Skoda Laura: Flyin’ Arrow

My journey of being a car guy started the way you would expect – Hot Wheels cars, the Fast and the Furious movies, and of course, car magazines! Heading to the newsstand with my modest pocket money to pick up the latest issue of Overdrive was a monthly ritual in my school days, and when I got hooked onto evo India years later, one of my favourite reads was the TUNED section that you’re leafing through right now.

I remember being enthused about the boosted Octavias and souped-up Polos, but when the Ed entrusted these pages to me, I set out in search of madder machines that would leave a reader awestruck. Over the following months, I wrote about AMGs, good ol’ American muscle and even JDM legends (yup, I am still grieving the GT-R). But time and again, I was reminded both by enthusiasts on social media and folks in the car community at events that the scope for modification on a VAG-group car is truly astounding. And this is why I’ve steered my focus towards a tuner’s favourite – the Skoda Laura.

Adee Singh, the owner of this 2010 Laura didn’t exactly acquire it with the same train of thought. He started driving his family’s WagonR in college, but he always had the itch to get his own set of wheels. He now runs a social media agency called Adees.DMU, with national gymkhana and autocross champion Prateek Dalal being one of his long-time clients. Working with Prateek also meant that Adee got in touch with a bunch of car guys who ended up as clients, and this included Zorawar Singh Suri, known as Thrive2Drive on social media, and Harman Arora from Upshift Autos.

This is where the Skoda comes into the picture. This Laura had been Harman’s project car back in 2017 and at that time, it sported a black wrap. Adee thought it was a cool sedan with good wheels, and while the thought of buying it did cross his mind, he didn’t acquire it immediately. Driving it ended up changing his mind altogether, and Adee ended up acquiring it in November 2022.

Over the next two and a half months, work ensued on the mechanicals, suspension, interior and even the cosmetics of the Laura. The wrap was removed, the original silver paint was back on display, and in January 2023, the car was finally in Adee’s garage.

It took some time for him to get used to it, because apart from this being his first car, it was also the first lowered car he’d driven, sporting Eibach Pro-Street-S coilovers. It was also running a Stage 2 tune, and despite putting out a claimed 240bhp from the 1.8-litre TSI mill, Adee and his clan used it as a daily driver.

Describing his ownership experience of the Laura, Adee says, “An old German car gives you some nice life experiences.” Working with clients in the automotive sector also meant that the car ended up acting as his calling card and introduced him to newer people, while also helping Adee create content for himself. Around the end of 2024 however, Adee faced a dilemma, like most folks in the Delhi-NCR region, thanks to a government ruling that didn’t allow cars older than 15 years to ply on public roads. Keep it or sell it, was the question on Adee’s mind, but as he mulled over his options, he realised he’d been smitten by the Laura, and ended up going ahead with the former.

It was also around this time that Adee was enamoured by Rubystar, a historic Porsche paint scheme from the 1990s, and he decided to get his Laura wrapped in this colour. After months of hunting, he finally found a sample that he liked, but when the wrap finally turned up for application, it looked vastly different from what Adee had in mind. He ended up losing his cool, but reassurance from Prateek and the guys at Upshift Autos made him go ahead with it. The wrap was sourced by Upshift and applied at JS Wraps, and it looks eye-popping in the sunlight. Contrasting it is the black roof, black ORVMs, smoked-out lights and the silver 17-inch Lenso Jagër Dyna alloy wheels. All work on the car was finally completed by July 2025, and Adee is pleased with the result.

In terms of the mods, the 1.8 TSI mill runs a Stage 2 ECU remap by Code6 and it breathes better thanks to a RacingLine carbonfibre cold air intake, a Milltek decat cast downpipe, a custom non-resonated midpipe and a Valvetronic muffler.

The car also gets Audi R8 red coil packs and a short-throw shifter from Dieselgeek. And while Adee hasn’t dyno-ed the car yet, he recalled an instance when a well-known Punjabi singer, with whom Adee was working, ended up requesting Adee to take his Laura for a joyride, and he was blown away by the performance.

Ensuring that things don’t get out of hand however is the 312mm Big Brake conversion, which allows the Laura to stop on a dime. The car also has exterior components from the Laura RS and a maxidot cluster, while the interior is taken from a Laura L&K.

Adee’s car turns heads everywhere it goes, and it also functions as a showcar for Upshift Autos. It has even been featured on Skoda’s global Instagram page, and while Adee has considered a Stage 3 tune and even a drift build, he is more than happy with his project car.

He reminisces that when he was about to acquire the car, Harman, along with Vidit Jain and Akshay Titus from GT Tunerz who were around, referred to this Laura as a ‘flying arrow’. And while Adee didn’t exactly get the logic behind the metaphor, I now suspect that they called it that because when you bury your right foot into the carpet, this Laura flies past almost everything on the road.