Skoda Fabia vRS road test
Written By Lee Sibbald Published On: Sep 08 2010The hot hatch segment is hugely competitive – which is good news for British drivers, as we tend to be one of the biggest markets in the world for them. And the choice is now even greater with the addition of the hotted-up version of Skoda’s Fabia, the vRS. It might not exactly be the prettiest car around – in fact, the Fabia seems to have had intimate contact with an ugly stick – but it has the same engine as its VW Group cousins, the upcoming Volkswagen Polo GTI and the Seat Ibiza Bocanegra. So is there enough substance to overcome the lack of style?
The new Fabia vRS comes with just the one engine option, a 1.4-litre TSI unit that produces 178bhp and 184lb-ft of torque. It’s fitted with a turbocharger and supercharger, so there’s lots of boost all the way through the rev range. Indeed, it’s a very flexible little number and is great fun to wring out on a quiet country road – at least it’s quiet until the Fabia vRS turns up, with its rorty, fruity rasp. And to go with that soundtrack is quite a bit of performance: 0-62mph takes 7.3 seconds and the Fabia vRS can push on to a top speed of 139mph if required (and when it’s legal). It feels quick enough and the thrust that just keeps on coming should bring a smile to the faces of anyone who drives it. In common with the Seat Ibiza Bocanegra, with which its shares an engine (and much of its underpinnings), the Fabia vRS is only available with VW’s seven-speed DSG gearbox, which swaps cogs quickly and smoothly, and also gives the driver the option of doing so manually with the steering column-mounted paddleshifts. It would, however, be nice to have the choice of a manual to increase the driver involvement hot hatch owners tend to like.
Read the full Skoda Fabia vRS road test on RoadTestReports.co.uk
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