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SEATCupra.net - Your #1 source for SEAT information	Tuesday, 02 December 2008

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SEAT Sport drivers celebrate their WTCC victory with the SEAT workers

WITH A VISIT TO THE MARTORELL FACTORY

The SEAT factory in Martorell staged a special visit. The SEAT Sport drivers wanted to share their success at the WTCC World Touring Car Championship with the SEAT workers, and made a full visit of the factory facilities, including each and every workshop on the premises.

2008 WTCC champ Muller signs to race for Team France days after sealing FIA World Touring Car Championship

Newly-crowned FIA World Touring Car Champion, Yvan Muller, will complete the line-up for Team France at The Race of Champions on Sunday 14 December, at Wembley Stadium, joining Sébastien Loeb, the most successful WRC driver of all time.

CONGRATULATIONS TO WTCC CHAMPION YVAN MULLER & SEAT SPORT

In the early hours of Sunday morning UK time, Yvan Muller clinched his first world title at the wheel of his SEAT Leon TDI WTCC. SEAT Sport closed the season in Macau with two world titles, 12 victories and 19 podium finishes. Gabriele Tarquini was runner-up of the world championship with his SEAT Leon TDI WTCC.

MULLER VS TARQUINI AT MACAU
SEAT Sport team-mates Yvan Muller and Gabriele Tarquini will battle it out to become 2008 World Champion at the final rounds of the WTCC in Macau this weekend. With a 14 point lead, Yvan is favourite and if successful will become the first French World Champion in circuit racing since Alain Prost won the Formula One title 15 years ago. If Gabriele wins, he’ll be the first Italian World Champion in circuit racing for 17 years – since Teo Fabi won the 1991 World Sportscars Championship in fact.

Head to head: Muller v Tarquini

This weekend the 2008 FIA World Touring Car Championship comes to its conclusion at Macau. One thing is certain though for the first time ever the title will be taken by a SEAT-driver. But the question is who. Yvan Muller or Gabriele Tarquini. Muller leads the championship with 100 points compared to Tarquini's 86. 20 points are still available but with Muller's point gap of 14 points, Tarquini faces an uphill struggle.

SEAT IBIZA’S GOLDEN STEERING WHEEL

SEAT is celebrating a brace of impressive European awards for its all-new Ibiza supermini after judges in both Germany and The Netherlands voted it top of its class. Earlier this week executives from the Barcelona-based car maker travelled to Berlin to collect a prestigious ‘Golden Steering Wheel’ awarded by influential German newspaper Bild am Sonntag – one of Europe’s biggest-selling titles.

Tom Boardman is SEAT Supercopa Champion

Tom Boardman, from Forton in Lancashire, has won the Spanish-based 2008 SEAT Leon Supercopa title in his Special Tuning UK Ltd-backed Triple R team Leon Cupra after he turned a 19 point deficit going into the last race meeting of the series at the Circuit de Catalunya near Barcelona (November 1-2) into a championship winning advantage. His prize is a works drive with SEAT Sport in a round of the 2009 FIA World Touring Car Championship.

Brits impress World Champions

SEAT Sport’s FIA World Touring Car Championship drivers Yvan Muller, Gabriele Tarquini, Rickard Rydell, Jordi Gené and Tiago Monteiro were at the Circuit de Catalunya near Barcelona to watch the final rounds of the 2008 SEAT Leon Supercopa (November 1-2).

SEAT: World Touring Car Champions

SEAT achieves the overall victory in the FIA World Championship for the first time and the first world title of a diesel-engined car in the history of motor sports. SEAT does also secure the Drivers’ world title since two of their drivers, Muller and Tarquini, will be fighting for the World Championship in Macau.

The victories achieved today in Japan with two different car models, the petrol WTCC and TDI WTCC, were the key for the final triumph. As the final highlight of an excellent season, SEAT has become 2008 World Touring Car Champion today, at the Japanese racetrack of Okayama.

The green-minded SEAT Alhambra Ecomotive, launched to the world at the Madrid Motor Show this summer and arriving in UK showrooms now, has underlined its environmental credentials by performing its first official function as the chosen vehicle for the recent ‘Climate Change, Awareness and Action’ meeting in Seville.

