Cupra Formentor VZ5 review – Audi’s RS Q3 survives in this 385bhp Spanish crossover
Once forbidden fruit arrives on our shores in the form of the five-cylinder Formentor VZ5. But is it any good?
The Audi RS Q3 no longer is and shall by all expectations, never be again. Now Cupra is stepping in to sate what appetite is left in the market for five-pot crossovers, with the 2.5-litre five-cylinder VZ5 version of its commendable Formentor. It’s the kind of multi-cylinder heart transplant that simply doesn’t happen anymore and that legislative constraints will soon make all but impossible.
The Formentor VZ5 feels like an almost infantile last hurrah for a brand otherwise focused on delivering as compelling a range of electric cars as possible – indeed, this drive of the Formentor VZ5 piggybacked on an event giving journalists their first exposure to the Cupra Raval, the marque’s forthcoming VW ID.Polo-based electric hatchback.
> Cupra Leon estate VZ3 review – more power and personality than VW's Golf R
Of course this isn’t the first time this car has received this engine. The pre-facelift got the VZ5 treatment all the way back in 2021 but while that car’s 7000-unit run almost doubles the 4000-unit run of this new car, it was left-hand drive only. This time, the VZ5 is no longer forbidden fruit, with 250 right-hand drive cars being available for order in the UK as you would any other Formentor variant, albeit with a price tag in the region of £60,000, rather than £48k…
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Realistic expectations then for what is a niche car, that many like the idea of but few would actually pull the trigger on. Should you? Do big, exciting, acoustically interesting internal combustion engines in everyman performance cars go out with a bang in the Formentor VZ5, or a whimper?
First, some numbers. Because they make for amusing reading. The VZ5’s 2.5-litre five-cylinder turbocharged engine delivers 385bhp and 354lb ft to all four wheels, with the rears receiving that punch this time via the celebrated torque splitter differential – neither the last VZ5 or the last RS Q3 were so-equipped but we like the effect it has in the junior Formentor VZ. The Formentor VZ5 will warble its way to 62mph from rest in just 4.2sec – 0.7sec quicker than the 328bhp car – on the way to a 174mph top speed.
Damping is by the ubiquitous DCC 15-way adjustable adaptive set-up, with very little tweaking needed to accommodate a change in weight balance, given there isn’t one, really. With the 12-volt battery repositioned to the rear end, the Formentor is just 2kg heavier at the nose (it’s nominally heavier overall) than the four-cylinder version.
The VZ5’s track is also a hair wider, the ever-so-subtly flared arches housing bespoke 20-inch wheels shod in Goodyear (Eagle F1 Supersport) rubber. Braking is by the Akebono six-piston stoppers gripping 375mm discs at the front as standard.
The visual changes are subtle. Look closely and you’ll peep ribbons of carbonfibre trim across the front and back bumpers and diagonally stacked quad exhausts. In the front, the now familiar and appropriately Audi RS-aping Cup Sabelt bucket seats that are available as an option in four-pot turbo Formentors and Leons – and great seats they are too.
This Formentor makes its divergent nature properly known with a push of the start button that fills the cabin with the muted woofle of five reciprocating pistons. This is the first car outside of Audi itself besides KTM’s Crossbow GTX that’s been granted use of the five-cylinder and it reliably and consistently dominates the experience. It’s a smoother, more exotic sound than the slightly laboured-sounding EA888, with the artifice of the Leon’s augmented sounds made crystal clear when driven back-to-back.
It’s an engine that feels like it has more than the 57bhp/44lb ft advantage the spec sheet suggests, like that 4.2sec 0-62mph time is a worst-case scenario. In-gear there’s reasonable lag until you’re up above 2500rpm but once the turbo wakes up, the tail squats and the Formentor’s aggressive face looks skyward.
Throw it at a set of corners at pace and the VZ5 surprises you with the turn-in response and grip it’s retained in spite of the heavier engine. The steering has decent weight off-centre when in the sportiest mode if not the most feel in the traditional sense. With more twist available the torque splitter has a stronger presence, the wheel almost being pulled towards the straight ahead through your hands as the outside rear wheel drives you round.
The versatility of the DCC dampers is tested harder in the Formentor given its raised ride height. Where three quarters across on the 15-way slider yields an acceptable refinement/control compromise on the road in a Leon, you instinctively trade a bit of focus for comfort, setting it bang in the middle. It works well most of the time, the extra lean and undulation feeling entirely on-brand for a higher-riding car.
You’ll find the Formentor’s nose wants to skip a bit more than say, an AWD Leon – an inevitability given the mass has longer lever via which to lean on the tyres in an SUV, than a hatch, saloon or estate.
In truth these delineations between crossover and hatch were there in the four-cylinder car. Besides the larger 20-inch wheels giving high-frequency impacts a bit more of a thud, there’s no deal-breaking tradeoff related to the car having an extra cylinder specifically.
Price and rivals
That means choosing a VZ5 over the 321bhp model is a matter of justifying the extra £12k and the ballpark £60,000 price as a whole. Whether the engine does will be a matter of personal taste. The 2.5-litre lump does make the Formentor feel that much more special all of the time. You never forget it’s there and you always appreciate the added muscle and how much more pleasurable plundering its performance is.
But that really is a lot of money and as in the lesser model, I find myself tempted by a Leon 333 Estate, also replete with a torque-splitter on the rear axle, more naturally enjoyable dynamics and twelve grand saved, as an alternative. Or an RS3 for not that much more… That there are few other obvious rivals speaks to what a curiosity this car is.
For those dedicated 250, admirably uncompromising when it comes to cylinder counts and having the rare, left-field choice, nothing but the five-pot Formentor will do. Should that cohort be larger than Cupra anticipated, there is talk that the UK’s allocation of the 4000 Formentor VZ5s to be built could be extended to 400. Power to you all. This is a brilliantly silly thing to still be able to buy in 2026.
