In The Incredibles, a jealous supervillain tries to get revenge on the heroes by giving everyone super powers and thus rendering them no longer super. Something like that has taken place in the automotive industry over the past 40 years. The supercars of the 1980s still look as good as ever, but even an ordinary crossover can beat them in a straight fight.
When those stereotypical bedroom-wall poster supercars appeared, Skoda was locked behind the Iron Curtain. Now it builds an electric crossover—the Elroq vRS—that was quicker than a Ferrari Testarossa, Lamborghini Countach, and Porsche 944 Turbo (was a 930 Turbo not available?) in a drag race at the hallowed Dunsfold track. It was a fitting venue considering that Top Gear did a similar stunt back in the day showing just how slow an Aston Martin DB5 and Jaguar E-Type are in modern terms.
As shown in a video produced by Skoda’s U.K. PR department, the Elroq vRS walks away from the Reagan-era relics. The Testarossa left in a cloud of tire smoke but still close behind the Skoda at the finish line, indicating that a better launch could have made things interesting. By Skoda’s own admission, the Ferrari should be 0.1 second quicker than the Elroq from zero to 60 mph, at 5.3 seconds. But the ease with which drivers can access a car’s power is part of the game, and being able to simply mat the all-wheel drive Elroq’s right pedal and let the software sort things out will always win over having to work a clutch and nail shifts, let alone deal with the lag from the 944’s ’80s-era turbo tech.
Point-and-shoot simplicity and a traction advantage were likely the main factors in the Elroq’s soul-crushing win. While the vRS badge marks this as a performance model, its 335 horsepower and 402 pound-feet of torque are just adequate considering that this crossover weighs approximately 4,900 pounds. The 5.4-second zero to 60 mph time makes the Elroq vRS the quickest production Skoda ever, but a 111-mph top speed means that over a longer distance, all three of the other cars would have beaten it. Even the 944 Turbo—the slowest of the trio—is good for 162 mph, by Skoda’s own reckoning.
Škoda Elroq vRS vs The 1980s
However, the Elroq is a practical crossover with five seats and usable cargo space—something you could never accuse a 1980s supercar of. It’s based on the same Volkswagen MEB platform as the ID.4, ID.Buzz, and Audi Q4 e-tron, and has an 82-kilowatt-hour (77-kWh usable) battery pack like the one used in the two U.S.-market crossovers. Skoda estimates up to 344 miles of range on the European WLTP cycle, but based on the EPA ratings of all-wheel drive ID.4 and Q4 e-tron models, a U.S. equivalent would probably be closer to 260 miles.
It’s great that ordinary drivers can now experience a sensation of speed once reserved for Wall Street tycoons, but there’s more to cars than just straight-line acceleration. When it comes to emotional appeal, the classic supercars still win.
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