| Road Test Skoda Fabia vRS |
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A Big Improvement
Or at least I think they have. There was a facelift in January 2005, so obviously the vRS I tested recently looked different from those earlier models, but Skoda's PR people absolutely denied that there had been any change to the suspension set-up in the last three years. That comment came from the UK office, and it's quite possible that changes were indeed made back in the Czech Republic that were not considered worth mentioning to the export markets. This seems likely, since the vRS is undoubtedly a better car than it used to be. I vividly remember being appalled on the launch event by the combination of rock-hard ride and suspension that allowed the weight of the turbo diesel engine to dominate the front end of the car - to such an extent, in fact, that in extreme circumstances turning the steering wheel seemed less like issuing a definite command and more like making a tentative suggestion. In this test, I wasn't able to take the vRS on to the same roads as I used back then, but I made damn sure I found some very similar ones, full of leaps and swoops and fast off-camber corners. The original vRS was hopeless on this kind of thing, but the current one coped much better. Despite a remaining tendency to float slightly when the ground disappears underneath it (a characteristic of most Skodas these days), the car felt much more secure than before.
More deserving, too, of the name of hot hatch. The final comment in our original road test has been answered. "People who buy cars with vRS badging want more than excellent economy and the strong straightline performance this one certainly offers," we said. "Bends and bumps have to be coped with adequately too." Now, at last, they are.
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