SEAT Cupra K1 - My Daily
 

After lots of pissing about in Audi's (there's no easy way to say it) and after a change of employment circumstances within the Scott.T household I decide to free up some cash, to ease the financial pressures, and decided to jump back into a SEAT.

When I last had a SEAT Leon I had asked my local dealer to source me a Cupra R or Cupra K1 but after several months waiting I ended up popping into Audi, and this was the start of a rather turbulent Audi relationship.

So things have gone full circle and after what amounted to quite a short period of hunting I sourced a SEAT UK + 1 Owner car up in Hertfordshire.

It's been very well looked after by a mature driver, with full dealer history and in great condition. TBH I would of struggled to keep it in this condition over 7 years ownership myself.

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So how does it drive......very nice indeed and probably the family car I have been searching for. Nice and comfortable when a more sedate mood or road condition dictates, but able to turn on the speed when conditions allow.

It revs out really well (unlike the A5 which gave up after 5K) and gets to the 7K region with ease (not hit the limiter yet). The handling is also very impressive for a car capable of the jekyl'n'hyde' driving style.

I know it's not 4WD, but it reminds me very much of the ride and composure of the Focus RS I drove recently. Suspension/Handling has certainly come along way since the design of the Classic Impreza.

What impressed the most is the gearbox and torque spread. On a brisk country lane drive 4th & 5th are great gears. I drove an entire stretch in 4th which include long straights, twists, turns and slowing for a level crossing. The whole stretch used 1500rpm - 7000rpm. I only dropped down from 4th in the final 100 yards for a 90 degree right over a narrow bridge. I also keep staring at the gear lever thinking 'is this 4th or 6th ?'...it ends up being 6th.

Since getting it home I have been out in it with the family 3 times and for each I have found the 'interesting' route. There's a lot to be said about the fun a small hatch can give....and all with just 240BHP......for now ;)

That looks nice Scott, look forward to any future plans? :ok:

Omg so the Audi has gone already??

Loving the look of that Leon tho :ok:

I like the look of that.

What was up with the Audi, if you don't mind me being nosey?

Nice, very nice! Excellent choice. :10::doubleup:

Nice car Scott. Just shows you don't need to spend mega bucks to get a good car that's fun to drive. Nice in white too :doubleup:

I love it, think they look really menacing with the white and black and having had a Mk1 Cupra R I have a real soft spot for the marque.

A change of family circumstances meant that it made sense to free up some cash. Plus, as nice as an Audi looks I came to realise fun is difficult to find (it maybe there in an RS variety).
I've had more fun driving and tinkering the K1 in 3 days than in 18 months of Audi ownership.

Tinkering today also helped me decide I get much more of a kick out of owning and improving an older car than panicking about damaging a brand new one, who's condition is only going to go one way.
In the last 2 new Audi I've had cracked screen, roof chipped, front hit by a stray sheet of fibreboard, the whole nearside scratched by a fallen branch and alloys damaged by rocks.

Exactly why I wont bother leasing a new car again. There is something about owning an older one and keeping it nice. The leased cars never felt like mine.

Totally agree.
I think if you are a true hands on petrol head a lease or a PCP isn't they way to finance ownership.
Knowing it's all yours helps settle the worries of damaging, allows you to modify it and let's you enjoy it.
You live and learn.

Very nice like it in white is it true they are pretty nippy and handle well on there standard set up and you already know its going to be a bugger to keep clean but worth it to have that sitting in your driveway .

Makes a great deal of sense.

I'm thinking about what to do about family/commuter cars (FSTi can't go on forever) which prompted my question. There's nothing that perfectly fits the bill, so finding the right compromise can be tricky!

That looks very tidy, and I bet the drive is great, as you say chassis have come along way in 20 years :)

Looks superb, I've only ever heard great things about these cars.

K1's are stunning, good choice lovely car that. My dad has the 2.0 tsi which is 208bhp or somewhere near, k@n induction kit and a remap made 261 bhp and 340 ish lbft with the dsg box it goes really well.
He still should have bought the k1 to start with though

looks nice scott!!! good to here what you think of it, have been looking at these and rs focus aswell, as there isnt much taking my fancy at the moment in the impreza world. yet to test drive either though:ok:

The problem you have is that the fsti is probably the ultimate 'do it all' car. Quick, rare, practical, and has a club scene as well. Everything else is going to feel a bit dull I fear.

