A rare Czech thoroughbred: the Skoda 1100 OHC, built in 1958...  

Every enthusiast with some knowledge about autosport history knows that Skoda had been quite active on the sports car scene in the early fifties, and that they had even entered their sports two seaters based on the Tudor series production chassis in the legendary Le Mans race.

The beautiful front end of the 1100 two seater, weighing a mere 550 kg...  

Dwelling on the subject, it is worth mentioning here that in the 1949 Le Mans race, the Aero Minor won its category, and in the 1950 edition, the unsupercharged Skoda Sport was leading its class with an average speed of some 126 kph, and according to the coefficient used at the time, were in first place overall until a spring clip on the piston pin broke 13 hours into the race. A generation of Supersport cars followed, but this is not the focus of this article.

The 1100 cc four cilinder had double overhead cams and a cross flow cilinder head...

We would rather like to draw your attention here to a truly beautiful two-seater, which the factory built in 1957. The car had a 1.089 cc DOHC engine, which produced 92 HP and was based on the engine built  for the 440 series model. But any similarity with the series production Skoda Spartak ends here. The design sported a whole range of progressive solutions, showing the know-how Skoda had acquired in   building thoroughbreds. The car had a tubular space frame, a five-speed gearbox and a final drive in one housing at the rear, inboard rear brakes.

The car was very aerodynamic and light (a mere 550 kg) and therefore the 200 kph top speed comes as no surprise.

At first, two open cars were produced, followed by two coupés. The problem was that the cars were actually a class by themselves and had no one to race against, as for obvious political and economical reasons, they did not enter any classic European races. In their only foreign race, in… Leningrad, they drove into first and second place, but this is of course a far cry from entering at Le Mans, of which the factory had dreamed of first…

But we can dream on by just looking at this beautiful thoroughbred Skoda, doing the marque proud already some 50 years ago…

Hans Knol ten Bensel

Admire the timeless beauty of the cockpit of the small two seater...

And just look at the magnificent and modern angular shape of the perspex headlight protection...