SEAT Leon, second in the European Touring Car Cup

The annual meeting of the European Touring Car Cup was held this weekend at Austria’s Salzburgring track, where Spanish driver Oscar Nogués clinched second place at the wheel of a SEAT Leon

EXEO: SEAT’S SALOON STUNNER IS A FIRST CLASS OFFERING

More details of the forthcoming SEAT Exeo, along with further images, are today being revealed following its world debut at the recent Paris Motor Show.

SEAT UK's official photographer Mark Bothwell, during the BTCC years has just started his own blog, which will focus on all areas of photography. No doubt SEAT will be mentioned on a regular basis, plus other various relevant topics. Why not take a look! Mark's work is top class and SCN owe's a great deal to his superb images.

http://photographymarkbothwell.wordpress.com

Adam confirmed as 2008 SEAT Cupra Champion

Champion Adam eyes BTCC: Back-to-back SEAT Cupra champion Jonathan Adam is aiming to move into the BTCC next season. “I’ve raced against a lot of very good drivers over the last three years and the SEAT Cupra Championship has been a fantastic manufacturer-backed one-make series,” says Jonathan. “The cars, both the old and new Leon Cupras, were great to drive and the competition was so good that you really had to be on the limit in every race. I’m looking forward to racing the Leon in a touring car race, as touring cars is where I want to be next year.”

SEAT is this week (10 October) debuting its latest cinema advertising campaign – created to bring a healthy dose of fun to the big screen.

Featuring a host of SEAT’s top racing drivers from across Europe, including former SEAT Sport UK star Jason Plato, the new advert stars the dynamic Spanish brand’s newest offering in the supermini sector – the stunning Ibiza SC.

You’re unlikely to see Tom Boardman in an Italian restaurant any time soon, as food poisoning interfered with his first racing appearance at Monza. The talented 24-year old driver from Forton in Lancashire did fight back to finish the final two SEAT Leon Eurocup races of 2008 in 3rd and 4th positions, despite starting in considerable pain from 19th on the grid.

Faced with a general downturn in sales in its main markets, SEAT has found it necessary to cut back on production at its Martorell plant to bring it in line with the current situation in those same markets where, furthermore, there are no prospects of reactivation in the short term.

Production adjustments expected for the end of the year amount to a 5% decrease compared to initial planning figures.

SEAT EDGES CLOSER TO THE TITLE
With two 1-2 finishes in Monza, SEAT Sport has claimed a serious stake on both WTCC Manufacturers’ and Drivers’ titles. With Rob Huff and Andy Priaulx, the only two serious non-SEAT challengers, the flight for the Drivers' title looked to be between Leon TDI team-mates Yvan Muller and Gabriele Tarquini, who shared victory in Monza. In the Manufacturers' Championship, SEAT has stretched its lead to 54 points ahead of BMW.

SEAT DOMINATES AT MONZA

SEAT Sport’s Leon TDIs have claimed the top four positions on the grid for Sunday’s first WTCC race at Monza. Yvan Muller and Gabriele Tarquini battled for pole and repeatedly changed positions, with the Frenchman eventually finishing on top. Row two will be filled by the Leon TDIs of Jordi Gené and Rickard Rydell. The four Leon TDIs were the only cars to break the two-minute barrier.

CUPRA DRIVERS TEST LEON TDI

Jonathan Adam, Robert Lawson, Martin Byford and Carl Breeze joined a small and elite group of drivers who have driven the Leon TDI, after the top four finishers in the 2008 SEAT Cupra Championship tested SEAT Sport UK’s BTCC challenger at Silverstone. The test included a full race distance run technical briefings with the team’s top engineers.

Following reports suggesting that the Leon TDI will be available for customer teams to race in the 2009 HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship, SEAT Sport UK wishes to clarify that the team’s two chassis (as driven by Jason Plato and Darren Turner in 2008) will be put up for sale. The TDI engines, which won 10 races in 2008, have been returned to SEAT Sport in Spain and will not be available for customer use in 2009.

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