In IncredibleA jealous supervillain tries to take revenge on the heroes by giving everyone super powers and thus making them no longer super. Something similar has happened in the automotive industry over the last 40 years. Supercars from the 1980s still look just as good today, but even a simple crossover can beat them in a head-to-head fight.
When those stereotypical bedroom-wall poster supercars appeared, Skoda was locked behind the Iron Curtain. Now it’s building an electric crossover—the Allroc vRS—that was faster than the Ferrari Testarossa, Lamborghini Countach and Porsche 944 Turbo (wasn’t the 930 Turbo available?) in a drag race at the hallowed Dunsfold track. Given this it was a suitable site top Gear A similar stunt back in the day showed how slow the Aston Martin DB5 and Jaguar E-Type are in modern terms.
As shown in a video produced by Skoda’s UK PR department, the Allroc vRS is a far cry from a Reagan-era relic. The Testarossa departed in a cloud of tire smoke but still trailed the Skoda at the finish line, indicating that a better launch could have made things interesting. By Skoda’s own admission, the Ferrari should accelerate from zero to 60 mph at 5.3 seconds, 0.1 second faster than the Allroc. But the ease with which drivers can access the car’s power is part of the game, and being able to simply mat the all-wheel-drive Alroc’s right pedal and let the software sort things out will always win over working the clutch and nailing shifts, let alone dealing with the lag from the 944’s ’80s turbo tech.
Point-and-shoot simplicity and traction advantage were probably the main factors in the Elroc’s soul-crushing victory. While the vRS badge marks it as a performance model, its 335 horsepower and 402 pound-feet of torque are enough considering that this crossover weighs about 4,900 pounds. A zero to 60 mph time of 5.4 seconds makes the Allroc vRS the fastest production Skoda ever, but the 111-mph top speed means that over longer distances, all three of the other cars will have it outclassed. Even according to Skoda, the 944 Turbo – the slowest of the three – is good for 162 mph.
Skoda Allroc vRS vs 1980s
However, the Allroc is a practical crossover with five seats and usable cargo space – something you could never accuse a 1980s supercar of. It is 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, as used in the two US-market crossovers. Skoda estimates range of up to 344 miles on the European WLTP cycle, but based on EPA ratings for the all-wheel drive ID.4 and Q4 e-tron models, the US equivalent will probably be closer to 260 miles.
It’s great that ordinary drivers can now experience the sensation of speed reserved for Wall Street barons, but there’s much more to cars than straight-line acceleration. When it comes to emotional appeal, classic supercars still win.
