When India was just evolving with the cars, the market was inclined towards one factor only - kitna deti hain. Regardless of that, some carmakers introduced cars with features loaded up to the brim, superb build quality and even powerful engine under the hood. One such car was the Skoda Octavia vRS and in this memory walkdown genre, we will be sharing some of the original pictures from its brochure and take down you to a nostalgic road.
Skoda Auto India introduced the performance version of Octavia in the name of vRS in 2004. The first-ever RS is still seen on the Indian roads and the enthusiasts have kept it in a pristine condition. The car was sold in a single variant and was priced at Rs 13.30 lakh, ex-showroom, Delhi. The colour options available at that time were Lemmon Yellow, Corrida Red, Diamond Silver and Black Magic.
What distinguished the vRS from regular Octavia was the badging on the front grille, rear boot, side profile and the steering wheel. It also got side skirts to bring out the sporty character, spoiler, electric sunroof and the 16-inch alloy wheels which caught everyone's eyes.
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Under the hood, it got a 1.8-litre turbocharged petrol engine which churned out 150 bhp at 5700 rpm and a peak torque of 210 Nm which varied between 1750 rpm till 4600 rpm. The FWD performance sedan was mated to a 5-speed manual gearbox and you can just imagine the joy of driving a powerful car with a stick shift. It was one of the first cars to get 5 valves per cylinder.
The vRS was also equipped with a sports suspension package which in turn gave better handling and because of the lowered height. The 205/55 R16 alloy wheels also gave way for a mere upliftment in the ground clearance. The 0-100 km/h sprint could be well achieved in just 7.9 seconds and the top speed of this car was 235 km/h.
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On the inside, the Skoda got a three-spoke steering wheel which got tilt and telescopic adjustment. You also received Recaro leather seats, leather-wrapped gear knob, sporty instrument cluster, stainless steel foot pedals with non-slip rubber pads and vRS badging on the mats.
The features on this one included a manual AC, cruise control, parking sensors, xenon headlights with washer, Alpine MP3 player and dual airbags. Well, the features are nothing compared to one we get in newer models but the joy of driving a manual comes no close to the current-gen cars. We have several examples of the modified vRS across the country.
