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Skoda has unveiled a rally-ready version of its students’ Azubi design concept, with the Skoda Afriq destined for the rally track.
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A team of 25 students from Skoda’s vocational secondary school have completed their long-running project of turning a Kamiq SUV into a rally-bred weapon – this week revealing the one-off Skoda Afriq.
The Afriq forms part of Skoda’s Azubi program (Skoda’s apprentice car study), which sees students from the Skoda Academy take one of the brand’s current models and transform it into the car of students’ dreams.
This year’s creation, the Skoda Afriq, pays tribute in name to the Czech brand’s activities in North Africa – but was largely designed from concept sketch to full-sized prototype by a group of 25 apprentices, working closely with Skoda Motorsport.
While the Afriq is based on the Kamiq small SUV, similarities are few.
The rally-spec, Dakar-inspired Afriq widens the stance compared to the standard Kamiq, fits chunky rally tyres on 15-inch OZ Racing wheels, features a centre-exit single exhaust outlet, and scores a stripped-out interior complete with a roll cage.
Front fog lights and aerodynamic accents are added, such as the roof scoop and large rear wing.
The car is powered by a Skoda Octavia’s 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder engine, with outputs totalling 140kW/320Nm. This power output is sent through a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission to an Octavia all-wheel-drive system.
This year’s student-designed Skoda one-off borrows skill from Skoda Motorsport – which also runs the Skoda Fabia Rally2 Evo competition car in a lower bracket of the FIA World Rally Championship.
Though students received help from the experts in developing and designing the perfect concept, final construction is always carried out by the students.
“Our Student Concept Car this year, the Skoda Afriq, is the impressive result of the tremendous creativity and talent of our up-and-coming employees,” said Maren Gräf, Skoda board member for people and culture.
“The Skoda Auto Vocational School prepares them in the best possible way for their career at Skoda, giving them the opportunity to apply and consolidate what they have learned at an early stage in their practice-based training.”
Previous Azubi project cars included the 2014 CitiJet (Citigo cabrio), 2015 FunStar (Fabia ute), 2016 Atero (Octavia coupe), 2017 Element (Citigo EV buggy), 2018 Sunroq (Karoq roadster), 2019 Mountiaq (Kodiaq ute), and 2020 Slavia (Scala speedster).
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