LATEST DIRT

SKODA OCTAVIA RS

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One of the truisms about modern mountain biking is that you need to travel to find the best trail – and for the next six months, we’re going to find a LOT of trails aboard our latest acquisition.

This is the Skoda Octavia RS wagon, and it’s best described as a wolf in very stylish sheep’s clothing. Powered by a 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder petrol engine, the 169kW front-wheel-drive Skoda shares a lot of its mechanical bits with Volkswagen and Audi – the Octavia’s chassis underpins cars like the VW Passat and Audi A3, for example, while the engine, trick front diff and dual-clutch gearbox come from the Golf GTI.