Skoda Octavia vRS 230 gets power and equipment boost
Skoda shows the fastest production Octavia ever at Geneva 2015, featuring an electric locking diff
Skoda's stand at the Geneva Motor Show might be dominated by the recently revealed Superb saloon, but the firm has also shown a new, more powerful variant of its Octavia vRS hot hatch called the vRS 230.
The vRS gets an electronic front differential lock as standard, a first for Skoda. The 'Performance Pack' Golf GTI gets this same upgrade alongside bigger brakes, so expect an increase of around £1,000 over the current Octavia vRS starting price of £24,100.
It's set to go on sale in June 2015, and will the fastest and most powerful Octavia the firm has ever built. The relatively modest power increase of 10bhp brings the hot Octavia's total to 226bhp, while torque is likely to remain at 350Nm as it does in the vRS's sister car, the Performance Pack-equipped VW Golf GTi.
The tweaks over the standard Octavia vRS cut the 0-62mph time by 0.1 seconds to 6.7 seconds, and bring the top speed up by a similarly modest 1mph to 155mph. However marginal the numerical improvements are, the vRS 230 is only beaten by the firm's current Superb with the 3.6-litre V6 engine to the title of 'fastest production Skoda ever'.
Read our full round-up of the 2015 Geneva Motor Show here.