SEAT ALTEA FREETRACK

The topic is indeed relevant now, and development is relatively inexpensive. Moreover, in Spain itself and around it, there are plenty of picturesque corners where going in a regular car means ruining the suspension, and in a full-fledged SUV — emptying your wallet. Nevertheless, the German bosses from the VW concern are diligently molding the Spanish brand into an image of a kind of explosive mixture of flamenco and bullfighting. The current Seat is a daring temperament and stylish appearance, sporty settings and elegant body contours, powerful units and almost game-like ease of control. In short, the engineers were given a challenging task: the crossover had to be as passionate as a kiss from a Gypsy woman in love. The basis was the compact minivan Seat Altea, which was equipped with all-wheel drive, larger wheels, and plastic body cladding designed to protect the body from gravel flying from under the wheels. And where is that very passion? Here it is: under the hood — a two-liter turbocharged gasoline engine, paired with a six-speed manual, and in the transmission — a Haldex coupling. The instrument panel was lit in red, the seats were made deeper, the body lines — sharper... It looks great!

ALL-WHEEL DRIVE, BUT NOT QUITE
A car for going out into nature. I drove a hundred and fifty kilometers on the highway, twenty on dirt roads, and another three on a forest road until I reached a clearing by a stream. If it rains at night — no problem: after all, we have all-wheel drive! Puddles, sand, protruding roots — not scary: the ground clearance of the Freetrack is 40 mm more than that of the original Altea XL! Branches whip against the sides — no big deal: plastic cladding with scars looks even more colorful, and it polishes easily. And on the highway — a pleasure: the standard audio system plays excellently, the seats with tenacious lateral support are comfortable, the suspension is just stiff enough, the engine runs quietly, the wind doesn't howl, and the speedometer needle has already passed 180. I hope I don't get a fine! We turn onto a country road. There is still plenty of snow, the ice on puddles crunches, the car holds confidently, occasionally engaging the traction control system to help. The Freetrack's all-wheel drive is arranged through an electronically controlled Haldex coupling. It works simply: ABS sensors inform the control unit that one of the wheels is rotating faster than the other, and this speed difference is interpreted as wheelspin. Immediately, a command is sent to two electric motors — one opens a valve, the other starts the oil pump. Depending on how much the wheel is slipping, the oil pressure compressing the clutch discs changes. The lockup can be either one hundred percent or ten percent. And five percent happens by itself — due to oil friction in the system. While I was writing this, the coupling probably engaged two hundred times. Full lockup occurs in a fraction of a second — to be precise, in the time it takes the input shaft to outrun the output shaft by 45 degrees. If you recalculate this considering the final drive ratio, it turns out that the difference in wheel revolutions will be about 7–9 degrees. You won't even notice when the coupling engages! And there will be no rear-axle slides in a sharp turn or digging in of the front wheels while waiting for the rear ones to engage. But still, I will warn potential owners: the drive of the Seat Freetrack, although all-wheel, is automatic, and it needs to be taken care of like any other. Aggressive off-road driving, sharp starts uphill, and pseudo-rally antics will kill the coupling in one season!

TURBO MIX
For the Seat Altea Freetrack, five or six engines are claimed. I'll say right away: four or five of them are not interesting to me. When you have 200 turbo horsepower under the hood with a curb weight of 1500 kg, you generally care about little else. Acceleration to 100 km/h in 7.5 seconds, and you just have time to look for where to squeeze out the maximum 214 km/h... The only thing is, the gearbox could use more precision! The lever throw is short, but the gears engage somehow sluggishly, as if through thickened oil. For a family compact van, that's still acceptable, but for a hot crossover — clearly not.

But there are no complaints about the steering. The steering wheel itself is pleasant to the touch, and the reactions to its turns are precise and predictable. Handling is generally the strong point of the Seat Freetrack. Of course, during active slalom driving, you can feel that the center of gravity has risen due to the increased ground clearance, but the multi-link rear suspension and powerful anti-roll bars cope with this perfectly. It's clear that the suspension was tuned under the careful control of colleagues from Wolfsburg: no matter how much the Spaniards tried to add sportiness, the Germans didn't yield a gram of comfort. Compromises don't work in such matters, especially on the rear axle, so they chose the only, albeit most expensive, solution — a five-link multilink. Up front — McPherson with a clever subframe made in the form of a huge plate of light alloy. It actually performs the function of a power element, giving the entire structure the necessary torsional and bending rigidity, which also positively affects steering precision, allowing, in suitable conditions, to drive at a nearly rally pace or trace a trajectory on the verge of breaking loose.

ROLL THE FILM!
The version with all-wheel drive and a turbo engine costs, mind you, over a million rubles... Yes, that word also slipped out first when I found out the price. What are we being asked to shell out such money for? The base TrailBlazer costs almost the same. But there — it's a real car, and here... Well, all-wheel drive, it's clear, for snow, clay, wet grass. Six-speed manual — for those who imagine themselves as Alonso and are still looking for their pole. Cabin for five — no comment. Turbocharged engine — 7.5 seconds to 100, the guys at Subaru were surprised. A good engine, fast and neat, you need to know how to use it, but again, there are enough poles for everyone. Image, prestige, style. If you're not a DJ or at least a stylist, these words somehow don't go with Seat, with all due respect. What else can surprise? Here's a built-in DVD system with a ceiling console and a seven-inch screen for rear passengers. Not a bad argument, but it seems to me that those who will pay won't be the ones who will later ride in the back row of the Freetrack... The factory, in secret, releases all-wheel-drive 200-horsepower Altea Freetrack for 23 thousand euros, with duties it comes out to about 30. Still expensive! Even with the movies, it's expensive! However, for the opportunity to overtake some "zoom-zoom" with a trendy guy behind the wheel with a whistle, sometimes you want to pay. And for the opportunity to fly to your favorite clearing near Istra in about forty minutes. If, of course, the highway isn't clogged with summer residents in regular minivans...