This one-off, 470bhp Skoda Superb ‘Sleeper Edition’ is the only car you’ll ever need

Welcome to perhaps the only car you’ll ever need. A practical, unassuming, quietly sensible estate that’ll slot into your life and into the world around you without causing any fuss whatsoever.

It’ll also likely embarrass any number of performance cars, because this practical, unassuming quietly sensible estate is the Skoda Superb ‘Sleeper Edition’, and it contains an entirely unsensible 470bhp 4WD drivetrain built by a team responsible for sending an equally unsensible Octavia to 227mph at Bonneville.

Take note then, BMW, for this is how you do a proper undercover performance wagon. It’s sadly a one-off, spun from the bones of the old third-generation Superb Estate by UK engineering firm RE Performance.

Taking the then-fastest Superb Estate as its base – the 2.0-litre TSI 4x4 with 276bhp – RE bolted on a new Garrett PowerMax turbocharger and a performance intercooler kit, optimised the fuel system because it needs a helluva lot more fuel, and upgraded the intake. One suspects it sprinkled in a wee splash o’ witchcraft, too.

Because the result is 470bhp and 488lb ft of torque from that direct injection 2.0-litre four-pot. That’s sent to all four wheels via a seven-speed DSG. Skoda hasn’t supplied a 0-62mph time or top speed but expect it to be ‘Many’ and ‘Very’.

Keen Superb Estate enthusiasts will have instantly spotted this thing sits 50mm lower than normal, and that’s because it’s been fitted with KW coilovers. Then come a set of AP Racing brakes comprised of six-piston calipers all round and huge 390mm two-piece discs up front and 330m discs on the rear.

After that, it’s just… a Superb Estate. Skoda was adamant that to adhere to the whole ‘sleeper’ aesthetic, it had to look as standard as possible. Hence why it looks like any other Royal Green, Lauren & Klement-spec wagon. And hence why it’s quite brilliant.

That green paint – unveiled last year to mark the coronation of King Charles III – is matched to a tan leather interior, and all the other goodies you get in the L&K edition (LED lights, lane assist, electrically operated boot, park assist, rear view parking camera), and all the goodies you get in a Superb. And yes, that means an umbrella squirrelled away in the door.

It also means a practical, unassuming, quietly sensible load capacity of 1,950-litres of boot space with the seats down. Tidy tip run in the morning, Brands Hatch hot lap embarrassing old 911s in the afternoon, anyone?