The hottest Octavia yet may land Down Under.
Hot on the heels of the Skoda Octavia facelift, a new range-topping performance variant has been unveiled ahead of its in-the-metal debut at the Geneva motor show. The Octavia RS245 builds on the same 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbo petrol engine as found in the Octavia RS230, but it’s been uptuned to produce 180kW and 370Nm.
Like the Octavia RS230, the RS245 is offered with a six-speed manual gearbox or a slick seven-speed dual-clutch DSG automatic in the European market. The RS230 was offered exclusively as a manual in our market during its last outing, though. The RS245 can complete the century sprint in just 6.6-seconds in saloon form, while the estate manages the same feat in 6.7-seconds. Top speed is rated at 250km/h.
The RS245 gets an electronic limited-slip differential as standard, which the lower RS230 doesn’t receive. There’s also a sports-chassis setup which sees the RS245 ride 14mm closer to the ground on enormous 19-inch wheels. As found on other hot Skodas, there’s a smattering of gloss-black finishing dotted around the exterior, while adaptive LED headlights flank a range-specific grille. At the rear, there are black tipped exhausts that (allegedly) offer a “husky note.”
The cabin is said to receive an all-black treatment, with even the roof lining and carpets done in that hue. The sports seats up front bear ‘RS’ badges, which also feature on the door sills. Aluminium paddle-shifters and pedals, as well as a leather-trimmed steering wheel also feature here. Safety kit is up here too, with the car rumoured to receive the marque’s ‘Trailer Assist’ functionality that will steer and brake the car when reversing with a trailer, as well as forward-facing cameras as part of its Predictive Pedestrian Protection system (which can brake the car to a halt if it detects a pedestrian who has wandered onto the road).
Autonomous-emergency braking (AEB), blind-spot monitoring, rear cross-traffic alert are likely to feature in the Skoda Octavia RS245, as well as ‘Crew Protection Assist,’ which prepares the car for a collision by closing the windows and sunroof as well as tighten the seatbelt should it reckon an accident is imminent. Adaptive cruise control will come as standard, also.
Volkswagen Group Australia’s communications manager, Paul Pottinger, told CarAdvice that they are pushing to not only make the RS245 available in the Australian market, but to bring it in with a DSG automatic. “RS petrol variants comprise something approaching 50 percent of Octavia take up and obviously DSG are the great majority of those, we’re determining the availability of the auto option for what would be the hottest production RS to date,” he said.
Our market’s appetite for hot Skodas is certainly healthy: All 70 manual-exclusve Octavia RS230’s were spoken for soon after its market introduction here, and so the business case for the RS245 seems pretty solid. We look forward to see this on our streets, hopefully by the last quarter of 2017.
For more information on Skoda, check out our Showroom.
