2004 Skoda Fabia vRS from UK and Ireland - Comments

I've just had my Fabia vRS remapped, and I'm sorry to all those poor long suffering CTR drivers but it is faster than a CTR. With more than double the torque at 410Nm and 175bhp I "mullered" hello kitty the other day, and will proceed to muller each and every one I see.

I know it can't be a great feeling knowing that you've bought obsolete technology, but just get over it, sell it, and buy a Fabia. Tragically, I actually get more mpg now I have more power!

Tis a hard life being a SKODA owner, but there you have it.

LOL, if you think with a puny 175bhp that you're gonna MULLER a Type R, I'm afraid you're very wrong. You can have all the torque in the world, but without the horsepower to go with it it means nothing. Sure you will get great acceleration and be able to pull a caravan up a hill without much effort, but as soon as the Civic comes onto cam he will reel you in and pass you.

Far too many diesel owners on this site that think just because they have torque they can beat everything. My friend has a Seat Leon FR diesel with 170bhp and loads of torque, but even he will admit that by the time you hit 3rd gear, any Type R will cruise past after catching up, after the initial turbo and torque surge from the turbo diesel.

You'd need a bit more than 175bhp to beat one mate! Even if you had the same 200 bhp that the Civic does, you'd still need another 20 or so to beat one, seeing that the Fabia weighs a hell of a lot more, and that's pretty poor for a smaller car!

There's not even that bigger difference in running costs, as the petrol is so much cheaper to buy!

I drive a tuned TDI, it weighs 1220kg, has 150bhp and 240ft lbs of torque, but guess what, it's not going to be as fast as cars which weigh less and have more bhp if mine and their car are going flat out.

Torque throws you back in your seat and is very useful for everyday driving, but no way will a Fabia running 175bhp be faster than a CTR, which is lighter by some 100kg and has another 25bhp on top. Also, I can tell you that all your torque is doing in first through to 3rd gear is spinning the wheels due to the poorer delivery of power compared to the progressive power of a NASP petrol.

The Fabia has a heavy shell, and you would be better off buying the Seat Ibiza with the same engine, as it is getting on for 100kgs lighter. Also, with all that torque you are on the limits of what the drivetrain can take, and if you do keep on trying to race against CTR (I doubt many are even trying) then you will find you need a new clutch pretty soon, and possibly a gearbox.

I have a 2.2 Honda Prelude vtec and I raced one of those Seat Leon FR diesel things (great looking cars). In 1st and 2nd gear, there wasn't much in it, but 3rd gear I started pulling away, and by the time I got it in 4th, I was at least 5 car lengths ahead.

Fabia vRS does 20-40 quicker than a Lotus 111R, does 50-70 quicker than a 330Ci BMW. The in gear acceleration is simply impressive for a car of this insurance group, price and the fact it's a stock diesel econo engine.

A few car mags when testing the Fab vRS quoted 0-60 times of 7.5 and 8.1secs - from a stock car.

When most owners have thier stock vRSs rolling roaded, they normally make between 140-150bhp at the fly, which is more than the 128bhp quoted by Skoda.

However, I won't say a stock CTR is quicker than a tuned vRS. I will say they are a lot lighter and have much better handling for stock than a vRS. Skoda didn't really do anything to make these cars handle out of the box. To make a vRS handle you need to shave off a few hundred kilos, which won't be easy, then you need the 23mm rear arb, uprated front arb, front, rear and lower braces, full poly bushed suspension, coil overs not to mention some better brakes, either 312s or brembos, then maybe, just maybe it will handle and stop like a proper hot hatch.

I'm afraid I'm going to have to disagree with the last commenter completely.

For a start, your acceleration times you quoted: where they for a particular gear? If you're talking about the higher gears such as 3rd, 4th etc. then maybe the vRS will be faster than the Elise and Beemer, but realistically, when an owner accelerates hard in any car, they drop to the lowest gear they can in order to gain maximum acceleration from any vehicle, racing in the highest gear possible doesn't make any sense, and if the owner of both cars were racing at those or any other speed for that matter properly, they would leave the Fabia in their dust.

Your figures for 0-60 etc. are way off, 7.5 seconds? Really? If these are real figures, tested by real magazines, then they must have been pushing the cars to within an inch of their life.

Second point you raised about handling, very true as the Skoda was always going to be a warm hatch at best, that's what it was designed for, and if you're gonna throw that much money at a car (which let's be honest is going to be into 5-6k when you're done, with Brembo brakes and top drawer suspension etc.) the price of the car is gonna get very expensive, and then insurance will also be on a par with a hot hatch too, (assuming you tell them, which you should if you want to be covered), this means a hot hatch would then become the better ownership proposition as it will be faster, more fun and better handling from the word go, and cheaper than the Skoda, so equaling up the price, adding to the hot hatch like a Civic Type R etc. is going to make them even faster, so the Skoda will still be miles behind.

I pity anybody who modifies a diesel, LOL, really if you're trying to go fast, a good petrol is much better, you will find that diesel lumps are heavy, old fashioned and useless at performing. Before you start going into the whole argument about the Audi R10 TDI race car, remember that it has a bigger displacement than the petrol cars as well as two barn door sized turbos, so the petrol cars are actually handicapped in comparison, and also the 'fast' diesel road cars are also modified from the factory, and reliability and fuel economy is taking a major hit with the modern diesel powered units unfortunately in the pursuit of performance.

So back to the Fabia discussion, it is a half decent car all round at most things, but should never be compared with a hot hatch performance wise, as standard it is way way off the mark, it is in the realms of the Fiesta Zetec-S and Saxo VTR, so that's where it should stay.

Jeb.

I recently just got rid of a tuned TDI for something a bit quicker, but one thing I will say is that I never lost MPG when I tuned it, it got better with a remap and breathing mods, then was reduced to normal with different injectors.

It didn't handle well and it didn't stop well, but it was pretty quick in a straight line and particularly up hills it took some beating.

It made a lot of sense when doing some miles, and it cost peanuts to tune (50bhp for less than £500 is pretty good, as it was then running at 150% power compared to standard).

Plus because it was a simple old style diesel (Rover 25 L series engine), it was rock solid even running higher power.