Seat Ibiza FR TDi

Stuart Milne says there are few better ways than Seat's corking Ibiza FR TDi – a red-bodied hot hatch which won't scorch your wallet.

Looking out of my window at Auto Trader Towers, I can see my latest steed sitting in the car park.

It’s a hot hatch, but not as we used to know them.

It's not the best handling, nor the best looking; but its still one hell of a car.

The Seat Ibiza FR – complete with a 1.9-litre diesel engine – is an exhilarating blend of practicality and performance.

You might get about 5 per cent more fun from a new Golf GTi, but it'll gobble down a gallon of super unleaded every 25 miles-or-so when you’re in 'Fun Mode'.

But even if you thrash the 130bhp Ibiza FR within an inch of its very existence, the trip computer will still brag a number somewhere in the mid thirties.

Don't worry though – I've not become obsessed my fuel consumption; it’s the Ibiza's torque which has captivated me.

Torque is an engine's pulling power and is difficult to explain. Suffice to say it's like swimming into a powerful current when you're in the sea.

In the case of the FR, it's not so much you're left wringing wet from your Benidorm-based sea adventures, but every fibre of your body is left tingling as you hit the engine's sweet spot, which sends the car up the road on a wave of torque.

At 310lb/ft of torque, the diesel-engined Ibiza FR has 28 more than a Porsche Boxster – and it's all available from 1,900rpm, which means it's always there when you need it.

In the Porsche, you'll have to wait to at least 4,600rpm.

The real benefit of this is overtaking and progressing into some serious, licence-losing speeds is only a prod of the pedal away. From rest, it'll hit 62mph in an adequate 9.4 seconds, but its brutal acceleration in third, forth and even fifth gear is astonishing.

But the Ibiza FR is more than just torque and economy.

Its steering is wonderfully direct and well weighted, so it stays nice and light at low speeds, but gets progressively heavier as the speed rises – exactly what you want for an urban runaround, which more often than not will take the driver the long way home.

Downsides? There's a few – the ride is hard, the interior is starting to look a little dated and they depreciate quickly.

Of course, that means they're an excellent used buy – Porsche-beating power for less than ten grand anyone?

Search for a Seat Ibiza FR.

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And the Ibiza even proved to be a pretty handy rally car, as its 1996, '97 and '98 world championships prove…