What do you make of Skoda's new Atero concept?

Funny looking thing, isn’t it? Perhaps it’s just our TG.com brain, unable to reconcile the clearly Skoda Rapid-sired front end with the arcing, dare-we-day BMW X6-like tail. There’s a bit of Honda CRX going on here too.

A total of 26 students from Skoda’ academy of designers, technicians and other future car industry bods have spent a collective 1700 hours creating the Atero on the platform of a Skoda Rapid, adding the sports exhaust from an Octavia vRS and an 1800-watt, 14-speaker sound system. Not Fast and Furious enough for you? Take a gander at the underbody red neon-glow lighting. On a Skoda.

Under the Atero’s bonnet lives nothing more fruity than Skoda’s 1.4-litre turbocharged petrol engine, sending 123bhp (exactly the output of the old Ford Puma, hatch-based-coupe fans), to the front wheels via a seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox. Ventilated brakes live behind the natty Octavia-pinched alloys.

Sure, the silhouette’s a tad boxy, but Skoda could do with a dose of youthful fun in the family now the Fabia vRS has been binned. What do you reckon – should the student project graduate to production?

(topgear.com)