Although CUPRA is today established as the high-performance brand of SEAT, it began as the Special Vehicles department of the Spanish carmaker in 1971. Its main function was to develop and support SEAT’s participation in rallies and touring championships.
In 2018, the name was used as an independent brand with its own line of models focussed on performance and having a more specialised nature, besides individual styling. Its models share technical elements with SEAT models which are also shared within the Volkswagen Group that SEAT is part of.
With its high-performance DNA, CUPRA is naturally a candidate for the virtual world of simulator racing as well. Apart from having its own sim racing series, it is now also on Xbox Game Studios’ and Playground Games’ Forza Horizon 5 with a new all-electric concept racing car.
Known as the UrbanRebel Racing Concept, this model will be launched in the real world as a roadgoing car in 2025. However, Forza players will be able to experience it from January 2023. The players can immerse themselves in a deep campaign mode with hundreds of rewarding challenges, lead breath-taking expeditions, and meet new characters in Horizon Story missions.
This will be the second CUPRA car in the game. The Forza racing franchise is the official gaming partner of Extreme E and, within this partnership, the brand’s all-electric CUPRA Tavascan XE also has a presence in the game.
Designed, developed, and built in Barcelona, Spain, the concept racing car mixes electrification, sustainability and performance by integrating virtual aesthetics to create a design language for the future generation of electric vehicles.
CUPRA’s designers injected a gamification look to the racing car, and now it becomes a reality in the popular videogame. The racing cart features a livery surface that adapts and changes as light moves across it, as well as a large spoiler with integrated lights.
As would be expected, it has a powerful ’heart’ which delivers 250 kW (340 ps) of continuous power, with the possibility of boosting to 320 kW (435 ps). CUPRA has targeted a 0 to 100 km/h time of 3.2 seconds for the racing car.
In Forza Horizon 5, the racing car can be driven around the Arch of Mulege circuit in Forza EV Rivals or tested hard in dedicated Seasonal PR Stunts. Forza Horizon 5 is set in Mexico, which is CUPRA’s biggest market outside Europe and where the first CUPRA City Garage was opened.
“The CUPRA UrbanRebel Racing Concept is a gamified real-world racecar that perfectly fits into Forza Horizon 5, and it gives fans a chance to get behind the wheel of this car before anyone else!” said CUPRA Global Director of Strategy, Business Development & Operations, Antonino Labate.
Forza Horizon 5 is available on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PC on Windows and Steam, and Xbox Game Pass including console, PC and Cloud Gaming (Beta) with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.
