Cupra is one of the few international-grade Spanish car manufacturers. It’s actually a subsidiary of a much bigger company called SEAT, also Spanish. While SEAT is perfectly comfortable with creating compact general use cars, Cupra has been tasked with creating powerful high performance cars for urban and motorsport purposes.

Meaning and History

Cupra Logo history

 

Before 2018, the brand was known as SEAT Sport and wasn’t much of a brand really. Now, the company is creating its own cars under its own name. They are very successful in motorsport, primarily in rallying. However, it’s not really known what ‘Cupra’ means, except for the fact that it should hint at sportiness and speed.

1999 – 2012

Cupra Logo 1999

 

Until 1999 the brand never even had any logos, it was simply a sports division of SEAT. But then Cupra (then – SEAT Sport) started getting some independence and received their brand new logo.

This logo featured the elements from the SEAT logotype almost exactly like they are featured on their own logo, except in red. The left side of the emblem featured SEAT’s ‘S’ image colored in light red and slightly framed.

On the right side, beneath SEAT, you can see the word ‘Sport’ in black letters and a somewhat more chaotic and artistic type. The checkered racing flag is also featured behind all of this.

2012 – 2018

Cupra Logo 2012

 

In the following 6 years, the name Cupra became more or less associated with the Spanish sports cars, but it wasn’t an autonomous brand just yet.

They did, however, use their own logo, which featured a black word Cupra (in a type not unlike that from the SEAT logotype) and a small red and white checkered flag to the left. This was pretty much it. Evidently, the cars produced by Cupra mostly wore SEAT emblems.

2018 – now

Cupra Logo

 

By 2018, Cupra finally got their autonomy, as well a new logo. This variant resembles SEAT’s present logo very much. The writing in the lower side still uses the font from Cupra’s parent company.

The upper part of the logo is occupied by a peculiar combination however. It may seem like a pair of calipers, by what it should mean exactly is unknown (the same problem as the name).

Emblem and Symbol

Cupra Emblem

 

Unlike the earlier models, the modern Cupra cars wear their own image as presented by their current logo version, although it’s cast in metal and polished very heavily, as the standards demand. The cars meant for rallying and motorsport still wear SEAT badges, however, because giving SEAT something to race with is Cupra’s main purpose.