Skoda Begin to Accept Their Past

[skoda_norman]

I appreciate the new Skoda Rapid Spaceback is of little interest to anyone on here, but in the run up to the car's launch Skoda have made a video which will be released in parts. The video details the history of the Rapid model, right back to the 1950s, and to present day and how it has inspired the design of the new Spaceback. I am not sure how much of that I agree with but the video is certainly a nicely finished product and I hope to track down a DVD of it eventually. 

 

It can be viewed here if you are interested, but it is in Czech only. 

 

http://www.mujrapid.cz/cs/druhe-video

 

And, my silver Rapid is featured in the video too. 

[skoda_norman]

I should also point out that this video has been produced by Skoda CZ who have generally been much more excepting of their past than Skoda UK. 

[Pillock]

Skoda UK seem keen to ignore anything that hasn't got a truckload of VAG parts in it.

Which is a shame, the older stuff has way more character - and was often more reliable.

 

That's quite a nice site, not often you see a car manufacturer website that doesn't just bombard you with finance options and special offers. 

[UmBongo]

 

What happens next?

 

http://www.vord.net/friends/skoda/bigtank.html

[simmo]

I thought in the rest of Europe Skoda had a reputation as a rugged if basic motor and it was only here that they were a staple for 1970s comedians.  

[skoda_norman]

SUK's opinion is changing and they are adapting to include their history more; but they are still cagey about being associated with the Estelle/Rapid's. To be fair, with Auto Express still publishing how bad they are 25 years on, you can sort of see why. 

 

At the recent Briskoda MegaMeet which SUK attended they asked an Owners' Club member to display his mk1 Octavia next to their brand new Octavia, 200mph Octavia and mk1 Octavia. 

 

[skoda_norman]

 

What happens next?

 

http://www.vord.net/friends/skoda/bigtank.html

 

[mercrocker]

Autoexpress, the thinking man's Top Gear....And yes that is as convoluted a back-flipped insult as it sounds.   Rest of the blame can go to V.Dubya who have gang-raped too many historic car brands for my liking.   Churchill warned  against all this, you know.

[UmBongo]

 

Shocking, isn't it?

 

I really like the older Skodas, too.

 

The problem now is when you google 'rapide' all the images are of the new rapid.

[skoda_norman]

Try sticking the numbers after it, like "Rapid 130" etc. 

 

But to get you started...

 

 

 

 

 

[retrogeezer]

hmmm, the new one just looks like an Octavia with a shorter bootlid and thicker c pillar?

[skoda_norman]

Ah, excuse me whilst I geek out on new cars! The Rapid is a little shorter than the Octavia II. The Octavia III being closer in size to it's bigger sister the Superb. This hints towards the replacement for the Superb moving away from the conventional saloon body style as has been hinted by the Skoda boss. It is thought the Superb will become an SUV and be joined by the Yeti and a Citygo based SUV. Incidentally the Spaceback is actually smaller than the Rapid hatchback and is expected to appeal to a younger audience and has been styled and marketed accordingly. 

[dollywobbler]

I prefer old Skodas. Where's DaveRapid when we need him? Better than these pesky youngsters talking 'bout noo Skuds.

[Junkman]

Not an urban legend:

 

Å koda is the Czech word for 'unfortunately'.

[RedSparrow]

I thought in the rest of Europe Skoda had a reputation as a rugged if basic motor and it was only here that they were a staple for 1970s comedians.  

 

It does, especially in the East. The Czechs are proud of all the Skodas and the commie ones are recognised as the best motors of the eastern bloc era.

One student of mine was laughing about the Allegro as if you were rich enough you could buy one back in the 70s in Czechoslovakia.

 

Nothing wrong with any of the old Skodas as far as I can see and I think they got unfair press when Ladas were worse.

[RedSparrow]

Not an urban legend:

 

Å koda is the Czech word for 'unfortunately'.

 

It's more 'shame' (embarassment) or 'damaging' (detrimental).

Just a coincidence that it was the founder's name. Not as some people think the car's name becoming a synonym for shame in the 70s/80s.

[skoda_norman]

Not an urban legend:

 

Å koda is the Czech word for 'unfortunately'.

 

Pity. Skoda Pity. 

 

I can but apologise for talking new Skoda, but someone did ask and that gave me an excuse to talk Skoda. As way of apology please accept these pictures - much better than text. 

