Cupra is the high-performance offshoot of mainstream Spanish car maker Seat – an acronym, it must be noted, not the English synonym for chair – owned by the Volkswagen Group.
The first road-going model to wear the Cupra name, the Ibiza GTI 16V Cupra, launched in Europe in 1996, as a street-legal version (if in name only) of the three-time World Rally Cup-winning Seat Ibiza Kit Car.