That's exactly right.

When it looked like there was to be a SJ FSTi I was genuinely excited. It came to nothing though. :(

Even the prospect of a Levorg STi piqued my interest. Looks like that's not coming either. Even if it does it'll be a CVT.

Think I'll have to rebuild this one when the time comes or find a newer one!

The Evo wagon is another option. They hold quite a premium though, but maybe I just need to accept that!

Great choice Scott!

looks very nice and in the best colour as well

Nice . Like these a lot and as said look great in white .

i'm thinking you'll have it 6 months:wave:

I don't think so.
I'm loving it so far and back in something I feel I belong.
Should of got one 2 years ago.

+1. Very nice car, and owning a car v's rent/PCP is a no brainier for me so see the logic, appeal and direction taken, which is a better direction than you were going. But given time I think you might get to a point when you feel it fullfills one void but misses another.

Ultimately and it will be a rench but I can see the UK scoob going to be replaced with a true weekend warrior hobby car such as a classic ford/scoob/RS and an Sline diesel estate workhorse for everyday.

But right now, I guess it tick's the box nicely so enjoy and have fun with it. Alloys/remap/exhausrt, Full detail.. sorted

Sounds like just a stage 1 map using all OEM bits would be a nice place to start and stop with mods.

Be nice to have a proper gander at it at some point, as I'm itching for a change from our boring family motor to something a little more 'fun'. Would like something smaller and more chuckable but not sure something like a focus St or Leon would be big enough for 5 people and luggage even with a roof box for occasional use.

Not sure for 5 but certainly 4.
We have done a number of holidays in the previous OK.
Leg room in the back is the same as the B8 A4/A5 and Olly is 6ft now and has room.
The boot is only about 4 or 5 inches smaller than the A4 as I cut down my A4/A5 boot protector last weekend and fitted in the SEAT. So not even enough extra room for a sports bag.

I did consider an ST and looked at one before the K1. I found it too plain and struggled to pick it out from the others on the forecourt. It also has a bit less bang for buck tuning potential.

A little bit of work on the K1 yesterday.
Main catalyst cut out, flanges fitted and decat made and fitted.
4 bolt swap job for MOT's

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:ok:

How does it sound?

That's a nice way of being able to do things, German engineering shines again. As asked, how's the sound of it now, noticeably different? Is this the only cat in the system?

Much better. It's gradually improved at each stage. Centre res delete, pre-cat knocked out and now main cat delete.

Stage 2 Superchip Bluefin now being prepared
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I'm surprised not more S3/GTi/Cupra owners do this.
Cost me £150 inc labour, 6 stainless flanges and 500mm of stainless tube.
Milltek charge £340 for a DP that's a bit of a pig to swap for MOT.
I could of got an eBay special downpipe cheaper (£130) but it's still alot of stuff to remove to gain access and a full exhaust drop to remove for MOT's.

I had bluefin on my mondeo - great bits of kit... still have the unit...

I used the Subaru approach of using Flanges rather than the bitch slip joints VAG use, that are a pain to crack loose when rolling around on your drive trying to free up.

The DP would come off alot easier if flanged. As it is there isn't enough room to wiggle the downpipe out without splitting the slip joint. So you have to drop the whole centre/rear section off just to split it.

circa 320bhp through 2wd transmission, will be flipping quick and serious grin factor. 280+bhp in my Saab aero which was lardier than your Leon, was a very close match for a E46 M3 at all rolling speeds. Be good to go for a spin in it once mapped up.

You probably guessed the RS is on hold for a bit.

Thats going to be pretty quick now for a family car .

Vince's welds are probably better than milteks aswell,,
In fact he actually re welded a miltek down pipe on my scoob are started to crack :-D

Yep, Let the market get saturated of them, let the tuners suss them out, then buy one for 5K less than current market price, then look after it for 10 years + and by the end of it, it will still be worth what you paid for it or more. Mmm now tha'ts got me thinking as well. :)

In the meantime, scratch the itch and play with the Leon, get the power up to what it deserves and apart from putting it down onto tarmac, it will still feel any bit as lively as an RS on a fraction of the budget. No its not an RS but the K1 is still a nice motor.

