VRS-Powered's Skoda Fabia vRS TSI - TMC & ITG @ 211.6 BHP

[VRS-Powered]

Well, this was a bit out of the blue (no pun intended!)

I was only 9 months into owning my old MK5 Ibiza Sport 1.4 when I hit a deer while out driving. The damage wasn't too bad but I never got attached to the car, the driving experience for me was dull and lifeless and it felt like I had to constantly push it to get it going, I decided it was time for a change!

The old Ibiza :

A few days after the insurance company picked up the car for repair I was sat with my dad and we got onto the subject of cars. I told him how I felt about the Ibiza and that I wanted a new car and asked him what he thought I should do. My dads very down to earth and told me to do whatever I wanted but obviously weigh up the pros and cons and realise that if I did change again that I would lose a bit on the Ibiza. While we were chatting I was flicking through an older issue of AutoCar magazine which had a review of the Skoda Fabia vRS TSi in it.

I had looked at these previously as a couple of months before I had looked to change my car but decided against taking the plunge as I was enjoying having a bit more money to myself. At the time I looked before they were on a VAT FREE deal (20% off), the AutoCar magazine said this offer was running until the end of March so I'd unfortunately missed it (this was mid April). About 20 minutes later I was looking on my phone and decided to take a look at the Skoda website, to my amazement the VAT FREE offer was still running. I promptly called my local dealer and got them to clarify.

The next couple of days a lot of umm'ing and arr'ing took place, I even made a Pros & Cons list! I must have spec'd around 10 different variations of the vRS I wanted, I finally ended up with the below options as a must :

Race blue metallic paint

Electric rear windows

Armrest

I did to begin with want either white or red as the paint colour but after realising this car had to last a few more years than the Ibiza I went for the colour I always wanted (my cheap side not wanting to pay for metallic :p).

That Saturday I took a trip down to the dealers, discussed at length my options, what I wanted with the new car, what they would give me P/X on the Ibiza and about a million other things. I ended up being in there for 4 and a half hours……

The standard wait at that time on a Fabia vRS factory built was 4-5 months, I have to admit I am an impatient bugger and couldn't wait that long for mine. I asked the dealer what they could get from port, they currently had 3 cars that were unallocated. The first was a Rallye green one (same colour as the advert), it was fully spec'd and unfortunately out of my price bracket. The second was a Sprint yellow colour, I dismissed this one straight away as I'm not the biggest fan of yellow cars. The last one was.......Race blue, I already had a smile from ear to ear and wanted to instantly say I'd have it but there was a catch. The car did not have electric rear windows or an armrest, it came with Bluetooth prep and a white roof and white wheels. This put me in 2 minds whether to go for it or not, the body colour was perfect but I wasn't sure if I could live with the white bits. I did the only thing you can do in that situation and called my parents for advice, my dad was a bit more excepting than my mum but both told me it was my decision and if I was happy then they were too (all together now, awwwwwwww!). I went back into the dealership, agreed terms and pricing, also got them to fit an armrest and some mats when they got it and signed the order form. The sales manager was standing by the salesman I was dealing with (quiet day) and said he would have the car in by the end of the month.

I got my Ibiza back on 21/04, had it serviced on 23/04 and gave it into the Skoda garage on the same day, I did this because the tax was up in the next week and I thought my new car would be in the next week, wrongo!

The end of the month came and went and I put a couple of calls in to find out where the car was. When I called on 05/05 the sales guys said it was in getting PDI'd and that I could pick it up that evening, RESULT!!! Only problem was the armrest hadn't been ordered so the car wouldn't come with it when I collected it, we arranged to have that put in the next day.

For the rest of the day I was buzzing, itching to finish work, as soon as 5:30 hit I literally jogged down the road to the garage! I signed the last of the paperwork and watched my new car being driven to the front so I could inspect it. Everything looked spot on, I went back in and signed one more form and walked out owning my new Fabia vRS!

Spec List :

Engine :

1.4 TSi Engine

DSG 7 Speed Gearbox

Brakes :

Standard

Suspension :

Standard

Wheels :

7J x 17" White Gigaro Alloy Wheels

Exterior :

Race Blue Metallic With White Roof

Interior :

Standard

ICE/Security :

Standard

Options :

White & Blue Paint Scheme

Bluetooth Prep

Armrest

Mats

Pictures From The Day I Picked Her Up :

The vRS went back to the dealers the next day to have the armrest fitted. While dropping it off I asked the Tech if he could put the locking/unlocking beep on via the dealer software, he said he would have a look and see what he could do.

Picked it up around 4pm, the armrest was in and the locking/unlocking beep was active, what a legend!

Some pics of the armrest (poor iPhone night pics!) & a video of the locking/unlocking noise :

Edited 9 February, 2012 by VRS-Powered

[VRS-Powered]

Well this was supposed to be the car I didn't modify at all.................well that lasted 2 days!

First quick mod was to get rid of the dealer sticker from the rear window :

Second was to put the stubby aerial off my old MK5 Beza on :

I wanted to get a pic of my engine so.....

And the final mod was to change the nasty yellow OEM bulbs that don't match the LED DRL/Side lights to white ones!

OEM :

Upgraded bulbs :

[VRS-Powered]

Found some LED 501 bulbs laying around so decided to put them in the map reading lights.

Got the interior 264 and silvatec indicator bulbs a couple of days later :

Did the interior one first, started off with :

During :

After :

Then quickly changed over the front indicator bulbs

Before :

After :

And they still flash orange!

[VRS-Powered]

Got my MDI cable off eBay, bargain price of £6.49 I opted for the MDI-USB version.

