Every year Skoda sets the students at its training academy a little challenge – to design and build a one-off concept, using one of the company’s existing models as a base. Last year’s graduates turned a Kodiaq into a pick-up truck, for example, while 2017’s trainees made a beach buggy out of a Citigo.
So what did the Class of 2020 decide to do? Why, turn a Scala into a roof-less speedster. Obviously. The Slavia commemorates 125 years of Skoda – it shares a name with the bicycles produced by company founders Václav Laurin and Václav Klement, while the styling is supposedly inspired by the pint-sized 1100 OHC racer.
Technically the Slavia is a standard Scala, though it has a custom exhaust, the wheels from a Kodiaq vRS and the brakes from an Octavia vRS. The engine is a 1.5-litre turbocharged four-cylinder making 148bhp, which drives the front-wheels through a seven-speed DSG.
The students welded the rear doors, chopped the roof off (and, thankfully, reinforced the chassis) and fashioned a double-bubble cover to fill the space behind the racy Sparco front (and now only) seats. Oh, and fitted Need For Speed-style underbody LED lighting. Inside there’s a chuffing massive stereo – because teenagers – and a pair of e-scooters hidden in the boot.
What do you reckon? Cool or a bit naff?
Enter your email address to receive regular Top Gear newsletters
2020’s most exciting electric city cars are here. Is this the moment EVs go mainstream?
Everything you need to know about the McLaren F1 successor from the man behind it