The Superb III radiator grille allows less than a half the amount of air into the plenum in front of the radiators it could if the grille bars were all open.  I can understand restricting the airflow in cold countries, but I live in Australia.  I am a little surprised there is not different grilles for different countries, depending on how hot the climate is.  I have attached some pics of my grille.

 

Has anyone tried to open the closed grille bars by cutting away the plastic?

There's an air intake next to one of the fog lights, no?   One of the access panels to the fog lights is usually solid and the other isn't, to allow air flow for the intercooler that sits right behind the foglight.   I'm sure the apertures that are already in your front grille would be adequate enough anyway, those gaps are plenty big enough to channel air into the engine bay, surely? 

 

Superskoda sell a honeycomb version of the grille: 

 

http://www.superskoda.com/Skoda/SUPERB-III/Superb-III-front-grille-in-OEM-honeycomb-design-KI-R

 

 

 

 

 

Yes, there are air intakes on both sides of my car, but they are for additional coolant radiators, not the intercooler.  Pics attached.  You can just see the intercooler and coolant radiator in the third pic.

 

Thanks for the Kopacek info, I am interested in the honeycomb grille.

I know it gets hot down under. Are you having overheating issues? At low speeds? At high speeds?

4 minutes ago, freelunch said:

I know it gets hot down under. Are you having overheating issues? At low speeds? At high speeds?

No, not at all, the temp gauge never moves off 90C.

We have had temps in the high 40s Celsius.

Engineers spend thousands of hours , including extensive hot weather testing, designing stuff like this; it's like that for a reason. The large grille is primarily aesthetic, the gap is designed to work in harmony with the cooling system and thermostat fitted. Even the 280 doesn't need any more cooling than is provided by that open area in the grille.

 

By opening it up all you will succeed in doing is:

1. Increasing drag, so using more fuel
2. Likely making the car run cooler in the majority of situations, therefore less efficiently, particularly after startup when the majority of emissions and engine wear occurs
3. Potentially messing up the airflow under the bonnet, potentially causing more noise and fouling of the engine bay. It's not beyond the bounds of probability that increasing airflow in one area would also reduce it/increase pressure in another, perhaps reducing an ancillary cooler's performance. Good luck with a warranty claim if they can finger a mod like this led to a failed turbo bearing etc. 
4. Wasting a perfectly good Saturday afternoon filing expensive bits of black plastic from your car 

Don't muck about with it  

51 minutes ago, juux said:

Engineers spend thousands of hours , including extensive hot weather testing, designing stuff like this; it's like that for a reason. The large grille is primarily aesthetic, the gap is designed to work in harmony with the cooling system and thermostat fitted. Even the 280 doesn't need any more cooling than is provided by that open area in the grille.

 

By opening it up all you will succeed in doing is:

1. Increasing drag, so using more fuel
2. Likely making the car run cooler in the majority of situations, therefore less efficiently, particularly after startup when the majority of emissions and engine wear occurs
3. Potentially messing up the airflow under the bonnet, potentially causing more noise and fouling of the engine bay. It's not beyond the bounds of probability that increasing airflow in one area would also reduce it/increase pressure in another, perhaps reducing an ancillary cooler's performance. Good luck with a warranty claim if they can finger a mod like this led to a failed turbo bearing etc. 
4. Wasting a perfectly good Saturday afternoon filing expensive bits of black plastic from your car 

Don't muck about with it  

You forgot 5. Increasing the likelihood of a wayward stone puncturing the radiator or inter cooler.

Look on the Golf R forums (largely the same setup for the EA888 engine) and everyone is in agreement that stock air flow, filtration is actually pretty good and takes some £££'s and time to actually make any improvement and that's only required when you start remapping the car.  The general consensus is that a stock car doesn't warrant such mods.