Cupra Leon VZ & VZ TCR review

From £32,140

Cupra celebrates its motorsport CV with a couple of special-edition Leons, one rather more special than the other

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Being the inheritor of a long line of memorable hot hatchbacks, the Cupra Leon has been suffering with something of a hierarchy problem. For the past few years, you’ve had to buy the bigger Leon Estate if you’ve wanted the 329bhp, Volkswagen Golf R-spec engine. 

But fans of fast Leon hatchbacks won’t be left hanging for much longer. Two special versions of the car, each due in 2026, will help put the five-door back on top of the performance pile: the Leon VZ and Leon VZ TCR.

The VZ comes first, the VZ TCR a little later – and both are road-legal, despite what the latter name might suggest. For now, we’ve driven only the VZ.

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DESIGN & STYLING

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Both the VZ and VZ TCR are limited editions, made to commemorate the Leon’s success in global TCR touring car racing.

Both have more power and torque than any Leon hatch of recent years – although, perhaps a little annoyingly, neither quite as much as the 329bhp 2.0 TSI Leon 4Drive Estate.

If this is supposed to be a celebratory special edition, I’m surprised that Cupra hasn’t done more to jazz it up with colour and trim or special badging. As it is, it just looks like another trim-level model.
Matt Saunders
Road test editor

Both get mechanical and cosmetic upgrades over the series-production Leon 300 hatch (the next model down in the range). But the VZ will cost less than the VZ TCR and is available in larger numbers (1500 units versus 499 globally).

Both cars use Volkswagen’s EA888 2.0-litre engine, with the wick turned up to produce 321bhp and 310lb ft of torque. The Leon’s 155mph speed limiter has been removed, allowing the VZ version to run on - in theory - all the way to 168mph. 

Both cars get adaptively damped sport suspension and a ‘VAQ’ torque-vectoring pseudo-differential for their driven front axles (although those featured on lesser Leon hatches too).

Both also get the six-pot Akebono front brakes thus far reserved for the fastest Leon Estate in its highest trim level.

While the VZ is intended as the more sensibly configured, everyday-use hot Leon, however, the VZ TCR makes bigger compromises.

Wider 19in wheels and grippier tyres are fitted than on the VZ, and a more aggressive aero kit and a racey decal set round out the package externally.

On the Leon VZ, meanwhile, copper-coloured quad exhaust pipes are the only significant exterior styling differentiator.

INTERIOR

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The Leon’s interior remains neat and smart.

Cupra’s part-Dinamica ‘Cup bucket' seats are comfortable and fairly supportive, although they lack some routes towards adjustment.

The driving position feels sound, and the cabin ambience certainly has a premium lustre about it, but it’s not brightly coloured or made of many of the kind of materials typically used to mark out a hot hatch. Cupra’s philosophy on performance is still a little bit more grown-up than to allow that.

If you want more sense of occasion than all that, however, the VZ TCR should provide it. There the Leon’s rear passenger seats are dispensed with and a rear strut brace and cargo net stand in for them.

If you stick with the VZ, you will find the second row is typically spacious for the hatchback class: big enough for adults of average height and growing kids but likely to struggle with anybody bigger.

ENGINES & PERFORMANCE

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The VZ’s engine does sound a little gruffer than a regular Leon's, with a little bit more turbo-whoosh induction noise. But it still serves up strong flexibility, response and willingness to rev and is typically well-mannered when called to be. 

There isn’t enough outright power here to put the car into competition with the very fastest hot hatches or to make it feel as dramatic as the Honda Civic Type R or Audi RS3 in full flight. There’s plenty of speed and noise to get your teeth into, though.

As is now the case with almost all surviving hot hatches, you get a seven-speed dual-clutch (DSG) automatic gearbox or can whistle: there’s no manual option.

The DSG is quick-shifting on the paddles and seldom picks the wrong gear if you prefer to leave it in D or S mode – even if, in the car’s sportier driving modes, it will reach for lower ratios surprisingly early and hang onto them for quite a long time.

There’s plenty of configurability within those modes, needless to say, that you needn’t be saddled with a gearbox calibration that doesn’t suit you.

