The New Suzuki Swift Sport Wants To Prove Less Is More

Left cold by some of the expensive, over-powered cars we’ve seen revealed at Frankfurt so far this week? Here’s a potent little antidote.

It’s the all-new Suzuki Swift Sport, and it looks like hilarious fun. We’re a little sad that it’s dropped the naturally-aspirated 1.6-litre engine of the old car, but the new engine should be a punchy little thing.

The 1.4-litre turbocharged unit puts out 138bhp, and while that’s around about the same as the old N/A engine, torque has swelled by 52lb ft to a useful 170. Given that the whole thing only weighs 970kg (a little more than we were originally led to believe, but still 80kg less than its predecessor), we can expect the new Sport to be pretty damn quick while still offering the kind of performance you can use on the road without fear of incarceration.

On the inside you’ll find a good old-fashioned gear stick, hooked up to the same six-speed manual transmission from the old car, tweaked to improve the feel of the shift. There are also splashes of red trim to liven things up, and a D-shaped steering wheel.

It sits lower than the regular Sport on Monroe shock absorbers front and rear, enhanced with fatter anti-roll bars. The torsion beam at the rear is more rigid than before, while the newly developed trailing arms - specific Swift Sport parts - have been suitably beefed up.

So it’ll be fast in a straight line and handy around corners, but what about stuff? Worry not, as Suzuki’s giving you plenty of that as standard. There’s a seven-inch touchscreen, Apple Car Play/Android Auto compatibility, and a dizzying array of safety gadgets including lane departure warning, a forward detection system, autonomous emergency braking and much more besides.

Like what you see? Suzuki hasn’t yet said when it’ll be on sale nor how much it’ll cost, but expect it to weigh in somewhere around £16,000.