With the massive tectonic shift towards sustainability among the world’s biggest carmakers, it is about time that we’d be seeing a lot more experimental cars in motorsports. After all, racing has always been the testbed for the rest of the industry, and Skoda has been taking it pretty seriously! The most recent concept racer from the Czech brand is the aptly named Enyaq RS Race – based on the Enyaq Coupe vRS all-electric SUV. You might think that a crossover SUV would be a pretty bad foundation for a race car, but it looks like Skoda’s proven us wrong. Built from the ground up by Skoda Motorsport, it’s light, fast, mean, and best of all, eco-friendly.
More specifically, the Skoda Enyaq RS Race concept car is a whopping 300kg lighter than the production Enyaq Coupe vRS. A lot of those weight savings were thanks to the really clever use of sustainable materials like bio-composites and flax fibres. They not only offer the same level of rigidity and weight reduction as old-school carbon fibre, but they leave less of an impact on Mother Nature. Apparently, Skoda was able to reduce CO2 emissions by an impressive 85% if you compared it to carbon fibre. Major bodywork bits and bobs, including the bumpers, roof, rear wing, and a lot of the interior trim panels were also made from this magical flax fibre.
Now Lower, Wider, And Even Meaner
Aside from all the sustainable parts though, I especially love how the Enyaq RS Race looks. It does have that massive SUV silhouette, but it has a pretty aggressive stance, not to mention improved aero, to boot! Figures-wise, it’s about 70mm lower, 72mm wider at the front, and 116mm wider at the rear. So, what’s all that widening for, you might ask? Well, among some of the many upgrades over the road-going Skoda Enyaq Coupe vRS are specially-tuned shock absorbers and springs. Additionally, it gets a set of new high-performance brakes with carbon-ceramic discs. Plus, you get 10-piston callipers at the front and 4-piston callipers at the rear.
On top of that, Skoda even fettled with the steering system. They swapped out the progressive steering found in the road car with a linear system, instead. And, you can even tinker with the steering weight to help maximise track performance, too. As with any race car, you can expect to find a lot of safety updates here, as well. They include a high-strength chrome-molybdenum steel roll cage, Atech racing seats with six-point harnesses, and an automatic fire extinguisher. Oh, and completing that new, angry widebody look is a set of 20-inch racing wheels and low-profile tyres. Crucially, you’ll also get better brake cooling, downforce, and easier driveability.
More Performance & Even More Aero
Some of the aforementioned aero upgrades include redesigned bumpers, meatier air curtains, a gigantic rear wing, an aero-optimised roof, and even NACA air ducts. These then work with the Skoda Enyaq RS Race’s widened fenders and wing-shaped air-guiding elements. If you look closely, you might also notice redesigned headlight housings, as well as the super lightweight polycarbonate windows. When building this eye-catching concept racer, Skoda opted to rely a bit more heavily on high-tech 3D printing. Aside from that, you’ll also find plenty of recycled materials like nylon and CO₂-neutral biopolymer filaments, retaining its eco-conscious design.
The interior of this cool Skoda racer feels equally racy, too. You might even notice that there is an abundance of inspiration taken from Skoda’s Fabia RS Rally2 rally car… Most notably, the rally-style hydraulic handbrake, and stripped-down cabin. Underneath all this, however, the powertrain is almost unchanged from the road-going Enyaq. This means it gets two electric motors, for a combined output of 250kW, paired to an 82kWh battery. That should be good for a 0 to 62mph sprint in under 5.0 seconds, and onto a top speed of 112mph. While we won’t be seeing this race anytime soon, it’s still interesting to wonder if this truly is the future of racing.