Traction was strong on the dry asphalt we had on which to test it, and braking power likewise – although it will take a sterner test on a circuit to appreciate the increased outright stopping power and fade resistance that those Akebono brakes deliver.

RIDE & HANDLING

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The Leon is a composed and precise-handling hatchback in almost any form you will encounter it, but the VZ version doesn’t really transform its dynamic capabilities.

Cupra closed a Spanish B-road for journalists to get an impression of the car at speed on its European press launch; and while fast, contained and competent, with plenty of traction and remarkably uncorrupted steering, the VZ didn’t seem to advance the Leon’s dynamic handling or outright driver appeal much. 

It carries plenty of speed, stops well and stays true to its line when powering away from apices, but you wouldn’t say there’s any more grip, agility or body control here than the Leon 300 might offer.

That makes sense when you consider how the car is configured, but it might not be what buyers of a special-edition hot hatch will expect.

Then again, if what you expect is a Leon with just as rounded a character and matching everyday usability as your Leon 300, just a bit more grunt, it could be right on script.

The VZ certainly cruises comfortably and quietly; it doesn’t bristle and jiggle over town roads at low speed, as a car with more aggressive damper rates might; and its engine doesn’t boom on the motorway.

MPG & RUNNING COSTS

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Cupra UK has suggested that the VZ will come onto the market with a price of around £50,000 when the order books open in 2026, which is a very modest premium over the cost of the Leon 300 in an upper trim level.

It hasn’t said yet if any of the car’s special upgrades ('Cup bucket' seats, brakes, speed limiter removal) will be bundled into options packages.

Nor has it said what the full-house VZ TCR will cost or what options prices will apply to it - but we would expect a considerably punchier price, much closer to £60,000, for that.

Although fuel economy homologation had still to be finished as these word were written, there’s no reason to expect considerably poorer efficiency from the VZ than the Leon 300 is rated for (circa 37mpg).

VERDICT

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The Leon remains one of the hatchback market’s more natural keen driver’s picks. Leons have made great hot hatchbacks in the past, and the current one certainly deserves a proper performance version to give customers a reason not to jump ship to rival brands in search of something truly focused.

The VZ, however, seems something of a half-measure. In leaving room for the VZ TCR to come (and perhaps allowing for the preferences of those who would prefer a milder-mannered, everyday-use sort of dynamic temperament to a more hardcore one), it feels like more a trim level than a genuine effort at a halo model. It’s quick and composed but not especially grippy, agile or compelling to drive. And it lacks much of the material theatre and sense of occasion that a petrolhead may expect.

Leon lovers who want a really special hot hatch would be well-advised, in our view, to keep their deposits dry for the full-house VZ TCR, with its more hardcore specification. 

This is a bit like when Renault did Trophy and Trophy-R versions of the Mégane RS, or when Volkswagen did Clubsport and Clubsport S Golf GTIs. The lower-ranking model might make more sense on paper, but in practice you will kick yourself for not committing more fully at buying time.

Matt Saunders

Matt Saunders Autocar
Title: Road test editor

As Autocar’s chief car tester and reviewer, it’s Matt’s job to ensure the quality, objectivity, relevance and rigour of the entirety of Autocar’s reviews output, as well contributing a great many detailed road tests, group tests and drive reviews himself.

Matt has been an Autocar staffer since the autumn of 2003, and has been lucky enough to work alongside some of the magazine’s best-known writers and contributors over that time. He served as staff writer, features editor, assistant editor and digital editor, before joining the road test desk in 2011.

Since then he’s driven, measured, lap-timed, figured, and reported on cars as varied as the Bugatti Veyron, Rolls-Royce Phantom, Tesla Roadster, Ariel Hipercar, Tata Nano, McLaren Senna, Renault Twizy and Toyota Mirai. Among his wider personal highlights of the job have been covering Sebastien Loeb’s record-breaking run at Pikes Peak in 2013; doing 190mph on derestricted German autobahn in a Brabus Rocket; and driving McLaren’s legendary ‘XP5’ F1 prototype. His own car is a trusty Mazda CX-5.