SKODA RAPID 136 COUPE: VRS PRECURSOR

‘What handles like a Porsche, costs just £4200 and is more fun than a GTI?’ As attention-grabbing headlines go, the one for our 1988 road test of the Skoda Rapid 136 Coupé takes some beating. Launched just over a decade before the first VRS made its debut (and a couple of years before VW came to the brand’s financial rescue), this rear-engined relic of communist-era Czechoslovakia is four-wheeled proof that the engineering minds at Mladá Boleslav already knew what it took to have fun behind the wheel.

More than 30 years after our original verdict, it’s hard to believe that Skoda’s 1991 dark blue 135 RIC (the last of the line, with single-point fuel injection and a catalyst) is in any way related to our red VRS triplets. It’s a stark example of the pace of change that has happened at the brand since VW took the reins. The contrast is brought into even sharper relief when you get moving.

With just 54bhp, performance from the all-aluminium 1.3-litre four-pot is sluggish and it’s further hampered by a five-speed gearbox with a shift action that’s as imprecise as a three-year-old playing pin the tail on the donkey. However, get some speed up and you can start to revel in a chassis that really does live up to the headlines.

For starters, those contemporary 911 comparisons are spot on. The nose bobs along in rhythm with the road in the same way and you can use the pendulous weight of that out-rigger engine to your advantage. A quick lift of the throttle loosens the grip of the skinny 155-section rear tyres for a tighter cornering line – although, thanks to its trailingarm rear suspension, it never gets wayward, unlike the vicious actions of its swing-axled forebears.

And despite an elevated ride height that suggests off-roading is the order of the day, the Rapid’s suspension is actually firm and controlled. It delivers a composed ride and a low-roll cornering stance, and with no corrupting power going through the front wheels, the steering is light, accurate and feelsome. In fact, it’s not long before you’re grinning like a loon at the sheer, simple fun of it all. It really is as entertaining as a GTI.