Of all the automotive brands under the Volkswagen Group umbrella, Skoda is the only one without any coupes in its lineup. That could be because it’s the least sporty of them all, but the Czech automaker’s interns set about to fix that with the one-off project you see here.
Called the Atero, it follows the Citijet and Funstar concepts as Skoda’s third “trainee car,” built by the company’s vocational students. While the Citijet was a convertible based on the Citigo and the Funstar a pickup version of the Fabia, the Atero started off as a Rapid Spaceback. Only where the donor model is a five-door, the Atero is a two-door coupe.
We caught our first look at the concept last month, but now the students responsible for it are showing off their design in full. To create it, they had to move the B-pillars backwards, and replace the C-pillars completely for a sharply-raked roofline sloping towards the tail. The interns also fitted a new front bumper with larger intake, new LED headlights, and the exhaust from the Octavia RS.
The whole thing is painted in metallic black with red highlights and rides on matching 18-inch wheels packing cross-drilled front brakes. Inside it’s all LED ambient lighting and a 14-speaker, 1800-watt sound system. And under the hood sits a 1.4-liter turbo four rated at 125 horsepower and mated to a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission.
The project took a team of 26 students half a year to complete, and its first public appearance was in this candid-camera video. The look on the drivers’ faces when this sleek ride rolls out of the car wash instead of their own sedan or hatchback says it all about how thoroughly the interns managed to transform the Rapid into something altogether sportier.
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