The Leon TDI WTCC takes pride of place not only in SEAT's sporting history, but also in the world’s motor racing history. On the one hand, it gave SEAT its greatest sporting achievement, with two consecutive Manufacturers’ and Drivers’ titles in the World Touring Car Championship; on the other hand, it was the first diesel-powered car to win an FIA world championship.

In the second half of the ’90s, SEAT had competed at the highest level in the World Rally Championship, winning three 2-Litre Makes’ titles in a row and several podiums in the top WRC category. SEAT Sport then focused on the development of the roadgoing Ibiza and Leon CUPRA R. The latter went on sale in 2002 and had a customer racing derivative that was the basis of the one-make SEAT Leon Supercopa racing series.

It was the prelude to SEAT's return to top-line international motorsport in 2003. This time, the chosen stage was racing tracks, with the Toledo CUPRA ETCC at the European Touring Car Championship. The following year came SEAT's first victory in the discipline, and in 2005 the growing popularity of the championship led the FIA (Federation Internationale de l’Automobile) to promote touring car racing to world championship status, along with Formula One and Rallying.

The creation of the World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) coincided with the launch of SEAT’s second-generation Leon. On this basis, SEAT Sport developed the successor to the Toledo CUPRA, the Leon WTCC, initially powered by a naturally-aspirated 2.0 petrol engine. SEAT claimed its first two overall victories in a world championship in 2005, with the Toledo, before the Leon WTCC's debut towards the end of the season. Just a fortnight later, Jordi Gené achieved the Leon’s first victory, in Valencia.

SEAT's rise in world’s touring car racing was unstoppable, with three more victories in 2006. After being runner-up that year, the next step was to win the overall crown. To achieve this, SEAT made the bold decision to develop a new version of the Leon WTCC, now powered by a 2.0 TDI (direct injection turbodiesel) engine, to compete with the other brands running petrol cars.

The new SEAT Leon TDI WTCC made its debut in mid-2007 and that season it already scored three victories, with SEAT again runner-up in both Manufacturers’ and Drivers’ rankings. SEAT Sport's technology bet paid off from 2008. The TDI Leon proved to be the class of the field and SEAT won two Manufacturers’ world titles in a row, while its two top drivers, Yvan Muller and Gabriele Tarquini, were world champions in 2008 and 2009, respectively. Four world titles in two seasons, and the record for the highest number of points scored in a WTCC season for Tarquini in 2009.

SEAT's success was historic, because it was the first time a diesel-powered car had won an FIA world championship. SEAT saw the potential advantage in terms of extra torque and straight-line speed of a diesel powertrain and took the risk of developing such an engine for racing use, a path no other brand dared to follow.

In addition, SEAT Sport also proved to be the best team in the championship, thanks to a fantastic driver line-up formed by the aforementioned Muller, Tarquini and Gené, as well as Rickard Rydell and Tiago Monteiro. A touring car racing dream team perfectly assisted on the track by SEAT Sport’s mechanics and engineers. All SEAT drivers won races with the Leon TDI, with 20 victories during those two seasons. Despite successive changes to the rules that weighed down the TDI Leon, SEAT filled the podium on some occasions and even achieved a resounding top six at Mexico in 2008, where a semi-works petrol Leon completed the clean sweep of the works TDIs.

This double championship success has been SEAT's greatest sporting achievement in its entire history. A success made even more valuable for the fact that, according to the regulations, the Leon TDI WTCC was a production car modified with a kit, while the engine was also developed from a standard block, all done in-house by SEAT Sport. Touring car racing success led to the launch of a new roadgoing Leon CUPRA R in 2009. With 265 HP, the new model became the most powerful car SEAT had ever released to the public until then.

Yvan Muller’s 2008 world champion Leon TDI WTCC is now part of SEAT HISTÓRICOS’ Collection. It is kept in perfect running order, as a moving testament to SEAT's sporting pedigree.