Along with the 2020 Cupra Leon road-going
hot hatch, the wraps have come off its touring car racing variants too, of
which there are two flavors. There’s a brawny one called Cupra Leon Competicion
packing a good old 340 PS 2.0-liter turbo-four gasoline unit and a 680
PS all-electric version called e-Racer.
The latter is described as the world’s
first all-electric touring car racer and it packs a four-motor powertrain
linked to a liquid-cooled 65 kWh battery pack. With a total system torque of
960 Nm, it rushes from zero to 100 km/h in 3.2 seconds and
hits a top speed of 270 km/h.
Developed to enter the Pure ETCR
championship from 2021, the Cupra e-Racer features a body shaped by
aerodynamics including innovative bumper and bonnet air flow circulation, wheel
arches developed to better extract the air and improve downforce, and a flat
floor underneath. Since it’s a race car, it features a lower and wider stance,
though it eliminates the unnecessary traditional grille, transforming it into
an air curtain bonnet.
The Cupra Leon Competicion TCR racer, on
the other hand, is more closely related to the production car. It has roughly
half the power of the e-Racer, as the 2.0-liter TSI four-cylinder turbo petrol
unit delivers 340 PS and 410 Nm of torque. Mated to a
Hewland six-speed sequential transmission, the engine enables the Leon
Competicion to sprint from 0 to 100 km/h in 4.5 seconds and top out at
260 km/h.
The race car’s chassis is tuned for racing
and is highly adjustable. It incorporates front MacPherson struts with
adjustable height, camber, toe, caster, Ackermann and track, as well as a rear
Multilink setup allowing for changes to the height, camber, toe and track. The
front and rear roll bars can be set and changed as well.
Looks-wise, it features a somewhat similar
aero kit to the Cupra e-Racer though with a traditional radiator grille,
different bumpers and a higher-set rear wing. Cupra has already opened online
pre-order bookings for the Leon Competicion at the end of 2019, with all
pre-booked race cars to be delivered exclusively at Cupra’s headquarters from
April.