For this week’s Wednesday Want we’re looking at a brand that has never appeared in a Gran Turismo game before.
During the 1980s, Skoda was a manufacturer of earnest but below-par cars. As one of the rare few Eastern Bloc carmakers exporting to Western Europe, along with Lada, FSO and Yugo, Skoda attracted jokes.
After the fall of communism in Czechoslovakia in 1989, Skoda was bought by Volkswagen and this started its own revolution.
First came the Felicia. While this was little more than a gentrified Skoda Favorit, the Felicia was a harbinger of things to come.
The real change came with the brand’s first new Volkswagen-based car. Introduced in 1996, the Octavia defined the new Skoda and the name continues in production to this day.
Using the same platform as the Volkswagen Golf — now a common strategy across the group’s various brands — the Octavia was a revelation. It brought Volkswagen qualities of reliability and build quality, but at a lower price point.
However it wasn’t until the car’s 2000 facelift that the real Octavia revealed itself.
By using the Volkswagen 1.8-liter turbo engine also found in the Golf and Audi A3, Skoda created the Octavia vRS. This 178 hp car, though still front-wheel drive, is regarded as one of the group’s finest performance cars of the day. Available as a saloon or an estate, it almost defined the Q-Car and many police forces used it as an undercover pursuit vehicle.
In fact such was the performance potential of the vRS, Skoda used it for the World Rally Championship. The Octavia WRC managed a solitary podium at the 2001 Safari Rally.
Often overlooked next to Imprezas and Lancer Evos, the Octavia vRS is a classic stealth saloon car.
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