This is the letter I got back from Skoda after I asked the question why the Fabia when tested allway seems to have more than 130bhp...

"Dear Mr Endicott,

Thank you for your email.

The Skoda Fabia vRS is officially rated as producing approximately 130

BHP. As the engines are mass produced there will always be differences

due to manufacturing tolerances. On test, we have had several Fabia

vRS's producing this sort of power (approx. 140 BHP ), so it is not

unheard of. Most manufactures will design their engines to produce the

quoted power figures as a minimum, some engines do however produce more

power.

Manufactures that have the facility to put vehicles on a rolling road

normally adhere to a very strict regime, this includes leaving the

vehicles in a facility for at least 24 hours at a set temperature and

humidity level as these have a great bearing on what power and torque is

produced at that given time. The cars are then tested in controlled

environments, again at the set temperature and are tested over a week

period to achieve a mean figure. This practice is not normally

achievable with 'drive in' rolling roads due to simply cost and turnover

ratio. Therefore, the power figures that are produced on these tests can

only be approximate.

Thank you for contacting us. Should you have any further questions that

you feel I may be able to assist with, please do contact me on 0845 7745

745.

Yours sincerely

> Christopher Smart

> Customer Services Specialist"

My octy vRS was 190 standard, and most of the early ones seem to run about that figure.

My 4X4 was 164.6 standard, but on Optimax.

165 standard, on (later proved) a poor batch of optimax.

didnt most of the standard octy's on the AMD day pull higher figures than 180 ??