One may smile about the designation 'Porsche of the East', but so terribly unjustified it was not. This car had important technical particularities that would by no means be expected of it. Thus, the rear suspension was not even to find from the technical level at a Mercedes in 1975, thus quite like Porsche.

Sure, an engine with bottom-mounted camshaft, of course, was for tuning somewhat unfavourable because then the valve springs must be just a little harder and the cams has to bear it anyway. But the engineers of Škoda did a brilliant job. Enduring 8000 rpm were almost world record for an OHV engine. And more than 100 hp/litre were truly remarkable for the time.

Of course, one did not brake quite as good with rear drum brakes, but apparently one had the car improved significantly in all the right places, otherwise he would not have been so enormously successful. After all, there achieved at least two cars the class victory in the Monte Carlo Rally 1977 and it became European Touring Car Champion in 1981.

But that was only the visible peak of the iceberg. Besides there were still countless motorsport successes. This included, for example, a third place a year before winning the European Championship. And the first five places in the Barum Rally 1980. After all, it was more difficult to continue the successful racing tradition of Škoda in 'actually existing socialism', than it would have been in the West for instance. 11/15