The Cupra Fomentor sets a high bar for the new brand
The Cupra Fomentor sets a high bar for the new brand
10:50

The Cupra Fomentor sets a high bar for the new brand

SUVs
Speaker 1: Spinoffs can be a great thing. You take a beloved TV show, carve off some of your favorite characters and let them have a life of their own Sayat has done just that Cooper. The name previously given to their performance cars is now a standalone brand, but will this spinoff be more of a better or call SA or a Joey? Speaker 1: This is the ment the first [00:00:30] car not to be based on an existing say at model. So this has to set a template for everything we're going to expect from the Cooper brand. And that statement of intent starts right up front with that badge. To me, that is the most exciting and aggressive looking badge in the automotive world right now, to me, it looks like the face of the comic book, character spot, dark, brooding, aggressive. I mean to you, it might look like a guy with no head going like this, but you know, to each their own, that [00:01:00] aggressiveness extends all the way across the front. I love these lights and how the echo, the badge is angular nature. And these little diamond details really add to it. The small touches, which you could say might be lifted or borrowed from brands like Lamborghini. These little flick up, remind me a little bit of the event to door without necessarily looking like it, copies it. Speaker 1: Once you get down the side, I, things start to calm down a little bit. I'm not a big fan of the contrasting color on these wheel arches. It gives it a bit of a Volvo cross country feel it's [00:01:30] not necessarily a dig, but not my particular choice, but this side mirror looks like it's been sculpted by the air running over it. I'm a big fan of that roof rails on the car. Never usually something that looked great, but how in this car, it ties it all together. It somehow adds to the aggressiveness, even though it's a fully practical addition to the car, the side itself gives it a slight air of anonymity. But as soon as you get to this rear three quarter, that aggressiveness is back with this rear hunch. The sea pillar area [00:02:00] reminds me a little bit of the, this Nissan juke, which isn't dig. Speaker 1: I really like that angle of the duke and coming around the back, this silent esque light bar side to side across the width added to that aggressive badge there on carbon fiber really gives it a very special look. This car looks so good from so many different angles. It's quite a surprise. Having seen pictures of it. I wasn't sure how I'd feel getting up to it for the first time. But considering that this car really [00:02:30] has to build the Cooper brand up from the ground, they've done a really good job outside of our car community. Not that many people are going to recognize the Cooper name and that badge is brand new to all of us. So this car has got a lot to do in terms of building. And so far it's off to a great start. Speaker 2: Great looks mean nothing though, if it can't back it up on the road and on paper, the fermentor seems to stack up pretty well. This version gets 306 horsepower from a two liter four [00:03:00] cylinder engine and 295 pounds. Feet of torque, zero to 62 will come in 4.9 seconds. If those numbers sound pretty sporty to you, then you're right, because they're pretty close to the stats of the Porsche seven 18 Kamen. Speaker 1: So what do all those numbers add up to in the a fermentor? Well, it's not the largest car in the world. So 306 horsepower is enough to make it shift. The road. Driving mode is sedate and easy to live with. [00:03:30] Comfortable. The adapt to suspension gives you a compliant ride. It's not too stiff. It's not super sports Curry. Unlike the exterior design might suggest it's fine. It's comfortable. And if you're transporting your kids or just going on a run to the shops, that mode is going to be absolutely fine. However, this is perfection. I don't really want to focus on that mode. I wanna tell you what this car is like when this Cooper is driven like a Cooper for that, [00:04:00] you use the Cooper button to select Cooper mode Speaker 2: In Cooper mode. The true character of this car is revealed and all of a sudden it transforms from a car that you can live with to one that you actually want to drive. And you can sense that right? From a standing start, Speaker 1: Cooper symbol up on the screen, let's give it a go. That's a sub five second, zero to 60 time, which isn't to be sniffed at in [00:04:30] a car. This size, the adapted dampers have stiffened up, not too much that it's rattling the teeth out of your head. You can still feel the car roll around a little, but that new, this does give you a better feeling of how the car sitting on the road, especially through the corners, which is good because although the steering weight ends up slightly, it's still a touch on the numb side. The throttle sharpens up to make it feel a lot more responsive. And the biggest difference for me is in the brakes, even between the sport mode and Cooper mode, you really feel a difference [00:05:00] in how immediate responses from that brake pedal. For me, this is the only driving mode I would want to have this car in most of the time, say for when you're driving the kids to school or picking