The Favorit ushered in a new era

The Beginning of Škoda Cars With a Modern Concept 

1980–1987 With its modern design, the Favorit model was fully comparable to Western competitors in its class. It also excelled on the racetrack and kickstarted the dynamic development of the Škoda brand.

Between 1905 and 1963, the Mladá Boleslav–based carmaker produced almost exclusively cars with a classic layout, that is,  with a longitudinally mounted front engine and rear-wheel drive. In 1964, the Škoda 1000 MB launched a completely new generation of rear-wheel-drive cars. Unfortunately, this solution did not allow the company to offer customers a wider range of body styles or to create a spacious and easily accessible luggage compartment.

Therefore, AZNP started the Škoda 780 project and began working on the development of front-wheel-drive passenger cars with a transverse engine. From 1980 onwards, several concept models were gradually created, such as a mock-up of the Škoda 781 based on a design by Jaroslav Kindl, as well as three dozen prototypes. 

These efforts took a new direction in December 1982, when the government set the deadline of 30 June 1985 for the completion of the development of the new Škoda car and scheduled the start of series production within five years of the resolution. This was no easy task. Everything was set in motion in March 1983 when the new head of development, Petr Hrdlička, went to the Geneva Motor Show in search of a design studio to design the new car and build the prototypes. In the end, the carmaker chose the Turin-based Stile Bertone studio and commissioned it to design a hatchback, sedan and coupé, as well as to create an interior model and build 19 prototype bodies of various designs, including an estate. 

In September 1983, Stile Bertone took over the floor section of the Škoda 781 and began creating a mock-up of the car’s interior on that platform. The Mladá Boleslav team handled the body engineering excellently. In the same month, AZNP developers in Turin were introduced to a 1:5 scale working model of the hatchback. The first Škoda 781 body in its near-final form was completed on New Year’s Eve 1984. Over the following months, the car underwent rigorous testing. From the beginning of 1985, prototype tests were conducted in regular road traffic, and in September 1986, the Škoda 781 entered the final stage of operational series testing, with one prototype covering more than 150,000 km. The test, which ended in September 1987, demonstrated the high standard of work carried out by Škoda employees.

These efforts culminated in September 1987 with the Škoda Favorit hatchback, which made its debut at the International Engineering Fair. Series production of the car began in Vrchlabí on 9 December of the same year and in Mladá Boleslav in August 1988.

Rally special

Immediately after the September premiere of the Škoda Favorit, development began on a competition version whose successes would promote the new model around the world. Factory driver Vladimír Berger played a major role in its development, “teaching” the still un-homologated Škoda Favorit as a pace car in selected races of the 1988 domestic championship. The Favorit was finally homologated on 1 January 1989 under the number A-5373 (Škoda Favorit 136 L rally special), and shortly afterwards, it made its successful debut in the traditional Valašská zima Rally. Its first foreign start was at the Hanki Rally in Finland, where Kalevi Aho won his class. Almost from its first race, the car dominated its category in difficult World Championship events, such as the Monte Carlo Rally, the RAC Rally, the Finnish 1000 Lakes Rally and the Acropolis Rally. Particularly noteworthy is the string of victories achieved at the Monte Carlo Rally between 1991 and 1994 by the crew consisting of Pavel Sibera and Petr Gross.