SEAT returned to international motor racing with the SEAT Toledo CUPRA in the European Touring Car Championship. The Toledo was the car run by SEAT in the transition from the European to the World Championship, a period that culminated with two SEAT world titles in a row with the Leon TDI WTCC.

Once the cycle in the World Rally Championship was over, where the SEAT Ibiza Kit Car had won three 2-Litre Makes’ world titles, SEAT Sport focused on the development and production of exclusive high-performance models, called CUPRA R, together with the Martorell Technical Centre. Based on the SEAT Leon CUPRA R, SEAT Sport developed a racing model that gave life to the one-make Supercopa León championship, starting in 2002.

It was a preview of SEAT's return to international motor racing, this time on racing tracks. SEAT Sport developed a racing vehicle according to FIA S2000 international regulations. The base had to be a 2-wheel drive, 4-door large series production model, with a minimum length of 4.2 metres. SEAT chose the Toledo, then in its second generation.

The SEAT Toledo was a three-box saloon that offered refined aerodynamics, ideal for a racing car. With Benoît Bagur as SEAT Sport technical director and Toni Cuquerella as chief engineer, the model intended for the European Touring Car Championship (ETCC) was called Toledo CUPRA.

However, unlike its successor, the SEAT Leon WTCC, the Toledo never had a CUPRA production version, although at the 1999 Geneva Motor Show a SEAT Toledo CUPRA Concept had been unveiled, which remained a one-off. Four years later, at the 2003 Geneva Motor Show, the Toledo CUPRA ETCC was shown, a month before its racing debut.

SEAT Sport run two units in the 2003 ETCC. With Jordi Gené at the wheel, the Toledo CUPRA earned its first points already in the second meeting of the season, at Magny-Cours, while his teammate Frank Diefenbacher got the first podium of the Toledo CUPRA at Oschersleben.

In 2004, SEAT Sport raced a third car for Rickard Rydell, which gave SEAT its first ETCC win, also at Oschersleben, while Gené and Diefenbacher took several podiums.

Thanks to the S2000 regulations, ETCC flourished in popularity and competitiveness, with exciting and hard-fought races with cars as the ones we drove daily, but with more aggressive and spectacular bodies. The rise of the ETCC led the FIA (Fedération Internationale de l’Automobile) to promote the European Championship to World Championship status, starting in 2005.

Thus, the Toledo CUPRA went on to compete in the WTCC in 2005, and SEAT Sport lined up a large five-car team: Rydell and Gené were joined by Peter Terting as regular drivers, while Jason Plato and Marc Carol contested assorted races. The latter had been the winner of the 2004 Spanish Supercopa León. In this way, SEAT kept the tradition of promoting the best drivers out of the SEAT one-make championships.

Both the Toledo CUPRA and the SEAT Sport team were increasingly competitive, and in 2005 the Toledo CUPRA achieved its first one-two, with Rydell and Plato first and second at Silverstone, and another victory for Terting in Puebla (Mexico), in addition to several podiums. These were SEAT's first overall victories in an FIA World Championship.

However, Toledo CUPRA's trajectory in the WTCC was coming to an end. The production Toledo had been replaced in mid-2004, and the brand's latest launch was the second-generation SEAT Leon. For SEAT it was vital to make good use of touring car racing’s appeal to promote the new Leon, so in the antepenultimate round of 2005 Jordi Gené raced for the first time the new Leon WTCC, developed by SEAT Sport while the team was still racing with the Toledo CUPRA.

Two weeks later, Gené got the first victory with the Leon, in Valencia. With two victories for the Toledo CUPRA and one for the Leon WTCC, SEAT finished the 2005 season in third place (out of five classified brands). From there, SEAT's rise was unstoppable, a trajectory that would culminate in two world titles in a row for the SEAT Leon TDI WTCC, in 2008 and 2009. SEAT would not have been able to achieve those successes without the experience gained with the Toledo CUPRA in the ETCC.

SEAT HISTÓRICOS keeps two units of the SEAT Toledo CUPRA, from 2003 (in yellow and grey colours) and 2004/2005 (yellow and blue), both raced by Jordi Gené back in the day. As well as being a works driver, Gené was the test driver in charge of car testing and development, a role he’s still playing today, for SEAT and also for CUPRA. SEAT HISTÓRICOS keeps both Toledo CUPRAs in perfect running order.