up a heavy load of shopping Cooper mode is where it's at. Speaker 2: The smaller engine version is available in a six speed manual, but this top spec model has a seven speed DSG gear ball. Speaker 1: You can shift yourself, but the fermentor really dissuades you from doing it with these plastic paddles, which feel numb [00:05:30] and lifeless, but leave the car to shift for itself. And you get plenty of performance outta that gear box. One small downside is the engine note, which sounds a little bit artificial because as well, it is, you're especially aware of that when you do some aggressive down ships and you can actually hear the real noise of the engine start to come through, it's a quiet engine. It's well insulated, but it really sounds completely different from the engine note that gets pumped into the cabin. If that's not something you focus on the [00:06:00] engine sound, it pumps in isn't unpleasant. It just feels a bit fake. I could do without it, but the performance behind it is fun for a car of this size. And it feels a lot bigger when you're in it. It shifts really well. Now I, out 40,000, it's not competing with many fast SUVs. It's quite competitively priced for the amount of fun that you can have with it. And that driving fun. That's really what you're paying for in combination with a really aggressive [00:06:30] and fun styling. This makes a great package Speaker 2: For context, that's around 40,000 pounds. You could also get an entry level, alpha Romeo Stelvio, a small SUV that looks brilliant and handles well. But the fermentor has one and a half times as much power for the Stelvio to comfortably beat the fermenting performance. You'd need the quadrifolio version, which would set you back twice as much. You could get an entry level portion a can for a little bit more than the fermentor [00:07:00] costs with all the prestige of that badge, but you'd be getting a car that's almost two seconds slower to 62 for your money in terms of looks and performance. The fermentor feels like a bargain. Speaker 1: The styling of the badge and the exterior looks of this car suggests it's going to be at the very least fun to drive, put a smile on your face. And when you want to propel you towards the horizon at some pace, and it does driving this car over the week that I've had it. The overwhelming [00:07:30] feeling that I have of it is that it's a, it's a fun car. It's not a sports car. That happens to be an SUV that had extra practicality bolted onto it. This at his heart is a conventionally practical car, but it's been shaped and sculpted in a way to make it look fun and tweaked under the hood to make it feel fun. Now, coming through a coroner, you're not exactly exploding out with the most amount of pace. In fact, if you treat this car like a momentum car, that's [00:08:00] when you get the most out of it, but it's fun to explore a car that has some character, even if there is a little bit of fakey in things like the sound, there is a complete trust in how this car is going to get you around the corner. Speaker 1: You never feel like you're going to be in trouble and even driving it as close to 10 tents. As you can get this thing, you're still not going to feel threatened, but if you're just out for a good time, this car, it can give it. So how does the Fermento act as an ambassador for Cooper entering [00:08:30] into the world as a new brand? Well, this statement of intent right now with this car suggests how much fun they're going to focus on having the say a brand will still have plenty of room to accommodate the more sedate cars for people who don't necessarily want to have that performance element to their cars. But the Cooper brand looks like it's going to pack some fun between the exterior styling. That is definitely making some statements, whether or not you like them or not is up to you, but it looks [00:09:00] distinctive. Speaker 1: It drives in a way that puts a smile on my face. And even though it's not the fastest small SUV out there, it's certainly enough to keep my interest, add to that a lovely cabin experience and enough tech to keep me occupied am a happy bunny. There are SUVs with higher performance that have more luxurious cabins, more tech, and that look nicer on the exterior. But at this price point, I think the Cooper strikes a very interesting prospect. So the question remains [00:09:30] was spinning off Cooper as a standalone brand. A good idea for say at or well, despite the fact that there have always been fast Sayat and Sayat has had success in motor sporting touring cars and in rallying, there's always been a brand association with Sayat that hasn't always been associated with speed and performance and driving pro spinning out Cooper allows this new brand to start from scratch, build up from the ground up a new reputation [00:10:00] unassociated with Sayat that tells people this car is going to be fun to drive. It starts with the badge in my mind, which begins to suggest that that's what you're gonna get and this car, well, I think it keeps that promise. There's off performance here to make a family car feel like a fun thing to take out for a drive. If this is an ambassador for what Cooper can be in years to come well, I'm extremely excited to see what the future holds.

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