While Seat has yet to confirm the existence of a high-performance Ateca, the car may have been spotted hiding in plain sight at the unveiling of the facelifted Leon in Barcelona.

Rumors of an Ateca Cupra have been circulating ever since the carmaker debuted the SUV, and it looks like the model is pretty much completed. The matte black car is said to be driven by SEAT’s executive vice-president for research and development, Matthias Rabe, and although its paint scheme helps it fly under the radar, it did little to conceal it this time.

Although it’s not probably an official color, the Seat Ateca Capra will use other aggressive visual characteristics, including a different body kit, bigger wheels, a lower ride height, and quad exhausts (as seen in the Twitter pictures), to separate itself from the standard variants.

Technical aspects of the car are unknown, but the model is expected to sport a tuned variant of the Cupra’s powertrain to compensate for the extra weight. That translates into a turbocharged 2.0-litre engine developing around 300 hp, capable of pushing the SUV from 0 to 100 km/h (62 mph) in approximately six seconds. But we’ll find out more after the car will be officially unveiled, sometime in 2017.

H/T to Auto Express; Rendering courtesy of X-Tomi Design

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