YOUR LETTERS
The Škoda Favorit being used to raise money for charity (CCW, 24 January) attracted my interest and admiration.
I would like to share a few comments about this last Škoda designed during the communist era in Czechoslovakia. As with many Czechoslovakian successes the Favorit was successful despite communism. The story started in 1979 when the Soviets proposed to build a ‘standard small family car’ in all of their satellite states. The car proposed was the Zaporozhets ZAZ 968M, which was inferior even to the Škoda 120 (aka Estelle) that it was meant to replace.
While the Czechoslovakian leading communists were enthusiastic, the designers and engineers from the automotive industry opposed the proposal, risking their jobs. They rightly argued that the ZAZ 968M would be unsaleable in Europe and that Czechoslovakia would be deprived of desperately needed hard currency. High-ranking comrades accepted this after lengthy negotiations and the state-owned Škoda company was taken out of the project.
The Škoda design team was asked to design an indigenous small family car and build the prototypes within two and a half years. Production was to start within five years; this deadline was almost impossible to meet but the designers, engineers and workers were determined to make a gesture of defiance to the communist party by producing a successful design.
The communist party even agreed to Giorgetto Giugiaro designing the bodywork but the Czechoslovakian industry was unable to deliver various components. The design had to be simplified, but even so the Favorit represented a quantum leap over the 120 and was a serious competitor to its European counterparts.
Despite limited availability of quality materials and components, the Favorit was successful although it was more of a supermini than a small family car. Production started in summer 1987 and was initially very slow. However production figures increased steadily during 1988 and 1989. By the fall of communism in Czechoslovakia total production exceeded 21,000. This was still a fraction of the 783,167 Favorits built until autumn 1994 when production switched to the Felicia.
The Favorit is still common in my old country and becoming a modern classic. It is pro
