Kodiaq vRS the quickest Kodiaq at the 'Ring

Skoda has claimed the 'seven-seat SUV' lap record for its new range-topper at the Nordschleife

Skoda has some history in here. In 2011, it claimed the land speed record for the Octavia vRS at Bonneville. The land speed record for a 2.0-litre forced-induction production car, that is. In contrast to the Kodiaq though, the 600hp 'salt spec' car that clocked 227mph on the salt flat was actually quite cool. The new vRS version of the Kodiaq is just a Kodiaq with a larger diesel lump in it - and the notional 'seven-seat SUV' lap record is obviously as spurious as the PH office chair lap record for the Kingston upon Thames one-way system.

Still, in this day and age, why not? We're certainly all for the expansion of Skoda's vRS lineup, which has been limited to the Octavia for far too long. True, we wouldn't have picked the Kodiaq as the natural follow-up (there's still a Fabia, right?) but the prospect of charging customers more for its largest crossover was obviously too hard to resist. Especially with access granted to the VW Group's 239hp 2.0-litre BiTDi engine, which had the misfortune to launch just as the tide against diesel-powered performance turned, but outputs 369lb ft of torque at 1750rpm nevertheless.

Elsewhere you get the adaptive Dynamic Chassis Control and all-wheel drive - as well as Sabine Schmitz gurning and whooping and reminding you that it's family car. Happily, you also get Skoda's Head of Compact Models, Frantisek Drabek, in the passenger seat, utterly deadpanning it. His presence is a cute reminder of course that Skoda isn't necessarily taking the whole thing deadly seriously - which is a good thing, too, as a quick reference to the pertinent Wikipedia page reveals that Manuel Reuter (the two-time Le Mans winner) hustled the people-carrying Opel Zafira OPC round the 20km course around 35 seconds quicker than Sabine managed...