Some years ago the VW Group started to promote SEAT as its portfolio’s youthful, sporting and performance arm. I never really got that, given the Group’s ownership of Audi, Bentley and Bugatti – to name but a few. Until then, SEAT – along with Skoda represented the bargain basement end, or so I believed. What do I know?

Billed as “the most powerful car in the brand’s history” we must, given the aforementioned sporting pedigree, assume that with 300ps (296bhp) and 258lb/ft of asphalt threatening grunt, VW’s Spanish hottie is a match for the fabulous Golf R for a much thinner wedge of wonga. It’s also stacked up agin’ the Audi S3, all of which share platforms, gearboxes and engines in various states of tune to VW’s ubiquitous 2.0 turbo motor. So, erm, do the three and five-door Leon Cupra share the same all-wheel-drive system as the R and S3, then? No, of course not.

SEAT cars are cheaper, sorry – less expensive, remember? Thus, the Cupra is front driven only. With prices for the range at £29,840 – £34,170, something of a mockery has been made of the bang per buck element here, no? I’ll explain. A three-door Golf R, complete with DSG and four-wheel-drive books at some £140.00 less than the bargain Cupra. Surely some mistake? Dunno, ask the Spanish.

So it’d better go like an electrified stoat. Oh yes, it does. It may lack the ultimate surefootedness of all-wheel-drive but, bury your right foot and this thing can certainly raise its skirt.

I’ve driven the six-speed manual here, which squirts to 62mph in a very respectable 5.7 secs before ultimately being limited to 155mph.

It’s not the easiest car to get off the line and push hard, compared, say, to the amusing Ford Focus RS, mainly because the gear change is a wee bit wooden. However, despite this – and dullish steering, the set up provides remarkable grip from those Pirelli P Zeroes painted on to bespoke 19 inch Cupra Wheels.

Having experienced – and enjoyed – the system on Audis and VWs, I would recommend the seven-speed DSG ‘box for smoother progress through favoured up hill and down dale frolics. Yet, yet, yet – a good helmsman in this Leon Cupra, even with the manual ‘box, will be a match for an average one giving his all in a Golf R. So, apart from its confusing price tag, job well done.

With subtle waistline creases, it’s a good looker too. Both the SC (3-door Sport Coupé) and the 5-door have discreet limitations to the look-at-me add ons.

You’ll spot bigger nostrils, a roof spoiler and tweaked sills. And those wheels with big red Cupra callipers lurking inside the multi-spoked alloy wheels.

Changes inside run to a bigger touch screen, an electronic handbrake replaces the good old fashioned lever and the steering wheel has developed a flat, um, sporty bottom. An already good interior mildly teaked, then.