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Jaggy Cars - January 2011
Skoda Fabia VRS
Fabialous Fun in a Skoda
Loved it. But it had one serious flaw. Ride quality. It ain’t got none. It’s about as comfortable as skiting down the Cresta run on yer bare bum. In other words, it offers about as much bump absorption as riding a hospital tea trolley down a flight of stone steps.
To call the skimpy little rubber things wrapped around the 17 inch alloys ‘tyres’ would incite a Trades Descriptions officer to stab his eyeballs with his pencil. And it’s not as if they offered much in the way of grip either. And yet I still loved it.
Sadist or masochist? You choose.
On the move the Fabia VRS is about as placid as a wasp in a jamjar. I have driven the VRS in both the dry and the wet, and while it had huge grip in the dry, it was a different matter in the wet – and yet it was much more fun! Yes, it slipped and slid on corners, but it was so controllable. In the wet there was some serious understeer, but it could be provoked or dampened at will, and if you got it right, it would oversteer, and at no time did I feel unsafe – or was that me staying with my own limits?
The date of return to Skoda happened just about at the right time. If I had kept it any longer then cockiness would have started to set in, and Skoda might have ended up getting it back in a plastic bag.
It’s a good job it didn’t have any more than its 180 horses. Standing starts were quite tricky, especially in the wet, even with its electronic limited slip diff, and it had the dashboard traction light (ESP+HHC+TPM+XDS) going demented in its frantic search for grip. But a sensitive touch with the size elevens, aided by the quick DSG gearbox, and it was off and up the road like a headless chicken. In the dry it was even more impressive.
Even more surprising is the fact that all this happens courtesy of a 1400cc engine. However, the secret here is that this little four pot is both supercharged and turbocharged. The mechanically-driven supercharger stokes the boiler room up to 3500 rpm by which time the turbo is up and running at full puff, so the sook’n’squeezer shuts down. No wonder it gives the tyres such a hard time.
So I’ll let Pirelli and its P Zero Neros off on this occasion. The 205/40 x 17 jobs have a hard enough time coping with the power, let alone providing a bit of tyrewall ‘give’ and comfort.
And to cap it all, the excellent 7 speed DSG box had an ‘S’ mode. I don’t think it made the shifts any quicker, it just held the revs longer making full bore changes at 7000 rpm.
If there was a criticism (other than the numb bum syndrome) it was that the steering was a just a bit too light for my liking. It could have done with a bit more weight and feedback which might just have prevented ‘overturning’ into corners – or was I just arriving at them too quickly? On that basis and with all that power some folks might think it’s a point and squirt machine, but really, once you got used to the steering it was quick and accurate, although a little more feedback would have been appreciated.
Thankfully the brakes are good, but the hard pads on the discs sound a bit metallic when cold although they were certainly up to the job of curbing my excesses when warmed up.
There’s not much to say about the suspension, other than they forgot fit some, but that’s being a bit harsh. On a quick scoot across country there’s no doubting the effectiveness of the damping, it’s just that it was transferred direct from the tarmac to the bone.
Fortunately, the seats are pretty supportive, and the padding had to work hard to offer some degree of comfort, but driving the wee thing at speed on the road diverts all attention away from buttocks to bends.
Also, the whole thing felt very well screwed together, and the Volkswagen attitudes to build quality are obviously being well observed in the Czech Republic. Inside the car, and going by the style of the dashboard, the materials used and the general finish, you’d think you were in a ‘proper’ Volkswagen, but outside it’s pure Skoda. That’s not to demean the Skoda, no, not all, it’s a compliment for the general fit and finish.
It may look a small car, but it is deceptively tall and provides ample room inside the car for four adults.
Yes, I loved it, but would I have one? Actually I think I would, but only as a second car. On the other hand I might just buy a set of 16 inch wheels and put some proper tyres on it!
In Short:
Price: £16,260.00
Engine: 1400 cc, supercharged and turbocharged 4 cylinder petrol, with 180 bhp
Performance: 0-62 mph in 7.3 seconds, flat out at 141 mph
Economy: 44.1 mpg (combined)
CO2 emissions: 149 g/km
Insurance Group: 27E
P.S. The word ‘skitin’ has not been mispelt or mistyped, so for the benefit of the growing number of English readers, it means - sliding on one’s erse uncontrollably.
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