Progress Report: Skoda Fabia vRS Mk1 (2005) vs Skoda Octavia vRS iV (2021)

It was indeed. When the first-generation Fabia vRS was launched back in 2003 it was unlike any other hot hatch its size. For it was powered not by a rev-happy nat-asp or turbocharged petrol engine, like all its competitors, but by a 1.9-litre turbodiesel plucked from the VW Group parts bin. 

This, remember, was only a couple of years after the UK Government introduced tax breaks for diesel-powered cars, a couple of years before Audi started winning with it at Le Mans and around the same time VW stuck a mighty V10 diesel in the Touareg. In 2003, and up to and beyond the death of the Mk1 Fabia vRS in 2007, everyone thought diesel was the future. And boy were they wrong.

No, but demand is falling (few manufacturers bother with diesel superminis anymore, because nobody wants them) and it seems unlikely we’ll see many more new diesel-fuelled performance cars. I’d be surprised if the few that remain on sale – like the Audi S4, S5, S6, S7 and SQ5 – survive beyond this generation. The future of fast is cars you plug in. So while Skoda does still do a diesel-powered Octavia vRS, it would undoubtedly much rather you buy the plug-in Octavia vRS iV instead. 

It’s the name Skoda gives its plug-ins, whether they’re full EVs like the Enyaq crossover or PHEVs like this Octavia. It shares much with the VW Golf GTE and Cupra Leon eHybrid, with a 1.4-litre petrol engine making 148bhp allied to a 113bhp e-motor. It’s not thrilling, and the pure petrol is better to drive with a less, erm, obstructive powertrain, but it makes a great deal of sense if you can make the potential BiK savings add up.   

Not as fast, obviously, but not by as big a margin as you might think. The Fabia vRS has just 126bhp, but it only weighs a little over 1,300kg and – here’s the kicker – has 229lb ft of torque from 1,900rpm. More than a contemporary Porsche Boxster. This means that, if the Internet is to be believed, the humble vRS is quicker from 50-70mph than a E90 BMW 330i, and as quick from 20-40mph as a Lotus Elise 111R. 

There’s definitely quite a lot of weight on that front axle, so the Fabia vRS doesn’t feel as nimble or light on its feet as other small hot hatches. But it feels stable and surefooted, like a hot hatch for grown-ups (‘twas always the VW Group’s way). By modern standards the steering is slow, but it’s reassuringly weighted and feels more natural than many electrically-assisted racks, if ultimately a bit numb. While not particularly exciting, it is good fun. 

And that big (relative to the size of the car to which it’s fitted, anyway), brawny diesel means it still feels quick even by today’s standards. Nothing like as refined as many of today’s four-cylinder diesels of course, but it feels willing and revs freely and flexibly up to its red-line. Not that you’ll ever take it there – the Fabia vRS is at its most effective in the mid-range. Keeping the engine in the sweet spot between 2,000 and 4,000rpm is no hardship and maintaining momentum is easy and satisfying. The six-speed manual gearbox and clutch are slick and forgiving, and the brakes are up to the task. 
 

On the face of it, no. The Fabia is a more conventionally fun thing, being smaller and vastly lighter and with a less complicated powertrain. An altogether different kind of car. But there is a parallel here – both these cars have powertrains not ideally suited to performance cars, so you have to adapt your driving style to get the best out of them. 

We know it’s possible to make a plug-in powertrain work in a performance car (McLaren P1, Porsche 918, Polestar 1, Ferrari SF90 to name but four). But as yet there hasn’t really been a totally convincing mainstream performance-oriented plug-in hybrid. Give it time…