| Skoda Fabia vRS corners the market |
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Skoda has practically cornered the market for small, functional high performance hot hatchbacks with its new Fabia vRS. I choose the word practically carefully. It’s certainly not because there is any degree of doubt as to the vRS’s cornering ability - far from it – but more of that later. No, it’s because while most hot hatch superminis can lay claim to a degree of practicality and versatility by merely possessing an upward opening rear door and folding rear seats, the Fabia vRS trumps them resoundingly with a very useful extra pair of doors for rear seat passengers. If the rear doors really matter to you, your supermini hot hatch shopping list is a very short one indeed. In fact it seems you really need to step up to the Golf/Focus C-segment to avoid clambering through two larger front doors to gain access to the rear seats. It seems the Fabia is Hobson’s choice here, but should you come up with a viable alternative, Skoda, in poker terms, will see you and raise you with its estate version which adds 180 litres of load-lugging ability to the hatchback’s 300 with the seats upright. Folding them will open up a cavernous 1460 litres. Whichever bodystyle you choose, the 180bhp 1.4TSI engine delivers neck-snapping acceleration off the line covering the 0-62 sprint in just 7.3 seconds. Aerodynamics dictates that the estate has the higher top speed by one mile per hour at 140. I got to try the Fabia vRS at Prodrive’s Warwick facility so was able to explore its considerable talents in a safe environment before taking to the public highway for some real world motoring. The XDS electronic limited slip differential ensured a tight turn-in for accurate cornering with less steering input when you’re wringing out the exhilarating performance of the supercharged and turbocharged motor via the wheel-mounted paddles of the fabulous 7-speed DSG gearbox. Out on the road, slipping the DSG into auto mode allows the Fabia vRS to display a more mild-mannered demeanour. It rides 20 mm lower than regular Fabias and sits on rather fetching 17″ alloys with low-profile tyres but the ride quality is still quite acceptable. You can see why Skoda felt quite comfortable about abandoning the diesel unit of the vRS’s predecessor as combined fuel consumption of 45.6 mpg is quite remarkable for a car with this level of performance. The Fabia’s rather upright, tallboy design doesn’t necessarily lend itself to a hunkered down, sporty look, but its recent facelift has improved things somewhat while a host of personalisation options will allow buyers to choose different combinations of roof, body and alloy colours. The Fabia vRS is on sale now priced at £15,685 on-the-road for the hatchback and £16,480 for the estate. What are you waiting for?
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