Frankfurt Motor Show: New 2018 Suzuki Swift Sport revealed

The new Suzuki Swift Sport has had its covers pulled off during the Frankfurt Motor Show.

With a kerb weight of only 970kg, and a retuned 1.4-litre motor, the Sport looks to be a dynamic driver for a bargain basement price.

Hot hatch purists can also breathe a sigh of relief in the knowledge that the Swift Sport will come with a 6-speed manual gearbox. No auto.

Putting power through that ‘box is the 1.4-litre boosted four-pot engine, though here it produces 103kW and 230Nm.

And, with full torque available low down in the rev range (2500rpm-3500rpm), the Swift Sport should live up to its badge’s reputation for lively front-drive fun.

Aiding the dynamic nature of the Swift sport is a set of Monroe shocks found at each corner of the car, as well as thicker stabiliser joint bars at the front, with now single-unit wheel hub and bearings, and more space between them.

Suzuki says those changes result in a “15 per cent increase in camber rigidity during cornering” over the last Swift Sport.

At the rear, toe rigidity has been improved by 1.4 times compared to its predecessor, and the “torsion beam has been tuned to provide optimal roll stiffness.”

This can all be found behind its 17-inch alloys.

It’s also got a slightly longer wheelbase (by 20mm) than the last Sport, while the body is 15mm lower and 40mm wider.

The Swift’s chief engineer Masao Kobori says the car was built to cater to an audience who value driving dynamics over brute straight-line speed.

“We know that our customers value a dynamic driving experience above everything else, so for the third-generation Swift Sport our development concept was ‘ultimate driving excitement’,” Koboro says.

“We had a brilliant foundation to work from, because the new Swift HEARTECT platform is incredibly light and rigid. Our team had hundreds of new design and engineering ideas, but these ideas only made it off the drawing board if they added performance and emotion.

“We’ve made the car lower and wider, and packed it with lightweight technology.

“It’s lighter, sharper, quicker. It’s more aggressive and emotive, but we’ve also refined the elements that make it practical to use every day—the clutch feel, the manual transmission shift throw, the seats and steering wheel. Everything that puts the driver at the heart of the experience.”