The Skoda Fabia hatchback is good German car, but it wouldn’t stand out in a parking lot even if it had Brad Pitt in the driver’s seat. However, this particular Fabia concept doesn’t need to feel underwhelmed in any manner whatsoever. A team of 23 apprentices from the Skoda Academy in Czech Republic, have carved out a pickup from the hatchback. These 23 apprentices aren’t even 23 years-old, but are aged between 17 and 18 and have designed and built the Skoda FUNstar concept.
Skoda CitiJet was the academy’s first spin-off in 2014.
The Skoda FUNstar pickup concept is just a one-off (obviously) and will be showcased at Worthersee next month. The car is based on the third generation Fabia hatchback and houses a 1.2-litre TSI petrol engine that makes 121 bhp and is paired with the brilliant 7-speed dual-clutch DSG. At the start of their project, the teenagers hoped to chuck in the more powerful 1.8-litre TSI unit, but soon realised that it wouldn’t fit inside the engine bay of the Fabia.
The FUNstar is powered by a 1.2-litre petrol engine making 121 bhp.
On the exterior, you will notice that this Fabia has a frameless body that features reinforced side panels. The pickup also has a wider B-pillar to deal with this hatchback’s radical transformation. The exterior is also full of flashy neon green paint scheme on several surfaces. The mirror caps, side skirts, front grille borders, bottom part of the bumpers and even the LED daytime running lights are all smothered in greenness. The Skoda FUNstar wears a white, grey and green costume that’s complemented by green neon lights installed on the underside of the car.
The bed area of this ‘pickup’ is made out of stainless steel.
There’s projector headlights and fancy double vents on the bonnet.
The Skoda FUNstar runs on wacky 18-inch alloy wheels which, of course, have lots of green on them. The team hasn’t stopped at the exterior; the cabin of this pickup concept gets dual sports seats, leather-wrapped sports steering wheel and several bits of trim that wear the neon green paint. The interior also gets a punchy 1400-watt sound system, which takes into account a 200-watt subwoofer. So all-in-all, this Skoda can make you go green and deaf.
There seems to be a bit of mishmash with the green theme in this cabin.
Performance figures for the Skoda FUNstar haven’t been disclosed yet, but it wouldn’t be setting the roads on fire. The standard Fabia hatchback with the same engine (depending on tune) and gearbox, manages to hit a top speed of 195 km/h and can reach 100 klicks in under 10 seconds. That said, this one-off by 23 teenagers at Skoda Academy is a fun and joyful looking so & so. However, the Skoda FUNstar pickup concept will not be making it to any dealerships and will remain a concept. Also, this concept of a hatchback pickup looks more convincing than that Startech Range Rover pickup we saw earlier. Anyway, tell us if you like this green little Skoda concept and give us your thoughts on such conversions.
via Autocar