SUBSCRIBE TO THE
MAGAZINE NOW
Facebook-f Instagram

Skoda turns up the heat!

21 August, 2019

 

 

In 1971 Skoda decided rallying might just give its cars some much needed cool factor — and it very nearly worked. The rear-engined layout and some serious engine fettling paid off in class wins and even some impressive overall results here and overseas.

TheŠkoda on the cover of New Zealand Classic Car issue 345 is much rarer than most rally cars. Škoda’s competition department built 100 cars and persuaded the FIA the other 900 required for homologation had been sold to the Czech police…

The 1973 version was even better than the Rallye 110 Colin Waite had campaigned with Laurie Evans for Takapuna Skoda dealer Clifton Motors. Instead of a five-port cylinder head and an engine bay-mounted radiator, the 120 sported a much more effective eight-port cylinder head with twin Weber carburettors, a close-ratio gearbox, and better cooling via a front-mounted radiator.


5D2A6666.jpg

“The locally built Skoda was especially good in rough conditions,” Colin explains. “When things got slippery, the traction was far superior to some of the rear-wheel-drive Datsun 1200s and Corollas. In some conditions, the 120 S Rallye could outperform some of the much faster BDA Escorts and Mazda RX-3s.”

Twenty-five years later, Colin found his former 1973 Heatway Rally car in a barn quite by chance.

In 2001, he was in the South Island competing in his Formula Junior Stanguellini when he stopped by the Ranfurly museum for afternoon tea. As he was sitting outside on a bench he struck up a conversation with a local chucking some rubbish in a bin next to where he was sitting. After they exchanged a few pleasantries, the conversation turned to cars. Colin explained that he was competing in the Formula Junior.


5D2A6707.jpg

Colin recalls, “The local asked me what other motorsport I had been involved in and I told him that I’d once competed in a few rallies around the country driving a Skoda. The local immediately responded by saying that his neighbour in Alexandra had two old Skoda rally cars sitting in his barn.”

Colin couldn’t resist the urge to take a look. He eventually found the cars hidden away in an old barn just out of Alexandra that was once used as a staging post for the Cobb & Co stagecoaches back in the 1800s. Colin recognized the cars immediately. They had suffered the effects of time and the harsh cold for 18 yearsThe owner had bought the Skodas in 1983 with the intent of restoring both cars, but that plan never eventuated. 


5D2A6547.jpg

There were the makings of one good car there and Colin couldn’t resist taking it on another journey — back to its prime. And, for September, in Classic Car 345, it is a genuinely cool cover car.


NZCC_345_20190819_Cover.jpg

The motor car as an art form

12 March, 2026

We have certainly come a long way since the exhibition entitled 8 Automobiles, shown at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in the autumn of 1951, the first exhibition concerned with the aesthetics of motor car design.
It was here that the often-used term ‘rolling sculpture’ was coined by curator Philip C Johnson, director of the department of architecture and design, when he said, “An automobile is a familiar 20th century artefact, and is no less worthy of being judged for its visual appeal than a building or a chair. Automobiles are hollow, rolling sculptures, and their design refinements are fascinating. We have selected cars whose details and basic design suggest that automobiles, besides being America’s most useful objects, could be a source of visual experience more enjoyable than they now are.”

More to the point

6 March, 2026

This Daimler SP252 is so rare, few people know it exists. It’s one of a kind. It’s the only surviving, in fact the only SP252 ever completed; the would-be successor to the SP250 Daimler Dart. It is also the last sports car to have been designed by Jaguar’s legendary founder, Sir William Lyons.
Perhaps one of the original Dart’s biggest problems was it’s somewhat-divisive looks. It certainly went well enough to win fans, although Sir William wasn’t among them. It crushed the opposition in the Bathurst six-hour race, finishing five laps ahead of anyone else, and it was snapped up by police forces in Britain, Australia, and New Zealand, as it was the fastest thing on the road.
So you’d think a stunning new body with the magic Lyons touch would have been a surefire success. Why this car never made it into production is still something of a mystery, as the official explanations barely stack up.