The Leon has a number of things in its favour - not least a superior engine

Three days and a few hundred miles are all that separate the Renaultsport Mégane 250 from the SEAT Leon Cupra R. It could have been even less – Renault was all set to launch in Barcelona too, until it discovered that the circuit it wanted to use, Castelloli, was already booked out to SEAT…

Leaving aside matters of timing and location, these two are close rivals. Sure, there are the obvious areas, such as power, torque, 0-60mph, emissions, equipment and so on, but did you know that both are built in Spain – the Renault at Palencia, north of Madrid, the SEAT at Martorell on Barcelona’s outskirts?

So this is a good time to be shopping for a hot hatch, and if you’re reading this thinking, ‘I’d have the Renault,’ you should know that the SEAT has a number of things in its favour – not least a superior engine to the Mégane’s. Although it likes to pretend otherwise, SEAT is limited in what it can achieve by the simple fact that it has to use existing VW group parts – in this case the 261bhp turbocharged 2-litre from the Audi S3 and forthcoming Scirocco R. But it’s better here. The engine acoustics deliver a really crisp, tingly induction note and it’s downright fast too, spearing eagerly through the lower reaches of the rev-range (the turbo blows at a hefty 1.2bar from 2500rpm) and sustaining this force effortlessly at the top end.

The 24bhp and 37lb ft gains over the standard Cupra (achieved by a new intercooler, exhaust and ECU) are the most newsworthy upgrades. It’s hard to get excited about unchanged bodywork (a missed opportunity), a 6mm shorter gearchange throw (can’t say I noticed) or a 3mm suspension drop.

Ah, but it has been fitted with springs that are 35 per cent stiffer at the front, 30 per cent at the back. Given that the non-R Cupra is rightly criticised for its crashy, jittery ride, why is it that this one seems to cope pretty well with the (admittedly pretty smooth) roads in the shadow of Montserrat? Perhaps the most significant change of all is the adoption of longer rubber suspension bushes. We’ll need to drive the car in the UK to be sure, but the harshness does seem to have been pinned back to an acceptable level.

Otherwise, driving enjoyment is governed (or should that be restricted?) by electronics, principally the XDS pseudo-diff and non-disableable ESP. As far as you are able to push them, the front wheels cope well, gamely resisting understeer on the exit of corners. But the Cupra R comes across as a painting-by-numbers car, with none of the technical hardware or intelligent engineering solutions that distinguish the best cars in the class.