 

Owners' Club National Committee Meeting;

 

 

 

Skoda Holidaying;

 

[Junkman]

Old Skodas have been recognised, prized (and thus unfortunately priced accordingly) a long time ago.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Junkman]

I was heavily involved in the rescue of the Sodomka bodied Walter Regent in the b&w photo back in the early 90s. It's not a Skoda, it was a Freudian slip when I posted that post. I found the car more or less abandoned in a derelict part of a cement factory in Banska Bystrica, where I had a work assignment. Together with some Czechoslovakian enthusiasts, the car was brought to premises I had rented in Brno back then, where it was safely stored until it was taken on by noted Sodomka collector and Czech car historian, Dr. Ian Tulis, in the mid-1990s. Restoration in earnest has commenced 2010 and the car should be making the show circuit next year.
And what a car it is. Czechoslovakia was an epicentre of design, fashion, and culture when it was still part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and continued to be that after declaring independence after WWI. The Art-Deco and Art-Moderne movements were taken to at least the same extremes as found in France and Belgium, which among other, beautifully manifests itself in the creations of the coachbuilder Josef Sodomka of Vysoké Mýto (or Hohenmaut, as it was known during the Austro-Hungarian Empire). The car was commissioned by a Doctor, who had a clinic for obstetrics in Prague. Apart from the fashionable streamlining, it has such novel features as pillarless side windows and integrated headlights.

Shit. I sound like one of those car show fuckwits. Please excuse.

I have enough material here in the house to write a book about Sodomka. My great-grandfather, as well as my grandfather, were customers.

[Station]

In a recent advert, rapper Busta Bollocks (or whatever he's called) ripped a Favorit apart in a spoof on his hit TV show 'Paint My Car Neon' to create a new orange Skoda that looks identical to a Kia.

[retrogeezer]

all the above cars that junkman posted are flippin gorgeous, especially the 1st one and that rally car looks awesome. 

[Junkman]

That 'rally car' was a commercially available 'homologation' model, the Rapid 130 RS. It has a predecessor in form of the slightly less radical 110 R. They were a terror on the race circuit, especially in 'neutral' Austria, where the purchase of a NSU TT or TTS would have been subject of a 33% customs excise. I have seen 130 RSes winning Austrian rallycross and hillclimb events as late as the 1990s. Some of them are still used for such events, but the majority are now in the classic car racing scene. Save up €20+k if you want to add an unmolested one to your fleet.

 

Let alone Laurin & Klements and pre-war Skodas, but good Cold-War-Skodas have IMO left Autoshite territory a long time ago. And rightfully so, since the Eastern Bloc Czechoslovakian offerings were the best of the bunch and hardly shitty at all.

[skoda_norman]

That is very interesting reading about the Sodomka, a car I have not previously heard of. Thanks for sharing. Do you have any photos from it's time at your storage unit? 

[skoda_norman]

In a recent advert, rapper Busta Bollocks (or whatever he's called) ripped a Favorit apart in a spoof on his hit TV show 'Paint My Car Neon' to create a new orange Skoda that looks identical to a Kia.

 

Originally it was a Suzuki Swift, but when Skoda decided to air the advert they had to modify it to look like a Favorit. 

[Junkman]

That is very interesting reading about the Sodomka, a car I have not previously heard of. Thanks for sharing. Do you have any photos from it's time at your storage unit?

In those days photos were made with cameras and then the films were developed and the images printed on paper.

Unfortunately life is a piece of shit skoda and I fell on hard times in the late 90s. The photos went with pretty much everything else I owned at the time, so with regret, you'll have to take my word for it.

 

The car is a Walter Regent with coachwork by Sodomka. Sodomka made bodies for many Czechoslovakian vehicles and also many imports, like Rolls-Royce, Mercedes, Cadillac, etc. They even bodied various Bugattis. To me, he was one of the most esotheric coachbuilders of EVAH, right up there with Saoutchik, Fernandez and Darrin, James Young, Bohmann und Schwartz, Hooper, Voll und Ruhrbeck, Figoni et Falaschi, Weinberger, von Spohn, etc.

 

However, if you are interested, you are welcome to invade my home and I will be happy to show you all the material I have collected about Josef Sodomka since, much of which is courtesy of the tireless efforts of my friend Dr Tulis and the records of my relatively immediate predecessors in the family. As I said, I have enough material here to write a book and this is not hot air.

[skoda_norman]

You ought to write that book! At the very least it would make for an interesting article in the Owners' Club magazine. 

[Junkman]

You ought to write that book!

 

I know. It's a skoda that I also have to pay rent, taxes, gas, electrickery, water, shit, air, war criminal and generic parasite Ann Coffey and her nepotist bunch of crooks, global kittens and nun warming bollocks, have my own money taken off me and given to the banksters so they can lend it to me with interest, which they still refuse btw, pay for a new Jaguar that isn't parked in front of my house, and in addition to all that have to provide for my beloved wife and my gorgeous daughters and despite all that still have to listen to people who tell me they vote for labour because their grandfather did.

 

Sorry. Wrong forum. Please excuse.

[John F]

 

What happens next?

 

http://www.vord.net/friends/skoda/bigtank.html

 

The crappy Sherman catches fire, cooking its crew?

[Sigmund Fraud]

 

I strongly doubt the above applies to the new 'Rapid'.

 

An appropriate headline would probably be along the lines of 'What looks like a VW, handles like a VW and lacks fun as much as a VW ?'

[Partridge]

The thing is they're pure VAG now. They have as much in common with past pre WV Skodas as I do with a palm tree.