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SEAT Cupra GT
by Jon Winding-Sørensen
After technological and styling excesses from the Volkswagen Group such as the Audi Rosemeyer, the Bugatti, the VW/Italdesign W12 and Nardo and other concepts and dreams with ever growing number of cylinders and incredible amounts of horsepower, it comes as a relief when the Group’s southernmost branch, SEAT, debuts a supercar with some reason built into it.
Pure racing and power, of course. A surprising amount of Lamborghini styling cues, and still it manages to have it's own identity. Not the least thanks to the new corporate grille, slowly developed by Walter de’Silva before he left to take charge of all Audi brands, which of course includes SEAT. Especially the triangular air intakes behind the side windows could have been pure San Agata Bolognese, but then the big fixed rear spoiler talks about race tracks, pieces of tarmac Lamborghini have never been very comfortable with.
The Seat Cupra GT (not even a dramatic name, compared to some of the other VW Group dreams), surprised everyone, presented fairly discreetly as it was at this minor exhibition such a short time after the international razzmatazz of Geneva. It is a car that could easily be reproduced 25 times in the prototype shop, and then be made eligible for certain classes of high profile racing. There hasn’t been any announcement that this will be done, but neither that it won’t.
Engineered in-house, apart from Hewland gearbox (as used on Audi for their Le Mans Racer) with components from the Group’s enormous parts bin. The engine is a 3 litre 5 valve V6 unit, now turboed up to 500 hp, rear wheel driven and your normal enormous racing wheels.
Tubular chassis elements fixed to the usual tub, with a carbon fibre body drawn tightly around the mechanicals. Compact, 4562 x 2100 x 1190 mm on a 2650 mm wheel base, the whole thing weighing 1100 kg. Impressive technical data for the body too: frontal area of 2,04 sq-m. multiplies with a Cw of 0,32 to make a very healthy CwA value of 0,64. Lift? Forget it, these cars suck!
Body is said to have been designed at SEAT’s new design centre in Sitges (not the same as the VW alternative Studio in the same town), but no designer’s names are given. The car clearly demonstrates that SEAT’s designers want to develop their own kind of sporty image. Both when it comes to the use of multiples in cylinder-count and – especially – when it comes to design.
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