Back in the early 2000s, performance cars weren’t much of a thing. Fast and fun cars for us were the Maruti Esteems, the Fiat Palio 1.6 GTX, 1st gen Honda City VTEC… you get what I mean. And all these were naturally aspirated engines. We as enthusiasts were a satisfied lot. And then came that one car in 2004, the Skoda Octavia vRS Mk1 where we petrolheads tasted first blood with what a turbo petrol motor was. With Skoda entering in India in 2001 with a 1.9 TDI diesel and a 2.0 litre NA petrol, the vRS launch in 2004 came as a surprise. I wasn’t a full time automotive writer at that time but loved test driving cars from showrooms and penning my thoughts. I just found some old pictures of the vRS in my photo collection, taking me back to the day when I drove it and thought of penning down this short review of what was the most awesome car at that time. Excuse the pictures, they were taken from a digicam with very limited time. Read on.

Skoda Octavia vRS Mk1 Exterior

I did not have access to any media cars then. Online blogs weren’t the in thing at that time either and I wrote more as a hobby and part time freelance.  So I called up the Skoda dealership in Juhu, Mumbai that was near my office where I worked then requesting for a test drive. A week later, the sales advisor (SA) popped up at my office with a gleaming yellow Octavia vRS for me to drive (I made him believe I wanted to buy it). The car looked smashing to say the least. The yellow paint job was eye catching, the all round body kit including the aggressively styled bumpers and the rear spoiler gave it the ‘Do you wanna race?’ look. The Xenon headlamps with headlamp washers looked so cool and the vRS logo stood out prominently on the front grille. The car came with 16 inch 10 spoke alloys combined with 205 profile tyres, and I have to say the alloy design is one of the best OE designs I have seen even till date in 2020. The rear was rounded up with sweet looking exhaust tip. I have to say today that even though the new Octavia vRS245 is a stonker, there is just something about the Mk1 vRS that tugs at the heart strings.

Skoda Octavia vRS Mk1 Interior

The cabin was typical European and similar to the regular Octavia. There was nothing stylish about the dashboard, pretty simple to say the least, but build quality was top notch. Every bit of material felt built to last. The three spoke leather steering wheel felt meaty to hold, and no, it didn’t get steering mounted controls. It could be adjusted for rake and reach. The instrument cluster featured white analogue dials, just the way I like it. None of the Virtual Cockpit stuff that you get today. The leather gear knob with vRS badging gave that extra special feeling. And then there’s the feature list: xenon headlamps, electric sunroof, rain sensing wipers, sound system with MP3 player, headlamp washers, ABS and airbags.. All of this in 2004.

The leather on the seats didn’t feel great but the front seats had excellent comfort. There was height adjust as well. Getting the perfect driving position wasn’t difficult, even though I’m a short driver. The rear seat wasn’t as comfortable and even legroom felt at a premium.  But with power like that, who wants to sit at he back? The boot, which was a virtue of the Mk1 Octavia was big enough to swallow a house.

Skoda Octavia vRS Mk1 Engine & Performance

Now coming to the best part, the drive. So, the Mk1 Octavia vRS came with a 1.8 litre turbo petrol motor putting out 150 horses. Not much by today’s standards sure, but at that time it was the most powerful car I had driven. Heck, during my visit to a Skoda showroom, I heard the SA sales pitching VRS to a family looking for a TDI by saying ‘It’s the fastest car in Asia’. You can imagine the look on that family’s faces. Starting the car let out a nice growl and immediately got my pulses racing. The area around my office was extremely congested, so I asked the SA if I could take the car to the Western Express Highway nearby. The good old days when there was less traffic on the highway at any given time. Once I reached the highway, I stopped the car, slot it into first, revved it up and took off. The car just shot forward and the acceleration was nothing like I had experienced in a car in India before. There was no hint of turbo lag and I revved it to 6,500 in every gear. The 5 speed manual gearbox had nice short throws and the engine sounded even better as I went faster. As the revs climbed up, the bigger the smile on my face became. I cannot comment much on the handling but the couple of long corners that I took, the vRS was firmly planted to the road, with any hint of nervousness. The hydraulic power steering provided great feedback.

Back in traffic while driving back to the office, the vRS felt right at home. You could easily potter around town without feeling any turbo lag. Ride quality wasn’t that comfortable at low speeds and road undulations could be felt in the cabin as far as I remember. This was due to the bigger wheels and low profile tyres  High speed stability was fantastic and the braking was top notch.

Skoda Octavia vRS Mk1 Summary

It’s been 16 years since I first drove this car, and writing this review just took me down memory lane. I drove the car for exactly 25 minutes. It didn’t take much for cars to put a smile on your face back then. No tech gizmos, no connected car jargon etc.  Just a sweet engine and gearbox combination, a steering that spoke to you and fun to drive factor were enough. The Octavia vRS Mk1 retailed for around Rs. 14.6 lakh on road Mumbai in 2004 and it was by no means cheap. But there was nothing like it that time, and the money you paid was a small price for pure unadulterated driving pleasure that it offered. In the midst of new cars today, a Mk1 Octavia vRS in yellow or red will still turn heads. Signing off.