This lean, green one-off Skoda speed machine serves as the swan song for the outgoing Superb.
While Skodas are typically associated with a sense of sensibility, the Czech automaker has nevertheless been known to show its wild side from time to time. This is after all the company that came up with the Fabia vRS back in the early 2000s, a turbodiesel hot hatch with so much torque that it could eat contemporary MINI Coopers for breakfast.
More recently too, Skoda had on the market a variant of its third-generation Superb that could well keep pace with a Golf GTI off the line at any traffic light grand prix. This is thanks in large part to it featuring a similar 2.0-litre TSI turbo four-pot that outputs over 270 horsepower, which sees it hence be capable of rocketing this load-lugger to 100 km/h from a standstill in a spritely 5.6 seconds.
Though while on the topic of the Superb, it seems now that Skoda apparently felt that its already somewhat speedy family wagon could actually be capable of even speedier things. So when it came time to mark the end of this particular generation therefore, Skoda UK has recently showcased what it has since dubbed as the Sleeper Edition.
Built in collaboration with the engineering firm RE Performance (incidentally the same people responsible for the record-breaking 365 km/h Octavia vRS Bonneville special), this particular Superb certainly look like any other mundane Skoda estate at first glance. Housed under its hood however is a rather souped up version of that aforementioned 2.0-litre turbo four-pot, which without beating around the bush now churns out a whopping 477 horsepower and 662 Nm of torque!
Now the M3-rivalling power figures from this Skoda comes primarily from the fitment of a new Garrett PowerMax turbocharger, in addition to a performance intake and intercooler kit feeding that honking great metallic snail now residing under the hood. This sleeper also features an optimised fuel system, as well as custom downpipe and centre section for better fuel delivery and exhaust flow respectively, but interestingly enough retains standard pipes to maintain the illusion.
Elsewhere on the driveline meanwhile, it is frankly astounding to learn that the seven-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission and all-wheel drive system of this Sleeper Edition has remained virtually unchanged from what originally came with the standard car. This therefore technically means that these stock parts could possibly cope with this much power from the outset, which certainly bodes well for those who wish to perhaps emulate this one-off build on their very own Superbs.
Apart from giving its 2.0-litre mill too, RE Engineering had also installed a set of height-adjustable KW coilover suspension that slams this Superb nearly 50 mm closer to terra firma. A set of AP Racing brakes that comprised of six-piston red-painted calipers all round (clamping on to huge 390 mm two-piece discs up front and 330 mm discs on the rear) is in turn on hand to bring this speedy Skoda sleeper to a similarly swift stop.
Skoda has unfortunately not announced any official performance stats for the sleeper project yet, but just know that the slightly more powerful (530 hp) but heavier BMW M3 Touring can crack the century sprint in just 3.6 seconds. So expect the Sleeper Edition Superb to possibly be capable of at least a 4-ish second 0-100 km/h time, with this souped-up long-roof to likely be more than easily able to touch (and even possibly exceed) the 250 km/h V-Max of its standard sibling.
As for the rest of the car here, the Superb Sleeper is really not that much different from its standard range-topping Laurin & Klement base. Skoda has after all kept the body as stock as possible to better retain its sleeper vibe, and the only really unique thing about its exterior is for its Royal Green hue that was a special colour launched last year to celebrate the coronation of King Charles III.
Moving along within the Sleeper Edition, its Cognac-coloured leather-lined cabin continues the Q-Car theme by being as stock as any other regular Laurin & Klement Superb. With this particular car being based upon the range-topper though, it does naturally net a few niceties that includes tri-zone climate control and a Canton sound system.
Unfortunately, this speedy wagon is to be a one-off, and will be spending its foreseeable future as part Skoda UK’s press fleet. What more too is that while the latest Superb actually has pretty much the same 2.0-litre boosted four-banger as the standard version of this Sleeper Edition, stricter emissions regulations has sadly choked it to only produce 261 hp.
