Car Moon

A rather foxy yet clearly irresponsible teenage driver of a Citroen Saxo had British police running in circles –literally- in a chase that took place at the Hams Hall industrial estate near Coleshill, England, last month during a police crackdown on what they call illegal car cruise events.

One of the spectators who had stopped on the side of the road to enjoy the chase filmed the young man’s shenanigans and uploaded the video on Youtube for all to see.

It all started when an unmarked Seat Leon hatchback pursued the driver of the silver Saxo who managed to escape by speeding up, down and even in…reverse on the busy highway.

As part of the VW Group’s strategy to expand its brands into new markets, the German automaker will bring Seat to the Shanghai Auto Show (April 21-28, 2011) offering Chinese buyers their first taste of the Spanish firm’s cars before sales begin with the Leon and Ibiza models in 2012. Read more »

Never content with any of the VW Group's offerings, German tuner JE Design has now trotted out a new performance package for the Seat Leon Cupra R.

The stock model rolls out of the Spanish firm's factory with a 2.0-liter turbocharged four-pot producing 265HP and 350Nm of torque. Thanks to performance kit that includes a recalibrated ECU, a sport air filer and a new exhaust system, the tuner increases those numbers to 330HP and 420Nm.

The most powerful and quickest-accelerating production Seat to date, the new 265-horsepower Leon Cupra R, will carry a price tag of £25,205 when the orders books open at the firm's UK dealers on Thursday 1 April.

The Cupra R is powered by a VW Group-sourced 2.0-liter turbocharged four-pot delivering a maximum output of 265HP and a peak torque of 350 Nm at 2,500 rpm that drive the front-wheels through a revised six-speed manual gearbox.

The tuning specialists over at JE Design are planning to debut their 2010 Seat Leon FR at this month's Essen Motor Show in Germany. The performance package includes upgrades for both the TSI gasoline and TDI diesel versions of the Spanish hatchback. In its latest form, the 2.0-liter TSI petrol engine delivers 211HP and 280Nm of torque. With JE Design's engine kit that's priced at €1,499, the TSI's output is lifted to 270HP and 335Nm reducing the Leon FR's zero to 100km/h (62mph) sprint time from 7.1 to 6.2 seconds.

This year's Frankfurt Motor Show, being held from 17-27 September, will see Seat unveiling its most potent series production model to date, the new Leon Cupra R. Based on the 2009MY Leon Cupra facelift that was revealed at the Barcelona Show in April, the R replaces the standard model's 240-horsepower turbocharged 2.0-liter four-pot with a 265-horsepower direct injection 2.0 TSI.

SEAT has chosen next month's Barcelona International Motor Show (May 9-17) to pull the covers off the facelifted version of the Leon Cupra which is essentially the Spanish firm's VW Golf GTI. Like the rest of the 2009 Leon range that was revealed at the Geneva Show in March, the Cupra has received a series of minor cosmetic upgrades that include a new grille design that sports a smaller badge, larger headlights and new door mirrors. Look closely and you'll also spot a new tailgate design and tail light clusters.

The Cupra in particular also gets a newly styled front bumper with larger air-scoops at each corner and the word 'Cupra' printed on the left side. The sport hatch's looks are rounded off with a new set of 18-inch alloy wheels.

For the interior, aside from the tweaked instrument and center console designs which are common to the rest of the Leon range, the Cupra also features a three-spoke leather steering wheel with aluminum color inserts and a matching gearbox knob along with a set of sport bucket seats for the front passenger and driver. A new option for the 2009MY Leon Cupra is the black leather upholstery with white cross-stitching that you can check out in the photos below.

Underneath the bonnet, the 2009 Leon Cupra gets the same 240HP 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine as found in the previous version. Top speed is clocked at 247 km/h or 154mph, the 0 to 100 km/h (62mph) sprint takes 6.4 seconds while it covers the first 1,000m from standstill in 26.4 seconds. At the same time, average combined fuel consumption is listed at 8.3lt /100 km or 28.3mpg US.

At next month's Geneva Motor Show SEAT will showcase the facelifted Leon hatchback featuring minor cosmetic revisions and an updated engine range. On the outside the most identifiable traits of the 2009 model concern the newly shaped grille with the smaller SEAT logo, larger headlights and new door mirrors while at the rear, there's a larger window that now covers the whole length of the hatch and restyled tail light clusters which bring to mind the word "Alfa Romeo"... Inside, SEAT's designer have made modifications to the instrument panel, central console and door panel trim and materials.

Despite the gloomy outlook on the automotive sector, this year's Geneva Salon looks like it is going to be packed with new cars that will be making their world premiere at the Swiss show. The latest piece of information to come by our hands is that VW Group's Spanish brand SEAT will take the veil off the facelifted Leon and Altea range that includes the Altea XL and Altea Freetrack crossover, as well as the station-wagon variant of the Exeo that as you already know, is in essence a re-skinned previous-gen Audi A4. We'll have more details on all the new SEATs closer to the opening of the Geneva Show in March.