Where it's plugging into

Lead installed

Fit's nicely in the gap

Works a treat

Now I can finally get rid of the ever growing collection of CDs in the car

[VRS-Powered]

Next up my brother gave me this…

And that's why he's a legend

He bought me a Revo filter and some stickers

Quickly did the change, old one out

New one size comparison with my iPhone

Fitted into the airbox

Also fitted one of the Revo stickers, not seen any fitted here so thought I'd try it

First impressions are good, the MPG has increased, seeing about 48 MPG @ 30mph in D5. The filter doesn't give a lot more noise to the engine, sounds very similar to standard but does feel a little more responsive.

[VRS-Powered]

Got some more Silvatecs for the rear indicators, was actually an easier job than I thought

Before :

After :

The orange you are seeing in the after picture is the bulb holder. Really happy with them, no more "fried egg" look!

[VRS-Powered]

The tax disc holder the garage put in really didn't look great on the windscreen so I had to change it. I ordered this from the bay of E :

The old one :

The new one (also removed the alarm sticker :

And from the outside :

Much better! This now sits in the top corner of my window.

[VRS-Powered]

Got the autolock feature now on the car which is a nice extra bit of security! I also decided to take the plunge and take the FABIA badge off the rear, looks much better now

[VRS-Powered]

Well took her to her first show! Had a great time at GTI Inters 2011!

Met loads of really nice people, saw some fantastic cars and had some fun on the strip. Times were as per below :

Had 4 runs

Race 1 - Against JC_Boc - Won but only just and he has a fault on the engine, sure I will get battered when we are at POD!

Race 2 - Against a red Leon Cupra MK2 with black wheels, was leading to third gear then it nailed me. Spoke to the driver afterwards, running about 350bhp.

Race 3 - Against a Corrado V6, got a naff start but caught and passed it easily.

Race 4 - Against a Octavia vRS MK1, easily beat it.

Cheers to AndyF on SCN for the pics on the strip :

And thanks to Jason's (JC_Boc on SCN) wife for filming the run

So best time was :

0-60 : 6.58 secs

1/4 : 15.086

Happy with the 0-60 time but was hoping for sub 15 secs for the quarter, aiming to get it sub 15s by the end of summer @ Pod. Forge intake is next on the list as that should give me a few extra ponies for next time and to take out some excess weight (cleaning stuff, impact wrench etc etc!

Got to say thanks to Ollie for taking this picture of the vRS on track @ Inters (Thanks Char on SCN for finding it!)

GTI INTERS 2011 by SquidVW

Love the picture!

[VRS-Powered]

Thanks to Tech1e on here, I now have a working oil temp gauge! (Thanks again mate)

My local dealer programmed it in today.

Edited 6 December, 2011 by VRS-Powered

[VRS-Powered]

Well to be honest this was a little unexpected but a nice surprise! Got bought a TMC tuning box for the car so put it on yesterday :

Currently running "Setting 7" and must say it feels like a different car, midrange is much improved. Can't wait to get her down Pod' and on a RR day to get it measured. I'll still be looking into getting a custom stage 1 map but this will tide me over until I can afford it

I've taken this off for the time being over the winter months.

[jordy_wd]

Looks great! I love the blue colour with the white wheels. The revo sticker is subtle but a nice touch. And i'm gonna do the interior lights in LEDs on my mk1 soon, do you notice much difference reading under them?

[VRS-Powered]

Cheers for the comments

The light is much nicer and crisper, can see a lot more with it

[Fabia_19]

Nice car, I wouldn't of been able to wait months for another blue one to come along! The 0-60 time is impressive

[VRS-Powered]

Thanks mate!

Was impressed that it undercut the official figure so much, hoping it will be a little quicker at Pod when the tuning box is on

[VRS-Powered]

Update

I received a package from UPS today (at about 3:30pm)

Any one want to hazard a guess…..?

Well here it is!

I know it's not going to be to everyones taste but I like the noise every now and again!

It's been pretty sunny here all day until about 3pm when the heavens opened, luckily it stopped just after I got my package. I was soon outside fitting it..

I was going to do a guide on how to fit it but 3 reasons why I didn't :

1. The guide Forge provide is more than acceptable!

2. I felt like cr@p, got a cold……maybe manflu…..or maybe a cold that is so bad I'm lucky I'm alive, either way…..meh!

3. This thing was a pain to fit, talk about fitting my hands in tight spaces….

Total time to fit this was half and hour and a cuppa tea!

Anyway below are some videos I managed to get, some before and afters. Videos aren't great, will do some better ones soon and I didn't have much room on the industrial estate I was on.

[VRS-Powered]

Before (Taken In The Summer) :

[VRS-Powered]

After :

[VRS-Powered]

I made sure the car was up to temp before revving it. Initial impressions are good, I like the extra noise, was funny to drive past people and them to notice the car because of the noise. It doesn't happen all the time, under normal driving conditions the car sounds the same as normal.

[Tech1e]

Glad you got the dash sorted in the end mate

Car looks great

[VRS-Powered]

Glad you got the dash sorted in the end mate

Car looks great

All because of you matey need to sort you out some beers when I see you next

[Tech1e]

[Reavenger]

Top job mate. Really liked the story of how you got your vRS and the the pictures are excellent. Good clarity and explanations. Maybe see you at a Track Day in the future :yes:

[VRS-Powered]

Top job mate. Really liked the story of how you got your vRS and the the pictures are excellent. Good clarity and explanations. Maybe see you at a Track Day in the future :yes:

Thanks mate, really appreciate that

Definitely, doing Pod a few times next year and will do some track days

[VRS-Powered]

Well the Forge Spacer is now off the car as I'm not sure if it's leaking boost, but also it makes the car less stealth than before and I can't have that .

I also spent this morning removing the weights from the rear of the car....

Now you see me :

Now you don't :

Nice little saving on weight there