After obtaining a used Superchips Bluefin from an Audi S3 and getting it reset by Superchips (£225 Vs £399) I managed to flash a Superchips remap into the K1 on Friday.

I was quite sceptical as I had tried to use Superchips before on my 120PS Audi A4 and had mixed results. But I thought, as the TFSi engine in the K1 is the same as the GTi ED30 and the S3 that there must be a bigger market out there and hence the Superchip Bluefin remap should be quite well proven.

The fact that they also so a Stage 1, 2 and 3 hints that there has been a fair amount of development.

The Stage 1 remap takes the 240ps (stock) up by 44BHP.
On their dyno/development car it actually recorded 245BHP stock and 297BHP at Stage 1.

Having just performed some before and after logging and using the 'rule of thumb' to convert MAF g/s to BHP mine has increased between 42-47BHP dependant on which log I look through.
So it stacks up well against the Superchips website.

It now drives even better and more usable torque at part throttle but not too aggressive on the FWD at lower revs/part throttle.

I'm really pleased with how it drives and with the window down while logging this evening the exhaust rush/woosh at high rpm was making me giggle like a girl.

Added Bonus :
I've had a slight knocking after a cold start and part boost/throttle at 2000-2500rpm, that I was putting down to the intake cam adjustment tensioner bouncing until primed/warmed. It sounded like the kind of knock you can get from an oil filled tensioner plunger when they are starting to get weak, but it just seemed to last too long for it to be that.
The strange thing was it would disappear once almost upto temperature (about 70 DegC), to the point I could tell exactly if it would make the noise by checking the level of the temp gauge. I was therefore starting to think it was a cold start/warm-up running parameter issue i.e running slightly different intake cam or fuel mixture or ignition timing during the warm up period.
The bonus is that this noise seems to of disappeared. I've tried my hardest to replicate it and if it is still there it's so very quite I'm struggling to hear it, even with the radio and air-con off.
So my guess is they applied the same map changes to all maps (sometimes there are multiple maps for the same thing but with subtly different parameters, and conditions of use. Even those with decoding knowledge don't know what/when each map is used, so a blanket change is applied). Or maybe they took Golf/Audi parameters which in the base map are subtly different to the SEAT parameters...who knows. It may be more by luck than judgement but this has improved my issue. Fingers crossed it doesn't return.

Stage 2 is the next option and I have already spoken to Superchips about this during the 'reset' process. In fact I was so pleased with the Stage 1 performance I initially thought they had loaded Stage 2 onto the hand controller by default.
As the CEL eventually came on over the weekend, to warn of poor catalyst efficiency (No ****-Sherlock, it's on my garage floor), this confirmed it's a stage 1 map.

Stage 2 will therefore be going on some time later this week.

For Info :
Power-2-Weight of a 276BHP WRX STi (Newage) = 188BHP/Tonne
Power-2-Weight of a 294BHP Cupra K1 = 214BHP/Tonne
So you can see why I'm happy in my family/daily ;)

That seems like a great result dude :doubleup:


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Sounds like a big improvement, although I have no idea what your talking about ,

yeah as above - superb results.

I had a Bluefin remap on my old mondeo - and the torque was much nicer and smoother.

I still have the controller in the loft - may be worth my having it reset and putting on the A6..

Glad your pleased with the results mate :ok:

Wicked,, bet that pulls through nice, and given it a nice sound with the added boost

A few pictures of the K1 on it's holiday......

Rhigo's Road (South Wales):
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A4059 Brecon Beacons (South Wales):
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Elan Valley Resovoir's (Mid Wales):
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Aberystwyth Mountain Road (Mid Wales):
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B4391 Ffestiniog To Bala (North Wales):
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Stunning views Scott :ok: hope u had a great time...

You were unlucky to get rain in Wales... :lol:

As Ryan said stunning scenery, might get there one day.

Stig's comment made me laugh :-D

Looks nice hope you had a good time :)

The rain in Wales never fails (to appear). To be honest though in that scenery it doesn't look too bad with a hazy back drop. Hope you had a nice time away and the K1 enjoyed its trip too.