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Following a successful return to the World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) with a new 1.6-litre turbo engine last year, SEAT Sport has announced that it will support four teams for the 2013 season. The SEAT Leon WTCC – one of the most successful touring car racers in recent years – goes under starter’s orders once more.

Running the SEAT Leon WTCC this year are four teams: Campos Racing (Spain); Tuenti Racing Team (Spain); Special Tuning Racing (Great Britain); and Münnich Motorsport (Germany). Reigning World Touring Car Champion Robert Huff will drive for the latter team, in the cockpit of the Leon WTCC bearing number 1.

And he’ll be supported by another reigning world champion in Team Münnich: Marc Basseng, who took the 2012 title in the FIA GT1 World Championship. The current European Touring Car Championship (ETCC) champion, Fernando Monje, also enters the fray this season at the wheel of a Leon WTCC for Team Campos Racing.

“Motorsport is deeply embedded in SEAT’s DNA and also on-going proof of our technical expertise. With the experience and know-how of experts working at SEAT Sport we have been able to offer a very competitive vehicle for all our customers,” says Dr. Matthias Rabe, SEAT’s Vice President for Research and Development. “I would particularly like to thank the mechanics and engineers at SEAT Sport, who have worked with enormous motivation to prepare the teams’ race vehicles.”

SEAT Sport is supporting the four customer teams with extensive assistance derived from enormous know-how garnered over the years. Specialists from SEAT Sport will be on-site at each of the 24 races on twelve race tracks around the world.

“SEAT fans around the world are thrilled by every single exciting race,” says Jaime Puig, Head of SEAT Sport with responsibility for the brand’s motorsport activities. “We are supporting the customer teams with the full weight of our combined experience and I am certain they will achieve outstanding success this year, too.”

At the heart of SEAT’s touring car racer is the 1.6-litre turbo petrol engine with an output of 310 PS and a maximum torque of 410 Nm. Last season, the turbocharged powerhouse – developed by SEAT Sport – made it very obvious that it possesses all of the performance and endurance called for in every single WTCC race. The Leon WTCC is based on the five-door Mk II SEAT Leon CUPRA and has been modified by SEAT Sport engineers in accordance with the official rules laid down by the FIA for international competition.

The SEAT Leon WTCC is one of the most successful touring car racers of recent years, with SEAT twice bringing the world title home to Spain – in 2008 and 2009. The Spanish brand caused quite a sensation with these achievements: in 2007 the Leon TDI was the first diesel-powered car to enter the World Touring Car Championship, before going on to win successive titles over the next two years. The vehicle and engine were both developed by SEAT Sport.

Motorsport has been a fixed part of SEAT for many decades – sport is part of the brand DNA. The two wins at the World Touring Car Championship in 2008 and 2009 with the SEAT Leon TDI WTCC and the triple victory in the World Rally Championship in the 2-litre class from 1996 to 1998 are just two outstanding examples. Alongside its commitment to customers in the WTCC, 2013 will also see SEAT Sport support its customers in the FIA European Touring Car Championship (ETCC), a number of single-brand race series like the SEAT Leon Supercopa in Mexico and the SEAT Ibiza Cup in Italy and Spain.

Race calendar, 2013 World Touring Car Championship (WTCC)

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About SEAT

SEAT is the only company in its sector with the full-range capacity to design, develop, manufacture and market cars in Spain.  A member of the Volkswagen Group, the multinational has its headquarters in Martorell (Barcelona), exporting 80% of its vehicles to 75 countries.

SEAT Group employs more than 14,000 professionals at its three production centres in Barcelona- Zona Franca, El Prat de Llobregat and Martorell, where it manufactures the highly successful Ibiza and Leon, amongst other models. Additionally, the company produces the Alhambra in Palmela (Portugal), the Mii in Bratislava (Slovakia) and the new Toledo in Mladá Boleslav (Czech Republic) at Volkswagen Group plants.

The Spanish multinational also has a Technical Center, a “knowledge hub”, bringing together more than 900 engineers whose goal is to be the driving force behind innovation for the number one industrial investor in R&D in Spain. In line with its declared commitment to environment protection, SEAT undertakes and bases its core activity on sustainability, namely reduction of CO₂ emissions, energy efficiency, as well as recycling and re-use of resources.