Say Hello To The Vicious New Octavia VRS - Still Want That Golf GTi?

If you like your Golf GTIs with a bit less Golfy GTIness and a bit more practical, understated pace, this new Skoda Octavia vRS is like honey-glazed, barbecued awesomeness.

What you’re looking at is a spec’d-up car for the press shots, but those beautiful huge alloys are optional. As standard you get tiddly little 17s and in that trim you’re talking proper Q-car territory: the lines are tight but not showy. Under the skin there’s 217bhp to play with and a new multi-link rear suspension design to keep things sweet in the twisties.

Factor in the latest Octavia’s weight loss next to the old one and you can sit pretty on a 6.8-second 0-62mph time and a top speed of 154mph. Bear in mind the VW Group is often a bit shy with its acceleration figures, though: one major monthly UK magazine chopped a full second off the Scirocco 2.0 TSI’s claimed 0-62mph sprint.

You get a much bigger boot than you do in a Golf or Leon, albeit only up by five litres from the last model, and rear legroom is pretty epic, too, meaning your mates won’t complain quite so much when you’re flying down the Autobahn at huge speeds.

Skoda hasn’t hung about with the announcements either. Rather than staggering the release of its potent 181bhp diesel, a twin-clutch automatic gearbox and an estate, all of them have arrived at once. You can spec an auto ‘box on either engine, in either body style.

The estate looks just as smashing as the saloon; maybe even more so. It might just be the sweetest sub-£30k fast estate out there. If you fancy seeing it in the flesh it's set to be driven up the Goodwood Hill Climb at this year's Festival of Speed.