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SEAT Leon FR

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The new SEAT Leon has the full 197bhp Golf GTI engine and yet is £3K cheaper than the VW

Text: Henry Catchpole / Photos: Dave Smith

August 2006

FR looks purposeful, helped in this case by optional 18in wheels

Amongst the myriad details in the press pack for the new SEAT Leon FR is a section listing the FR's competitors. Astra SRi (the VXR has only three doors, the Leon five), Focus ST and Mégane 225 are all there, but there is one very noticeable omission, the sort of absence so glaringly obvious that it might as well have been included and then crossed out with a bright yellow highlighter.


	The Leon is bought by a younger, more daring person than the Golf's more mature (and more affluent) purchaser

Why no Golf GTI? Why wouldn't you want to highlight the fact that you have produced a car with the same engine and same fundamental chassis as the class leader, yet with more adventurous looks and a £3K saving? So I asked the question, and apparently the Leon FR and the Golf GTI 'don't really compete'. To which I could only really reply with a still rather puzzled 'Ah'.

Now, obviously the comment was coloured by corporate creative thinking, but apparently it's also because the Leon is bought by a younger, more daring person than the Golf's more mature (and more affluent) purchaser.

The Leon's looks are undeniably more exciting. The clever 'hidden' rear doors, with handles located in the C-pillars, automatically give the Leon an advantage, making it look more rakish than its five-door rivals (and the Golf). The bodywork has then been bolstered by the addition of a gaping front grille, grey wing mirrors and twin exhausts. Finished in trademark SEAT yellow, it certainly looks a more flamboyant prospect than most hot hatches. Only a tangerine Focus ST gets close.

The interior lacks the detail quality of some of its rivals, making it feel a little cheaper - which it is - if no less well built. However, the sporting ambience is given a leg up by a centrally placed rev-counter and FR badging on the steering wheel and gearknob. The seating position can be tailored to suit both jockeys and rowers, although both will be hunting to see around the big A-pillars.

When the Leon was launched last year there was a 2.0 TFSI model with this very same engine, but detuned to give 15bhp less. That model has now been discontinued so as not to confuse matters, but it was already surprisingly stiff in its set-up, given that it had no sporty badge nailed to its rump. So as we head off up into the hills I'm wondering if the FR is going to be a bit of a filling-rattler.

It's not. The roads that hug the slopes beneath Monserrat may be smooth, but it's clear that the Leon is softer than the Golf GTI. Not massively so, but in contrast to the pleasingly cammy exhaust note, the suspension and steering have definitely been turned down a click on the volume control.

There's a whisker more roll into corners, so although there's still plenty of lateral grip, it lacks some of aggressiveness and instant adjustability of the GTI. The steering is an ounce lighter too; not less direct, but with a bigger helping hand from the electro-mechanical assistance.

Ironically, the lack of imperfections in the road may not have played to the FR's strengths. I managed to find the odd blemish to test the Leon and the damping was fantastically controlled yet absorbant. We will have to wait until we get one in Blighty to find out for sure, but I suspect the FR's light could shine slightly brighter on the rough and tumble of a Welsh B-road.

Overall, though, it would seem that the SEAT and the VW aren't competitors after all. The FR slots in neatly just below the GTI in both price and sporting prowess. Hopefully the 240bhp Leon Cupra, due early next year, will follow in its predecessor's footsteps and be the lairy latecomer of the extended VAG hot hatch family.