Forgive me if this has been covered before - spot the newbie !

The spec figure quoted by Skoda is 9.6 seconds, but this seems very conservative.

IIRC when Golf and Passat TDi 130s were first introduced, they quoted similar or better. I would have expected the much lighter Fabia to be sub 9 seconds ?

And which much lighter Fabia is that? (The Fabia vRS isn't particularly light for its size)

Hi Bryand - I don't know for sure but I think that the Fabia will be way lighter than a Golf?

According to Parkers the Golf is only 1255 kgs :eek: :eek: :eek: :confused: :confused:

Even though the car's forte isn't 0-60, 9.6 is crap. In the real world a standard car is about 8 1/2 with one person (VAG quote figures with 2 people luggage and half a tank).

And which much lighter Fabia is that? (The Fabia vRS isn't particularly light for its size)

Didn't you know yellow paint was heavier? :rolleyes:

According to Parkers the Golf is only 1255 kgs :eek: :eek: :eek: :confused: :confused:.

When I bought my new Mk 1 Golf GTI in 1981, it was 848Kg. I got a 1.8 Mk 1 in 1983, which was a shade heavier. That was specced at 9.2 seconds, I think. Most tests got 8.5 secs (to 100 kph, or 62 mph).

Fabia vRS = heavy car, with massive lump of engine not particularly in the right place (too far forward).

When heavily tuned you can get it below 8 seconds, perhaps somewhere down to about 7-and-a-bit if you are launching it.

I don't personally tend to bother much as a properly sorted petrol would muller it due to having grip.

It is a turbodiesel, it runs out of usable revs, so changing gear more often means valuable time lost getting up to 60 mph.

Fun trying to do it smoothly and efficiently, and with ASR/ESP off it is a tad quicker generally, but in the wet, even with good tyres & driver, you'll end up closer to the factory figures

Some of the guys on here with tuned engines say that they can get between 6.5 and 7.5 secs to 60 mph.

A standard car WILL achieve 8.5 anyway.

The figure that Skoda quote is clearly wrong by at least a second.

However, in the real world the usable power is the torque and mid range pull.

In this respect, the car is awesome.

Do you usually drag-launch against cars when having fun or take them on when you are above say about 40-60km/h?

If the former the fabia is no good.

If the latter, it's good, oh yes it is....

Bas

And which much lighter Fabia is that? (The Fabia vRS isn't particularly light for its size)

What's with the wheels on that yellow Furby?

Autocar quote about 8.6 seconds.....in fact many of the reviews I read before buying one quote the mid 8's. The fact that Skoda themselves quote based upon a car laden with passengers and fuel suggests that the figure you can get sat on ye tod with half a tank is slightly better.

But, as mentioned above diesels are always poo at 0-60. They run out of revs too quick and need 2 subsequent gear changes to get to 60 which takes time.

Once you're moving however they're very rapid and will make most torqueless petrols suffer, especially up hills.

Take the Civic TypeR for example. Pretty decent 0-60 time, but after being in one I wasn't impressed. It's all noise and no shove. You struggle to find the right gear for overtaking as there's no torque. Say you're sat at 50mph behind a crawling old man in a Metro. Do you use 2nd gear and bounce off the rev limiter after a few seconds thus quickly requiring 3rd or do you go straight for 3rd and have no torque thus remain sat on the wrong side of the road for a scary length of time?

Been there, done that, and I'd take the mammoth torque any day. Leave it in 3rd and whoosh, you're gone. Nice.

you do realise someone is going to come along and flame this thread don't you. Sad ...very sad....very very sad.. but true

Autocar got their long term test car, which was a standard '03MY spec to do 0-60mph in 7.5secs.......This was one exceptional run where everything clicked, otherwise its would do mid 8's day in day out.

The fastest timed 0-60mph claimed on here was the chap with the RICA mapped car, which did 6.6secs at the tuner grand prix at Donnington.

My car which is a standard '05MY but for a Cupra inlet and green filter will do low 8's easily. With me driving it, and I weigh as much as two people, next to no fuel and everything including my bowling ball in the car, I can do a 16.03 secs 1/4 mile, which isn't half bad.

Well if you all look at Autoexpress online you will see in their long term tests they ran a vRS as std then chipped it. Std they managed about mid 8's and chipped they managed about mid 7's.

One bad point was after x thousand miles there was noticable extra black smoke from the exhaust. Now this may be due to over fueling or it may be due to the fact that the injectors are a little clogged. They found MPG to raise and it being a worthwhile mod, however they did state not to use the upper reaches of the rev range and engine life will decrease (this is common sense & fact the higher an engine revs the shorter the engine life. Look at F1 the engine will last 700 miles before a full rebuild and these rev up to 20,000rpm producing near on 750-800hp look at the A1 GP cars these rev to 11,000rpm produce 550hp yet dont require a rebuild until 8000miles i.e. one whole season. Expanding this idea Diesels generally rev in the 1.5-2.2krpm range in normal driving a petrol would be reving 2.8-4krpm for the same road speed. Higher engine revolutions = more strain and more wear.).

you do realise someone is going to come along and flame this thread don't you. Sad ...very sad....very very sad.. but true

Don't be so negative. When we arrive at our destination, fractions shaved off the 0-60 sprint can represent valuable extra shopping time.

@Mike Austin - one reason NOT to get the car mapped :P

@Mike Austin - one reason NOT to get the car mapped :P

Although it would be a novel way to plead your case with the wife/gf if you wanted to!

you dont buy a vrs to drive like my nan. you buy it to hav fun, which if a few traffic light grand prix happen then i dont moan, its all in the name of fun and enjoying yourself.

within safety and due care and attention of course

this is all very interesting...

So did all manufacturers or just Skoda and just on the VRS overestimate the 0-60 times for some reason?

most manufacturer 0-60 times are very conservative, i.e. full fuel tank, 2-up with luggage etc, whereas magazines will show an 'ultimate' 0-60, so with little fuel, just the driver, no luggage

I'm sure it's got something to do with insurance so it's not classed as a hot hatch with the like of clio 182 etc

I'm sure it's got something to do with insurance so it's not classed as a hot hatch with the like of clio 182 etc

I'm sure it hasn't Babs' explanation is far more likely, imho

Chris

Also the 0-62.5 mph (100kph) time often gets quoted as the 0-60.

If I'm brutally honest, I didn't buy the car for the 0-60 as I tend to be in one of the following situations most often:

1. Driving off from carpark somewhere --> traffic about, usually not gonna scream off

2. Driving off after a traffic light turns green --> ditto, might boot it a bit but generally trying to avoid wheelspin

3. Get stuck in traffic jam and cycle between virtually stopped and slightly faster

4. Driving at fairly constant speed on motorways at speeds generally exceeding 60mph

5. Bit of country lane driving - again generally not stopping.

The only time 0-60 comes in would be if I tried to race someone on the public road, or on a track/private road. The latter two I can't afford or had opportunity to for quite some time now, the former I would most likely loose 'against' a turboed petrol, properly sorted petrol hot hatch, and most rep mobiles that are going for it.

It doesn't bother me either, I just enjoy the car for what it is, making it a bit faster than standard I will admit, and getting more enjoyment out of the car for that reason too

When you do 40k/annual the pleasure seems to come out of things like avoiding traffic jams, having a bit of a laugh enjoying a drive, and sadly, having good fuel economy. I've not run out of power for what I need, the car is plenty fast up to significantly > NSL in this country and is easy to drive.

Just out of curiosity does anyone know the 0-100mph time for the Furby as this is probably a more realistic figure for comparison?