Seat Leon cup racer

You can't blame SEAT for wanting to make a bit of noise about its Leon, this being the first hatch in the VW family to actually get the much-vaunted MQB platform. That's gone onto loftier things with the new Golf GTI and Audi S3 (with every mid-sized car in the known universe to follow) but hot Leons have always had appeal to those not hung up on brand snobbery.More so if SEAT ever makes one that looks like this prototype Cup Racer that it's bringing to the Worthersee meet. Yours for 77,000 euros (plus taxes), the Leon Cup Racer is 40cm - yes, cm - broader in the beam than the standard car, which should please Harris after his recent celebration of blistered arches and shows the new 911 Turbo the real meaning of widebody. Well, it's been a couple of days since we last mentioned it... 330hp from a 2.0-litre turbocharged engine drives through a paddle-shifted DSG gearbox with, says SEAT, 'an electronically controlled differential lock.' We'll assume unless told otherwise this is like the Golf's Haldex-based active diff option on the GTI Performance model, rather than the XDS ESP-based system used by many VW group cars, SEATs included. A conventional mechanical limited-slip diff is available if you opt for the 95,000 euros 'endurance' edition, which uses a more traditional lever-operated six-speed sequential, this more likely a regulatory requirement for certain racing classes than an implication that the DSG version wouldn't last the course.Worthersee is known for its wild concepts like Audi's TT Ultra but this SEAT is very much a pukka product. "We expect to be able to offer the Leon Cup Racer to our customer teams as early as the 2014 season," says James Puig, SEAT's motorsport boss. "With the two versions for sprint and endurance racing, the Cup Racer is ideal for an extremely broad palette of racing series - from the ETTC to the VLN Endurance Cup on the Nurburgring." Nor does Puig rule out a 1.6-litre WTCC version to defend SEAT's double title record in the championship in 2008 and 2009. And just to hammer the point home SEAT will also be bringing a street 180hp Leon FR to Worthersee with a bodykit and suitably blinged up interior with lots of red leather to try and distract from the fact there isn't yet a Leon hot enough to undercut the Golf GTI. SEAT has past form here too, the previous shape Leon's K1 kit managing the surprising trick of ripping off the WTCC touring car and actually looking pretty mean rather than the tragic wannabe it might have been. Which prompts an inevitable trip into the classifieds to see where they're at right now... Answer? £11-£12K it would seem. The orange one appeals particularly - if you're going to do it, do it properly after all and if you wanted something suitable for Worthersee there's little else off the shelf that comes close.SEAT's also bringing the Ibiza SC Trophy along, the 200hp 1.4-litre turbocharged hot hatch built for single-make championships held in Italy and Spain. Someone needs to set up a hot hatches championship along the lines of the American B-spec one so we can have these, Clio Cups, Mini Challenge racers and more going head to head...