Skip to main content

Tiny Vintage Skoda Racer is Adorable

Volkswagen Group budget brand Skoda isn’t exactly well known here in North America, but the automaker is actually one of the oldest around. Skoda started building cars in 1895. For 116 of those 122 years, they have been involved in racing. A big part of that history is this car, the tiny 1100 OHC racer that marks its 60th anniversary this year.

“The Skoda 1100 OHC is a prime example of Czech engineering and construction,” says Andrea Frydlová, Director of the SkodaMuseum. “The car is one of the milestones in Skoda’s 116-year involvement in motorsport.”

The 1100 OHC moves away from the production-based Sport and Supersport that proceeded it. This is a purpose-built tube-frame car.

At just 38-inches tall but is 56.2-inches wide, the 1100 OHC looks flat and stretched – and the driver looks like he’s towering over it instead of being tucked inside. Thanks to a fiberglass body it weighs just 1,210 lbs.

It’s low and smooth for improved aerodynamics. The original pop-up headlights were traded for fixed lights with smooth covers. The car was capable of a top speed of 125 mph, despite the flyweight engine under the hood.

skoda-1100-ohc-anniversary-22

That 1,089 cc four-cylinder engine had dual overhead cams and put out 92 hp at a screaming 7,700 rpm. It could rev all the way to 8,500. But to generate that power from that displacement in 1957, aviation fuel was required.

The 1100 OHC won the first race it entered, in June of 1958. Politics of the time meant that the car was only raced in socialist countries, but it found successes there.

Skoda built just two of the 1100 OHC roadsters, both in 1957. The automaker assembled two coupes in 1959, wearing aluminum bodies. Both of the coupes were damaged in road accidents, but both of the roadsters remain in company hands. One residing with Skoda UK, and the other lives at the brand’s HQ in Mladá Boleslav. Unless they’re doing what they were built for – Skoda takes these to vintage races around the world.

The post Tiny Vintage Skoda Racer is Adorable appeared first on VWVortex.



from VWVortex http://ift.tt/2zVMQPm
via IFTTT
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Watch: The Stig Drives (nearly) Seven Generations of Golf GTI

With Volkswagen announcing “major” updates to the Golf, it seems an appropriate time to look back on what we’ve had so far. And who better to guide us through the rich history of the most popular European car ever made than Ben Collins, the former Stig? Some say he’s never met a GTI he doesn’t love, and that he can’t grow any of his own facial hair. All we know is … Ben Collins is actually a pretty solid presenter. Working his way through seven generations of the GTI (skipping over the Mk6) Collins tells us a little bit about each one and matches each mark to its corresponding facial hair craze. The Mk1 GTI for instance, is light and quick, but can lose traction under hard acceleration (in heavy rain). Despite that, Collins calls the Mk1 a “pure gem.” The Mk4, meanwhile, is a powerful return to form after the perhaps too sensible Mk3. Collins ends in the only way he could, with the Mk7, which accelerates faster than a Lamborghini Countach and is all kinds of wonderful. Watch, ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Watch: The Story of the Ads that Made VW Big in America

The ads for the original Beetle are almost as famous and well-loved as the Beetle itself. Looking back now it’s easy to forget, though, just how easily things could have wrong. A new short from Dial M Films tracks the history of those early Volkswagen ads that sold America on the people’s car. The story, of course, begins with the visionary agency that made the ads: Doyle Dane Bernach (DDB). As a popular agency for Jewish products, no agency was more aware of the implications of Volkswagen, and no one, it seems, was more skeptical of the brand than DDB. “Remember Those Great Volkswagen Ads?” from Dial M Films on Vimeo . William Bernbach, though, was adament that the firm take the client, probably as a way of attracting other lucrative automotive clients. Saddled with a client that he didn’t want, art director Helmut Krone says in the film that he originally came up with ads that were all wrong. Krone tried to do what other manufacturers did and was intent on selling the Beetle ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Watch: The Zerouno Cruis’n USA

ItalDesign is drumming up excitement for its new supercar based around the same 5.2-liter Audi V10 that powers the R8. Naturally, it hit the road for a cruise around California last week to celebrate Monterey Car Week. There isn’t much in the way of V10 noise—which is a real shame given the sound it makes—but you do at least get a good look at the car inside and out in this video. With a body made entirely of carbon fiber and designed to be as aerodynamic and light as possible, ItalDesign figures that it will be good for a 0-60 time of just 3.2 seconds. “We put it our best skills into the production of the first car,” said Massimo Bovi, head of pre-series production, when the Zerouno was first unveiled in Geneva earlier this year. “Using some of the finest productions methods and engaging our high-skilled workers.” The car features clever aero tricks gleaned from single-seat racing, like a y-duct up front to improve downforce and turn-in. Available in a number of trim levels, the...
Post a Comment
Read more