This Fabia Rally2 Evo marks 120 years of racing Skodas

The pubs may be opening soon, and with them the return of pub quizzes. Y’know, the ones that aren’t beamed from your annoyingly clever friends’ living rooms. Time to arm yourself with some extremely niche knowledge, then.

Like the fact Skoda has now been competing in motorsport for 120 years. Skoda hasn’t even been making cars for 120 years; its racing career started with bikes, progressing eventually to four wheels, chiefly in rallying with a sole appearance at the Le Mans 24 Hours.

Here’s the car to mark the occasion: the Skoda Fabia Rally2 evo Edition 120. Long name, squat little rally car. It’s effectively the latest iteration of the punchy Fabia R5 in a 12-off special edition trim to celebrate Skoda’s century-and-a-bit in competition.

It gets all the 2021 upgrades the regular Fabia Rally2 has enjoyed, with new damping, power upped to 286bhp and a smart device to cool the rear brakes if you’ve gone for gravel spec. Extras for the Edition 120 include new green magnesium wheels as well as a ticking of all the major options boxes: additional storage solutions, tookits and a pair of camel bags so the driver and co-driver can stay hydrated. You also get a certificate of authenticity and a 1:18 scale model of the car, not to mention – in the words of Mr West – all of the lights.

Yep, that lamp pod packed with LEDs is thrown in, as are those cornering LEDs on each, um, corner of the front bumper. It’s as gnarly looking as you’d hope for a pumped-up little rally car…