Doff your cap to the Skoda 130 RS

This ladies and gents, is the magnificent and mighty Skoda 130 RS. A Skoda from the late seventies (yeah, that time period where an utterance of the S-word would leave family members spitting their tea out with hilarity and embarrassment) but demands more respect than you’d imagine. 

So pull up a chair and let’s start, shall we?

You’re right, it does. Like a rear-engined doe-eyed slug. But that’s half the charm. See, the 130 RS is actually an incredibly successful car over multiple disciplines and was the Czech Republic’s answer to the Porsche 911. A small, slightly shonkier 911, admittedly. But worthy of the title ‘The Porsche of the East’ due to its unique layout and the fact it was one of the world's most successful racing cars in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

You got it. The layout of driving purity… according to Porsche fans. 

But unlike 911s, the 130 RS was powered by a 1.3-litre four-cylinder petrol with OHV valve control. All this oomphy tech created a rip-snorting 140 horsepower, good enough to slither the aerodynamic shape to 136mph. 

Now go on Youtube and listen to one. That’s the angry, raspy sound of two Weber twin carburettors, an eight-channel cylinder head, dry sumpage, plus a cylinder and crankcase made of aluminium. How sporty. It was all connected to a four-speed manual transmission. Initially, there was also a five-speed but that was ditched due to rule changes in 1976. 

Well, being a fan of both the circuit and rally stages, it was a bit of a polymath. And bloody good at anything it put it tyres to. In its first season racing on tarmac in the cutesy-named Czechoslovak Peace and Friendship Cup, a 130 RS took first, second and third place in the overall rankings.

Doesn’t it just? This is one of the later ETCC cars. Where in the 1981 European Touring Car Championship, a 130 RS won the overall championship against more powerful cars. That's after coming third in the European Championship a year earlier. However, the champagne stopped flowing in 1983 when the homologation plug – which had already been extended by the FIA – was finally pulled.

Not just a winner on slicks, many 130 RS’s put on chunky tyres and took to rally stages too – causing quite the stir on the national and international rally scene in the process. The car took its first Czech victories in the debut season of 1976, but Skoda's defining moment came at the 1977 Monte Carlo rally.

The works team had prepared themselves meticulously for the Col du Turini – running the cars up to 500 kilometres a day per car beforehand for training. On 22nd January 1977, there were 198 starters; only 45 cars crossed the finish line on 28th January. 

Václav Blahna won the category for cars up to 1,300cc with Lubislav Hlávka in a 130 RS, followed by Milan Zapadlo and Jiří Motal in another one. In the overall rankings, the 130 RS claimed 12th and 15th place against the considerably bigger and stronger competition. The third ŠKODA team, Svatopluk Kvaizar / Jiří Kotek, had to retire due to a technical problem.

But that wasn’t the end, as there was yet another victory in 1978 in the Rally Sweden. While, in 1980, the 130 RS dominated the Barum Rally, taking positions one to five.

Greatness, my friend. Greatness. It’s the 130 RS A5 Type 738, to be precise. And if the 130 RS was Skoda’s answer to the Porsche, this is its answer to the legendary ‘Moby Dick’ 935.

It was used in 1978 for various tests to try and understand the then dark art of aerodynamics. This wideboy and winged 130 RS was pounded up and down Hoškovice airport in the Czech Republic to improve handling at high speeds and work out how the hell air going over a fast-moving car works. 

How fast did this slipperier-shaped 130 RS with a 190 hp four-cylinder with air hogging intlets go? 155mph. Not exactly Chiron quick, but still commendable for the time. And it looks like a cut-price 935 which is worth another 100mph in our book.

So there you have it, the ‘Porsche of the East'. One of the most underrated race cars of all time. Consider our hat doffed.