Lamborghini Cupra Formentor review: a bold roll of the dice

New marque Cupra borrows parts from its famous sibling, Lamborghini, to make this hot-hatch/small SUV crossover.

Dashing: the Cupra Formentor

Imagine you were allowed to build a new and improved version of yourself by dipping into the parts bin of a large and attractive family. (Obviously you’ll be using cloned parts, and not removing actual body bits or organs. You’re not a monster.)

Personally, I’d find it hard to go past the Hemsworths, and I’d start with Chris’s wallet, Luke’s height (I find the idea of being tall too vertiginous), Liam’s face (making me attractive but less likely than Chris to be harassed in public) and, I guess, all the other bits of Chris as well. I’d keep my brain as it’s the only bit of me I’m really attached to.

The vast Volkswagen corporation (made up of 10 European marques) has the ability to engage in this kind of parts sharing on a grand scale and when it launched a new, sporty Spanish brand, Cupra, four years ago (as a subdivision of Seat, another VW nameplate), the designers did something that seems so obvious I can’t believe Skoda, Audi, Bentley or even Volkswagen itself never thought of it – they borrowed bits from Lamborghini.

Cupra Formentor styling

Thus, when Cupra hurled itself onto the Australian market in Sydney recently, launching its hot-hatch Leon, its angry SUV Ateca and its daringly named Formentor crossover, the latter was fitted with air vents and wing mirrors highly reminiscent of the world’s most angular supercars. This led some wits to dub the most powerful VZx version, powered by a 2.0-litre turbo making 228kW and 400Nm, the Formentador (Lamborghini’s voluble V12 is called the Aventador).

I was stunned into silence by the name “Formentor” as it seemed to offer so many comic possibilities that I didn’t know where to go first – “Harry Potter bad guy” or “Instigator of trouble”, making it the perfect purchase for people who enjoy road rage. Despite its name, Cupra believes the Formentor – a hot-hatch/small SUV crossover that looks attractive and quite serious, like a shrunken Subaru Liberty – will be its most popular vehicle. The brand was able to measure such things early, claiming to have had a remarkable 7800 online registrations of interest from Australians long before cars went on sale in May.

Sitting inside one, the first impression is that the Cupra badge on the steering wheel seems to have been ripped from the chest of a Transformer or a similar toy robot and that everything looks and feels Volkswagen-familiar but a bit cheaper, as if the quality of the plastics and the thickness of the materials is just two-tenths of a grade down.

We drove the entire range on the track at Sydney Motorsport Park just a week after doing the same in VW’s Golf R and Tiguan R, and again the impression was that the Formentor (and the Golf-based Cupra) was just a bit thinner, a tad less nailed down and ever so slightly less awesome. To be fair, though, they were still absurdly quick for cars of this size and engine capacity and the fact that the Formentor, a small family SUV, can be hurled around a race circuit with such pace and confidence and so little body roll is quite incredible.

Inside the cabin

Cupra says the design is a stand-alone and not directly related to any other VW product (in the same way that I’m not directly related to a gorilla, despite what my family says). No doubt some buyers would prefer the lighter, flightier feeling of the Cupras in general, and their steering in particular, but I was struck by how much more premium the VWs felt.

Which makes the pricing quite interesting. The fast Formentor is $61,490 while the Tiguan R (built on the same platform but noticeably larger) is priced from $68,990, plus on-road costs. The hottest Cupra Leon hatch is $60,990, against the Golf R at $65,990, but the important difference is that the Cupra version is front-wheel drive against the Golf R’s all-wheel set-up, which helps to explain why its 0 to 100km/h time is almost a second slower than the VW’s, at 5.8 seconds.

Cupra’s launch seems a bold roll of the dice, like Luke Hemsworth taking on Chris in an arm wrestle, particularly in what is already one of the world’s most crowded car markets, but what might make it work is the combination of undeniably different styling and the fact that Australians love sporty brands (we buy more AMG-badged Benzes per capita than any other country). A lot of us are early adopters, too, and thus keen to grab attention by being the first ones in the local car park squiring a sexy new Spanish brand.

What should also help the brand get noticed is its plan to launch a new, hot-hatch EV, the Cupra Born, priced in the mid $50,000 range, in Australia next year. Personally, I still want a Golf R. And Chris’s wallet to pay for it.

Cupra Formentor VZx

ENGINE: 2.0-litre turbocharged (228kW/400Nm). Average fuel 9 litres per 100km TRANSMISSION: 7-speed dual-clutch automatic, all-wheel drive

PRICE: $61,490

STARS: 3.5 out of 5