953 kilometres and 29 mountain passes in Italy, Austria and Switzerland in only 22 hours is the magnificent feat achieved by the SEAT Altea freetrack on the gruelling mountain tour carried out last weekend by Tyrolean Gerhard Plattner and Austrian Franz Doppler. During the challenge, SEAT’s all-roader demonstrated its magnificent performance along the steep and winding route.

The difficult event involved crossing 24 mountain passes in 24 hours. From the outset in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, both Gerhard Plattner and Franz Doppler experienced first-hand the exceptional performance of the 140 hp Altea freetrack 2.0 TDI with four-wheel drive. The car’s hydro-mechanical connection and AWD Haldex electronic control unit provided progressive tractive force at all times to deal with all types of rough terrain.

The drivers got encouraged with the idea of taking the challenge a step further, and so they did. 22 hours later, Plattner and Doppler had already covered the entire distance, but had crossed 29 mountain passes.

Upon completion, Plattner and Doppler commented that “the SEAT Altea freetrack was the perfect vehicle to drive on this tour. We’ve driven on all kinds of surfaces, including a short snow-covered road, and the car behaved perfectly. One of the big surprises was the fuel consumption – only 7.1 l/100 km, even when we spent the whole time driving on winding uphill and downhill roads.”

The 140 hp Altea freetrack 2.0 TDI with four-wheel drive is one of the Spanish company’s high-performance all-road versions, along with the other Diesel, a front-wheel drive 140 hp 2.0 TDI and the petrol powered four-wheel drive 200 hp 2.0 TSI.