Škoda vehicles’ successes in the Monte Carlo Rally – the oldest and most famous race in the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) – are an integral part of the brand’s DNA today.
Before the modern era, the manufacturer’s greatest triumphs in the up-to-1.3-litre class include the Octavia TS’ hat-trick (1961 – 1963) and the Favorit 136 L’s four consecutive wins between 1991 and 1994.
The importance of the legendary Monte Carlo Rally and the challenges of this motorsport event are reflected in the date it is traditionally held in the WRC calendar; in January, the prestigious ‘Monte’ would attract wealthy car fans to the Principality of Monaco, even outside the Northern Hemisphere’s summer season.
Participants could opt for one of the many starting points across Europe, and the number of points awarded depended on how demanding their chosen route was. Additional points were then awarded in Monte Carlo, where the teams initially competed in various disciplines that were later abolished. These included being judged on elegance and comfort and the technical condition of the vehicles after the Riviera stretch. In addition, the drivers would have to demonstrate their skills in a manoeuvre test.
In 1912, at only the second run of the Monte Carlo Rally, a vehicle from Mladá Boleslav was also among the field of competitors. At temperatures as low as -18 degrees, Alexander ‘Count Sascha’ Kolowrat-Krakowsky set off from Vienna on the 1,319km route to the Principality on 21 January 1912. The Laurin & Klement had an open body and so instead of a racing overall, Count Kolowrat-Krakowsky wore thick fur.
Cars from Mladá Boleslav have borne the Škoda emblem since 1925, and they soon drove to their first successes at the Monte Carlo Rally; in January 1936, the duo Zdeněk Pohl/Ing. Jaroslav Hausman took an excellent second place in the up to 1,500 cm³ class with the Škoda Popular Sport roadster. This result inspired the company to expand its model range to include the Škoda Popular Sport Monte Carlo, which the manufacturer offered as a roadster and a coupé. Just seventy of these vehicles were built between 1936 and 1939.
One year later, Pohl and Hausman decided that they would not start the 1937 rally in Athens, which was ‘only’ 3,852km away from Monaco, as they had done the previous year. Instead, they would depart from Palermo in Sicily, 4,134km away, earning them 500 points. Only four of the original 30 vehicles survived the rigours of this demanding route. With their Škoda Rapid coupé, powered by a reliable 1.4-litre SV four-cylinder engine, they successfully passed the checkpoints.
However, the duo ended up in fourth place overall instead of second because of two penalty points. These were deducted by the commissioners after their English rivals protested about the rear-view mirror being too small. The mirror’s outer dimensions were in line with the regulations, but the reflective surface without the frame was much smaller.
Pohl and Hausman could have swapped the mirror for a larger one before the official inspection, but this would have gone against their spirit of fair play. Upon returning to Prague, the management of the car manufacturer at the time also publicly acknowledged this sportsmanship.
Political and economic developments after the Second World War meant that the car manufacturer was cut off from many of its traditional markets and prestigious sporting events due to the ‘Iron Curtain’.
As a result, only private teams could compete in the Monte Carlo Rally from 1949 onwards, and the works team did not return to Monte Carlo until January 1956. The foreign owners of Škoda vehicles seized the opportunity; the best results in the wintry conditions were achieved by teams from Scandinavia – their successes included a hat-trick in the up-to-1.3-litre class with the Škoda Octavia Touring Sport. At the 1961 event, Finns Esko Keinänen and Rainer Eklund won and at the same time took a magnificent sixth place overall. They dominated the ‘Thirteen Hundred’ class in 1962, as well. In January 1963, the Norwegians Edward Gjolberg and Carl Karlan followed up on these successes with the Octavia TS 1200.
In subsequent years, the Monte Carlo Rally became increasingly geared towards professionals with fewer and fewer private drivers taking part. In 1973, the traditional January event then became the opening race of the newly announced World Rally Championship.
Škoda vehicles with a traditional drive concept and central tube frame were followed by models with rear-mounted engines and self-supporting bodywork. The successes of two Škoda 130 RS coupés stand out, in particular. In 1977, when only 43 of 198 vehicles reached the finish line at the ‘Monte’, Škoda dominated the up-to-1.3-litre category; the winning duo Václav Blahna/Lubislav Hlávka were followed by their works team colleagues Milan Zapadlo and Jiří Motal in second place. In the overall standings, they finished 12th and 15th respectively.
Sixty years ago, the sporty derivatives of the Škoda Octavia family model dominated the ‘Thirteen Hundreds’ at the Monte Carlo Rally, and 30 years ago, the Škoda Favorit 136 L hatchback continued the rally successes. The four-cylinder aluminium engine above the driven front axle had a displacement of 1,289 cm³ and took the duo Pavel Sibera/Petr Gross to numerous victories in Class A (under 1.3-litres). From 1991 to 1994, they clinched four victories in a row. The Favorit was an outstanding vehicle in its time, evidenced by its fourth place in the 1993 ‘Monte’ against much more powerful vehicles in the class up-to-2.0-litres with one driven axle.
Škoda then introduced the Felicia Kit Car. At the 1999 Monte Carlo Rally, a new era began with the Octavia WRC entering the top category for vehicles with four-wheel drive. The works driver team Armin Schwarz/Manfred Hiemer took an excellent fourth place in the overall standings with it in 2001.
The shorter and significantly lighter Fabia WRC was homologated in 2003. The turbocharged four-cylinder engine delivered an output of 221kW and a torque of 600Nm from a two-litre displacement.
A hydraulically operated handbrake assisted in cornering; it braked the rear wheels, while simultaneously disengaging the intermediate axle differential of the all-wheel drive. The Škoda Fabia Super 2000 represented a further step in its evolution in 2009 when it finished fourth in this run of the Monte Carlo Rally, which was on the Intercontinental Rally Challenge (IRC) calendar at the time.
