Skoda restores the Octavia that set a Bonneville speed record in 2011

In 2011, Czech Republic-based mostly Škoda established a pace history on Utah’s Bonneville Salt Flats in a 600-horsepower Octavia vRS. Its history stays unbeaten, and it celebrated the celebration by firing up the motor vehicle that established it.

Initially painted in Corrida Purple, the Octavia started off lifetime as a press motor vehicle sent to the firm’s British fleet. Its destiny took an surprising change when it was picked as the Bonneville project’s setting up place. Škoda developed it for the G/PS group, and the staff to begin with aimed to achieve two hundred mph, about fifty much more than the pace it was developed to achieve.

Having there required creating significant modifications when nevertheless complying with the Southern California Timing Association’s laws. Škoda redesigned the gasoline injection method to feed the motor much more gasoline, fitted a bigger radiator, and added a transmission with lengthier gears sourced from the financial state-targeted Octavia GreenLine. The total braking method was taken out and changed by a parachute that the driver could work employing a lever.

1 of the greatest problems the staff faced was that the turbocharged, two.-liter TSI 4-cylinder that driven the Octavia vRS was new, so there have been pretty several aftermarket tuners who could provide higher-performance components. Most of the construct was for that reason taken care of in-dwelling, even though 3rd-occasion companies helped Škoda make software program tweaks.

The moment in Utah, where the name Škoda sounds like either a form of scone or a new soda flavor, the Octavia quickly broke the two hundred-mph barrier — and it stored likely. It averaged 227.080 mph on Bonneville’s five-mile class, a determine that made it the speediest motor vehicle driven by a two.-liter motor fitted with forced induction. This history nevertheless stands in 2021.

Škoda celebrated the record’s 10-yr anniversary by overhauling the vRS. Specifically what was required has not been disclosed, we have achieved out to the brand name for much more aspects, but it sounds like the sedan was raced, washed, and mostly forgotten about for a 10 years. Engines do not like to sit idle for a long time on stop, still Škoda’s mechanics got the two.-liter jogging effectively ample for the Octavia to lap the Millbrook Proving Ground’s higher-pace bowl. It attained a handful of decals that emphasize the history, even though it missing the moon hubcaps it wore as it sped across the Salt Flats.

The firm’s internet marketing department could have applied the history as a springboard from which to dive into the American industry, and rumors declaring Škoda would all over again sell autos in the United States have been popular in the 2010s, but the offensive was delayed and eventually canceled. It selected to emphasis on other marketplaces, like India.

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