This 276bhp, AWD, Diesel Skoda Citigo Could Be Yours

Close your eyes for a second. Actually no, hold on, finish reading this sentence and then do it. Once you’ve closed your eyes, think of a car you’d use as a base for a track toy. Anything at all.

Right, now open them. What was in your head? If you’re sensible, it’s probably a Mazda MX-5, some kind of E46 BMW 3-series, or maybe a hot hatch like a Renault Clio RS or Ford Fiesta ST.

What you almost certainly won’t have thought of is a Skoda Citigo, well, at least if you didn’t read the headline or take a look at the header image. Delightfully, someone out there already has. We say ‘someone’, we mean UK tuner Darkside Developments which specialises in turning diesel cars into track monsters. That’d explain the 2.0-litre TDI, then.

So yes, this is a Skoda Citigo but really, beyond using its bodywork, there’s not much left of it. Nor is there actually much left of the original TDI engine that you’d find in pretty much any VW Group product built in the last 15 years.

We don’t know where it started life, but it’s since had a ported head and race camshafts fitted, along with an alloy radiator to help cool it – handy given it’s in such a tight space. Oh, and that’s sending 276bhp to a VW Haldex 4Motion all-wheel drive system that’s been shoehorned into the Citigo’s dinky frame and through a six-speed manual gearbox. No word on a torque figure, but we presume ‘a lot’.

Two limited-slip differentials are fitted to help contain that demonic grunt, while wishbone suspension features on both axles to try and keep things in check. Stopping force on the front comes courtesy of Porsche four-pot brake callipers sitting on top of Brembo discs, and the rear has a beefier set, too. Those sit behind a set of 17-inch wheels taken from an Octavia.

This car has ‘just’ 5,693 miles on the clock, although those have presumably been pretty hard miles. The car isn’t road-legal at the moment, although we’re not sure it’d be much use given the completely stripped and caged interior, pair of bucket seats and interior cooling provided by small openings on those Polycarbonate windows.

As we’re writing this, bidding sits at £2,550 on Collecting Cars with six days left. We have absolutely no idea what this Citigo could go for, to be honest, but what would you pay? And if you’re bonkers enough to buy it, please let us have a go.