Sharp looks. Practical and spacious cabin. Four-wheel drive. Five cylinders, one turbocharger, and 390 hp. This Spanish crossover with German roots is no joke — it will rip the road underneath and put a smile on your face, all while your kids are screaming for joy in the back. It’s the crossover every American would dream of — the Cupra Formentor.
For those who don’t know much about the European car scene, Cupra is a performance sub-brand of Seat, the Spanish automaker that operates within the Volkswagen Group. The Formentor is easily Cupra’s most attractive model at the moment, but it’s the VZ5 version that we would like to arrive on U.S. shores. It packs the sonorous 2.5-liter turbocharged five-cylinder engine from the Audi RS3, which brings it to 62 mph (100 km/h) in just 4.2 seconds.
The Formentor also features a specially-developed seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox. No manual is offered, sadly. Still, the gearbox sends the power to a special four-wheel drive system with a Torque Splitter, which Cupra says provides torque vectoring at the rear axle for sharper turn-in and higher grip. Meanwhile, 375-mm Akebono brakes ensure you’ll stop on time. Thus, overall, it should drive similarly to an Audi RS3, for better or worse.
Cupra will only make 7,000 examples of the Formentor VZ5, so even European buyers will have a hard time finding one. Fortunately, there is the toned-down Formentor VZ310, which shares the 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder with the Golf R, producing 310 hp. This model needs 4.9 seconds to reach 62 mph, which is still very respectable.
