The hot hatch loving nation of England will be chuffed to know the new SEAT Leon CUPRA R is about to become available in their beautiful country. But before they burst into premature applause we should point out this delightful hot hatch comes with a big price tag: £34,995.

That is indeed a lot of money to pay for a small car. But you have to take into account the fact that 2018 SEAT Leon CUPRA R is the most powerful and exclusive model the Spanish car maker has ever produced. The R has a limited production run of just 799 units worldwide, of which only 24 are at this time allocated for the UK. That means this little beast is going to be a rare sight.

The thing is though, even if one sees the SEAT Leon CUPRA R out in the wild, one may dismiss it as an ordinary SEAT. The car does come with strong visual cues such as large intakes and copper accents to set it apart from the regular models. But unless you are a SEAT aficionado, chances are you won’t notice what they all mean. Still, the CUPRA R does have a nice and discreetly sporty look about it. You even get some carbon fiber parts ( rear spoiler, lower lip spoiler, side skirts and rear diffuser), but to be honest the 1 inch exclusive wheels would have looked better in matte black or gunmetal than copper.

But what makes the SEAT Leon CUPRA R a future classic is what’s under the skin. This hombre is powered by a 310 horsepower turbocharged engine, available with a six-speed manual gearbox. It’s still front-whee-drive, but thanks to a new steering system, modified camber angles on the front axle, four piston Brembo brake callipers and trick differential the handling should be alright. Straight-line performance is stellar, with a 0 to 0-62 mph in just 5.8 seconds and limited top speed of 155 mph. The R also gets a bespoke sport exhaust system tuned to sing sweet songs.