I drive a pre FL Octavia Elegance 1.8TSi hatch, now 4½ years old. This terrific engine is no longer available, and the Mk. 3 Octy is getting bigger than I want. So I looked at the slightly smaller (than mine) Rapid. Only interested in petrol/manual, and was surprised there is nothing like the 1.8TSi listed.

I reckon they could make a real little sports rocket out of the Rapid by using the 1.8 TSi engine and a good gearbox, plus the other sporty touches.

At present I'm keeping the Octy, only just passed the 30K mark, but if nothing like it comes out soon I might have to reluctantly change brands, though to what I have no idea at present. I thought maybe Mazda 6 165 bhp, but not keen on the latest styling compared with its previous model; they all seem to be going in the direction of kids' toys these days.

The Octavia should be getting the 1.8tsi engine, just not from launch. I'd be 'interested' to see how the chassis dealt with a far more powerful drivetrain tbh.

Manages pretty easily with the 105 and 122 engines.

I should imagine with a few chassis tweaks it can handle 200bhp.

Front chassis is from polo 6r and rear from Octavia mk1 so both handle 180bhp in one form or another.

Rapid is same size as octy2 apparently.

ednmra - perhaps you should take the 105TSI for a spin? It probably won't be quite as fast as your Octy, but on the other hand it probably weighs a fair bit less and should shift along pretty nicely.

ednmra - perhaps you should take the 105TSI for a spin? It probably won't be quite as fast as your Octy, but on the other hand it probably weighs a fair bit less and should shift along pretty nicely.

It does. It's no hot hatch, but the engine is more than powerful enough to make good progress. The car only weighs 1100kg (10.6 hp/kg), compared to the mk2 elegance 1.8tsi coming in at 1275kg (8.2 hp/kg)

Figures taken from Parker's which indicate the 1.8 kicking out 157hp against the 1.2's 103hp. If the quoted engine power is right for the 1.8 I make it that the rapid should have a better power/weight ratio.

The torque figures are similar with the rapid coming in at 6.2Nm/kg vs the Octy's 5.1Nm/kg

The biggest 'downgrade' with the rapid would be in creature comforts/dash-fondling-feeling

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk HD

Also bear in mind that the 1.4 TSI is available and will kick out more 'oomph' again than the 1.2 does.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk HD

The biggest 'downgrade' with the rapid would be in creature comforts/dash-fondling-feeling

Yes, there are no soft touch plastics but there are also one or two areas where I think the Rapid feels better than the Octy2 as well - that being the plastic door pulls feel a little more solid and the climate control dials are a bit nicer weighted in the Rapid.

So it's not all bad news vs the Octy2 unless your one of those weirdos who goes around fondling the dash

; they all seem to be going in the direction of kids' toys these days.

Totally agree with this. Soft touch plastics or not having HUGE round circular buttons for everything just puts me in mind of my 2 year old nieces Christmas present haul last year.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk HD

climate control dials

Snob ;-) manual AC for me! Only used it once just to make sure it works, although I was nearly tempted coming home from work today, but a minute of the blower on cold unassisted got rid of any cabin heat delivered by the big yellow firey thing in the sky.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk HD

Not a problem here, cold and wet again. Hardly ever use the climate control and the sunroof has been open a couple of times only on 18 months.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2

Yeah I guess there's not much call for opening a sunroof in West Lothian