We’ve known it would arrive sooner or later, the new Suzuki Swift Sport. We’ve seen leaks, we’ve seen renders, and we’ve seen the release of the ‘base-spec’ variants’ details, but the Swift Sport was the one model eluding us. Now though, we have our first official pictures of the new Suzuki Swift Sport.
UPDATE: New images of the Suzuki Swift Sport have been released. We’ve updated our gallery above with the new images, as well as the article below with new details.
Mark it on your calendars now, the date to watch out for is Tuesday the 12th of September. That’s when Suzuki will unveil the Suzuki Swift Sport to the world in full at the 67th Frankfurt Motor Show.
The Suzuki Swift Sport looks to have a reworked front end compared to the standard models, with a more pronounced, lower mounted grill and bold fog lamp housings. The two-tone alloy wheels remain true to the original leaked images. The Swift Sport retains the dual tailpipe configuration of the current model, now housed within a carbon fibre look diffuser.
The interior has been suitably beefed up with sporty red dials and updates to the dash including red accents throughout and a perforated leather steering wheel. The Suzuki Swift Sport will also feature new sport buckets seats, complete with ‘Sport’ embroidery, and honeycomb cloth inserts.
You can view the leaked images of the Swift Sport below:
Very little information has been released so far, though powertrain details are perhaps not as secret as Suzuki may wish.
The new Suzuki Swift Sport will be powered by a 1.4-litre turbocharged Boosterjet engine. Whilst this engine may be new to us in South Africa – we don’t even get the 3-cylinder turbo Boosterjet engines yet – it’s been around for a while in other markets in a hotter version of the Suzuki Vitara. Power outputs from the 1.4-litre turbo engine are 103kW and 220Nm. It is however believed, courtesy of a Japanese teaser site, the the Suzuki Swift Sport will benefit from an overboost function, upping torque to 245Nm for a brief period of time.
Whilst power may not be much more than the current Suzuki Swift Sport’s 100kW, the torque takes a big bump from the current 160Nm on offer from the 1.6-litre naturally aspirated engine. Not only will the torque add to the performance, but the expected kerb weight of below 900kg should give the Suzuki Swift Sport a comparable power-to-weight ratio to the Ford Fiesta ST.
A teaser video for the new model has been released along with updated images, showing clips of both the previous and current Suzuki Swift Sport, along with a cam-clad new one performing all sorts of slides on a wet race track:
The old/current Suzuki Swift Sport has been a beacon of hope for real drivers; not just because of its naturally aspirated engine, but because it remains one of the purest, most honest driving experiences around. The new one will lose the naturally aspirated character, meaning it’ll need to be something really special if it wishes to keep up the reputation of the Swift Sport badge.
The new Suzuki Swift family is only expected to arrive in South Africa in mid-2018, and at this stage it is unclear whether or not the Suzuki Swift Sport will arrive simultaneously.
