Leon VZ TCR model, built to commemorate the brand's success in Touring Car Racing. Inspired by the Leon touring car, this gets removable rear seats, a rear strut brace, wider tyres and proper racing harnesses.

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