Not like Robocop, it’s bullet-resistant.
This might well look exactly like the Superb Estate that your neighbour’s father drives, but for some the mad Czechs in charge of Skoda have decided that their big wagon would be the perfect armoured ferry.
Yes, armoured - fully armoured. This means that, with the help of a British company, Skoda will now sell you a Superb Estate that is rated to withstand bullets and even missile fire. It’ll cost you supercar money, though: £118,688, which translates roughly to a little over $210,000 in AUD.
The car carries a civilian protection rating of PAS 300 to be able to survive the kind of abuses listed above, and more. Its passenger cell has been reinforced to support the thicker, bullet-resistant exterior, and the glass that surrounds it is also now much thicker and, molecularly, bears little glass at all.
Skoda hasn’t hinted at what measures were taken to strengthen the wheels, but the standard tyres have been replaced by ones that are also resistant to bullets and certain shrapnel, able to carry on driving even if they’ve been deflated. Think run flats on steroids.
To cope with the additional weight and rolling mass, a wholly different suspension system has been fitted, as are uprated brakes. Discreetly, this armoured Superb Estate also features emergency lighting and a siren.
Interestingly, the company has made no mention about any modifications to the powertrain. One would think that the need to escape danger would be equally important as repelling a potential attack. However, all we have to go on is that the car is based off of a 2.0TDI variant, which means an output of 140kW and 400Nm, mated to 6-speed DSG dual-clutch transmission.
While never really particularly fast in standard spec, the four-cylinder turbodiesel is strong enough to give the Superb Estate some satisfyingly brisk everyday performance. But with modifications of this nature surely adding a considerable amount of heft, one wonders if that’s asking too much of the little oiler.
Typically, armoured versions of passenger cars are derived from luxury limousines and the like because it were those types of wealthy and/or powerful folks that could both afford to buy them and were at risk of being in danger while in public.
Perhaps Skoda saw an opportunity to capitalise on a market that was usually dominated by a prohibitively expensive class of vehicle, that it could offer the same kind of armoured protection at ‘mass market’ prices. Save the bulletproof Mercedes-Maybach for the head of state or Pope, send the Skoda to fetch that controversial cabinet member.
For more on Skoda vehicles, check out our Showroom.
