SEAT have unveiled the first pictures of their new SEAT León Cup Racer, which will be displayed at the Wörthersee-Treffen in Austria, with the brand evaluating creating a WTCC version for 2014.
“We expect to be able to offer the León Cup Racer to our customer teams as early as the 2014 season,” said Head of SEAT Sport Jaime Puig. “With the two versions for sprint and endurance racing, the Cup Racer is ideal for an extremely broad palette of racing series – from the ETCC to the VLN Endurance Cup on the Nürburgring.”
Crucially, Puig also hinted at a possible return to the World Touring Car Championship in 2014, with the Cup Racer forming the basis of development work.
“We can also envisage further developing the Cup Racer to create a WTCC version with a 1.6-litre engine. After all, we have a great tradition to defend there.”
SEAT have not competed in the WTCC as a factory team since winning the 2009 title with Gabriele Tarquini. Since that time the Spanish manufacturer has supported its customer teams in the series, principally SUNRED but also Lukoil and Special Tuning Racing in 2012, and the Tuenti Racing Team in 2013. The marque has taken 42 victories in the series, with the most recent being Rob Huff’s victory for Münnich Motorsport at the Hungaroring.
“Motorsport is deeply anchored in our brand; SEAT has more than 40 years of racing history and, with the León Cup Racer, we are now writing the next chapter for our highly motivated customer teams,” said SEAT Executive Vice-President for Research and Design Dr. Matthias Rabe. “The Cup Racer is not a show model, but the first test car for our development work.”
“With the racing version, we are building on from the great sporty success of recent years.”
SEAT will displaying the 330 hp car on its stand at the Austrian show.
Is it me or does it look very NGTC?
Hardly. It’s missing the NGTC spec rear wing for one.
I know that. Anyway, I was refering to stuff like the wheelarches