The Skoda Fabia Goes Rugged With The Fabia RS Rally2

The Skoda Fabia hatch and rallying have been a match made in heaven, with the Rally2 and Evo models amassing over 1700 victories in the WRC2 category of the FIA World Rally Championship. Heck, the previous-gen Fabia’s Rally 2 evo rally car clinched both the WRC2 and  European Rally Championship titles last year. But now that the fourth-generation Fabia has been on the scene for a little over a year now, it was only a matter of time before Skoda’s motorsport division got their hands on it. Enter the Skoda Fabia RS Rally2 racer. 

So what kind of upgrades does it get over the regular hatch? Let’s start with the big change under the hood. Unlike the range of 1-litre MPI, 1-litre TSI and 1.5-litre TSI motors for the standard model, there’s an all-new 1.6-litre four-cylinder turbocharged engine on board. It makes a beefy 289PS and 340Nm, with all that power being sent to all four wheels via a 5-speed sequential gearbox. Now, its 200kmph top speed may seem paltry, but this Fabia is specially made for off-road racing where acceleration far outweighs the pursuit of top-end thrills.

Some other trickery from Skoda’s motorsport division includes speccing the Fabia RS Rally2 with mechanical axle differentials, a completely overhauled chassis, specially tuned suspension with MacPherson struts, as well as a wider front and rear track. This should help the hatchback to tackle sharp bends with relative ease.

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Of course the Fabia RS Rally has to comply with FIA safety regulations, and so the carmaker has added a roll cage, as well as an 82.5-litre fuel tank that is made from nylon and bespoke rubber. The tank also has a special foam inside to mitigate any chances of a fuel leak. This tank is reinforced with a combination of Kevlar and fibreglass. To keep things a bit sustainable, the 100 percent synthetic fuel used is made from renewable materials. 

You don’t really need to take a second look to immediately notice the Fabia RS Rally2’s racy nature over the standard hatch. The wider track means you get quite the muscular look. A roof scoop feeds more air into the cabin, while the rear wing adds downforce. In fact there are two specifications of wheels that’ll be used, with 15-inch units (with 300mm discs) meant for gravel events, and 18-inch wheels (with 355mm discs) reserved for the asphalt circuits.

The Skoda Fabia RS Rally2 is expected to make its racing debut in the WRC2 and European Rally Championship sometime later this year. What does this mean for India? Well zilch, as we don’t even get the normal hatchback here. But we do have something close enough with the Slavia sedan. Nevertheless, the Fabia RS Rally2 serves as yet another radical example of what crazy contraptions Skoda Motorsport can do when they get their hands on a road-going machine.