Skoda 1000MB

Well-engineered rear-engined people’s car from Bohemia

The 1000MB was an exceptionally welldeveloped people’s car. It was pretty, practical, efficient to produce, well-engineered and extremely robust. It and its rear-engined successors became the default choice in their Czechoslovakian homeland for a quarter of a century. They also earned hard currency by satisfying a wide customer-base outside the communist bloc.

Škoda had a long and distinguished automotive heritage. Founded in 1859, it was making the likes of Hispano-suiza cars under licence when it took over carmaker Laurin and Klement in 1925. L&K had produced cars from 1905 and quickly established a reputation for quality and competition success.

The 1000MB was built in a new 80-acre complex in Mladá Boleslav, 30 miles from the Czech capital, Prague. Its was impressive in its scale and sophistication, with its own smelting plant, eight miles of new roads and over 40 production halls and ancillary buildings.

Autocar magazine reported at the car’s launch: ‘The factory and tooling represent £50m in our terms, more than any comparable European project of recent times.’