Obviously there's something of a power difference, but does anyone know if the handling and ride are similar?

Ta muchly.

My old Octavia Ambiente had the sports suspension, but i always seemed to go through bends quicker in a Vrs.

Not sure if it was because of the suspension or the fact the VRS wasn't mine so you push just abit harder

The vRS has stiffer antiroll bars (AFAIK) and extra torsional stiffening to the rear suspension so there ought to be a difference.

When I contacted Skoda UK with this question, they replied that other than some spring rate differences to compensate for the different engine weights, the sports suspension and the vrs suspension was identical.

Me and bahnstormer have debated this before though.

OK - lets get specific.

To quote from the vRS mini-website - "The rear section of the body has been braced with special reinforcements to increase the torsional strength, while the suspension has been lowered by 12mm all round and features modified shock absorbers and springs."

Now if you fit the full 'sport' suspension pack to an Elegance, you would actually lower it by 30mm, making it 18mm lower than a vRS, whilst fitting uprated shock absorbers as well. You can alternatively fit lowered springs to the vRS to equalise this drop, or you can fit lowered springs only to the Elegance.

Anti-roll bars; are also AFAIK uprated on the vRS.

As an alternative for either the vRS or Elegance you can fit Eibach springs and Koni FSD shock absorbers that will give a better result as they produce handling improvements without compromising ride quality (actually making it softer).

At the end of the day; suspension parts can be swapped around to provide the car that YOU want for YOUR driving requirements BUT what can't (easily) be changed is the overall look and equipment level/style of the car;- you choose.

we've got a vrs tdi, a dsg elegance 2.0tdi with the pegasus upgrade AND a 1.8t sport running the eibach springs.

the vrs is definatley the higher sitting car now and i would also say there is a certain amount of extra stiffness about the vrs when cornering. but overall the rides are very similar imoa.

I prefered the elegance with the upgrade but that might have been the quality of the DSG that swung it for me

maybe a little group test is needed (any excuse to have a drive )

OK - lets get specific.

To quote from the vRS mini-website - "The rear section of the body has been braced with special reinforcements to increase the torsional strength."

Yep I have some diagrams that confirm this.

Ta muchly chaps.

The Elegance might be a bit too low then - there're some vicious speed bumps where I live. Plus it's dawned on me that the VRS has more lateral support in the seats.

so my L&K will be lower than a VRS? seems very odd that as i thought it would the either the same or the other way around.

so my L&K will be lower than a VRS? seems very odd that as i thought it would the either the same or the other way around.

just had another look and they look very similar drops in ride height. the only thing as the vrs has 18s and the elegance has 17s so its hard to be totally accurate

I had an Octy 1.9 TDI Elegance with sport suspension and it stuck to the road like a limpet, which is especially useful for the roads here in Mid Wales. But the downside was that the ride was very harsh and uncomfortable. Now have an Octy 2.0L TDI (140) L&K with standard suspension and the ride is vastly improved, but oddly enough I haven't noticed any change in the road-holding.

just had another look and they look very similar drops in ride height. the only thing as the vrs has 18s and the elegance has 17s so its hard to be totally accurate

Providing you have the correct tyres 17s vs 18s are the same size (or at least as near as makes no difference) so it is an optical illusion.

In general you have to look quite hard at the tyre to wheelarch gap to tell whether a car is lowered or not, particularly when you are comparing standard with -12mm and -25/30mm.

so my L&K will be lower than a VRS?

Quite correct; does that make you feel chuffed.

Is it the case though that the aftermarket sports suspension upgrade from Skoda is any different from the factory one? I'm pretty sure my car isn't lower than a vRS . . .

Quite correct; does that make you feel chuffed.

not as chuffed as some extra torsional stiffening but thats a while away yet

not as chuffed as some extra torsional stiffening but thats a while away yet

You could try a Neuspeed Rear anti roll bar; 25mm vs vRS OEM 22mm; has a good effect at neutralising understeer and you can by it separately (other ARBs can only be bought as a pair front & rear). Not sure though if non vRS have a rear ARB as standard though.