The sporty version of SEAT’s new Ibiza has broken ‘three’! The SportCoup now joins the five-door model that was launched at the recent Madrid Motor Show.
It has the same front end as the five-door, but at the rear the shape is much more distinctive. Engine options will include a 1.6-litre petrol motor delivering 105bhp, with diesel buyers offered a choice of 1.4 and 1.9-litre TDIs. The smaller oil-burner will form the basis of an ultra-efficient ECOmotive version, which SEAT claims will emit only 99g/km of CO2. That would be low enough to put the model in road tax band A, and mean owners wouldn’t have to pay anything for their annual disc. This car is also equipped with a seven-speed twin-clutch DSG transmission – which was first seen in parent company Volkswagen’s Golf – to boost performance and economy.
But hot hatch fans will have to wait until 2009 before SEAT takes the wraps off the FR and Cupra versions of the Ibiza. These could feature the turbocharged 1.4-litre powerplant previewed in the Bocanegra concept car at the Geneva Motor Show in March, and are set to get racy bodykits and bigger alloys to mark them out from lesser models in the range.
Bosses at SEAT also let slip that they plan to introduce an estate version of the new Ibiza. Effectively a successor to the slow-selling Cordoba Vario, which was axed in 2006, this would take the fight to the new generation of supermini load-luggers, such as the Renault Clio Sport Tourer.
Expect the three-door SC in showrooms here before the end of the year. Full details and prices will be revealed when the car makes its public debut at next month’s British Motor Show.