The Skoda Octavia RS is a unique specimen in the Indian car market, in that it was the only attainable driver-focused automobile available in the country – attainable courtesy of its relatively non-stratospheric price tag of around 14 lakhs. It’s been a few years since the RS was available new at Skoda showrooms however – leaving a void for the enthusiast who craved a little blood-stirring, forced-induction mayhem.

Well, Skoda may just have the answer once again. It isn’t called an RS, but it does have a gem of a 1.8 liter, turbocharged, direct-injection petrol engine, which produces 160 horsepower – sounds promising indeed. So let’s see if the RS finally has a spiritual successor in the Laura 1.8 TSI?

From the outside



Looking at the two cars side-by-side gives you no indication whatsoever of how similar they are under the hood. The Laura looks plain Jane, while the Octavia RS shouts at you from behind its low slung front spoiler. The RS, with its front air-dam, 16-inch 10-spoke alloys, chrome tipped exhaust, and boot-mounted rear spoiler clearly looks the part, while the 1.8 TSI Laura, despite its outlandish new face, has no defining features to differentiate it from its less lethal siblings, which frankly makes it the perfect sleeper car.



The entire Laura range gets a new front-end with swept back headlamps, and while it likely won’t win any beauty contests, it does look more prominent indeed. The rest of the car is largely unchanged, and looks quite unassuming – especially with its 5-spoke 15-inch alloys. The petrol Laura does have dual exhaust tips at the rear though, but the lack of any garnish whatsoever means that they go completely unnoticed. This again, makes it the ideal Q-car – that is, of course, if you’re so inclined, which is to say enticed by the possibility of being discreetly quicker than all your fellow road-users.

From the inside



On the inside, once again, the first thing you notice is the lack of any garnish. The Laura has an extremely refined and comfortable cabin, but its missing the eye candy you find in the RS – it doesn’t have perforated leather on the steering, gear knob or handbrake for instance, nor does it have aluminum pedals, or hip hugging two-tone seats. The Laura’s largely beige interior provides no hints as to what’s lurking under the bonnet. This Ambiente-spec Laura does, however, gets a nice leather clad steering wheel, and retro-esque clear dials – both of which appear to have been lifted straight from the cabin of its more expensive elder brother, the Superb. It also gets an incredibly comfortable set of front seats, and while they don’t hug you quite as much as the Recaro’s in the RS, their range of motion is greater – thereby ensuring that you find the ideal driving position irrespective of your size or shape.



The cabin also has an inordinately large number of small cubby holes to address your every storage need. The nicely integrated stereo is only a single CD, but it does have an auxiliary input, as well as good sound quality.

The only real piece of garnish in the Laura’s cabin is a chrome gear knob, which frankly scorches your palm if the car’s spent any time at all standing in the sun. Other than that, however, the cabin is very well laid out on the whole, which makes the job of jumping in and, straight away, driving as quickly as you dare very simple indeed. And this, as we’re about to find out, is what this car is all about.