Skoda Superb Sleeper & Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG

Our 470bhp Skoda takes on a similarly potent AMG classic for an unlikely super-estate showdown

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IN THE HEART OF AFFALTERBACH IN the mid-2000s, Mercedes-AMG threw everything it had into the development of its first bespoke engine: the 6.2-litre M156 V8. Its generous outputs and raucous soundtrack became defining elements of numerous AMG models over the years that followed, among them the S204 C63 Estate, which alongside its W204 saloon sibling offered considerably more power than contemporary alternatives from Munich, Ingolstadt and Japan. So just imagine what the C63's creators would have thought if they knew that one day their over-endowed super-estate would go head-to-head with a 2-litre four-cylinder Skoda...

This is no ordinary Skoda, of course. The one-off Superb Sleeper Edition, which we've been running on the Fast Fleet for a few months now, may look like nothing more than a practical family estate finished in a rather fetching shade of green, but in reality it has the performance to concern an out-and-out sports car.

You'd be right in thinking this isn't quite an apples-with-apples comparison. Our, or rather my, C63 is completely standard bar an aftermarket Quaife limited-slip differential, whereas the Sleeper has had the full works from RE Performance, the UK-based firm that was also responsible for the 227mph Octavia vRS in which our own Richard Meaden set a Bonneville speed record back in 2011 (see