Monday 11 December 2017

Czech it out! The 1988 Škoda Favorit 136L...

..simultaneously continuing on from yesterday's '89 Skoda 120 post and squeezing every ounce of mileage out of a tired pun..

It's another from the Gosford Classic Car Museum the other week; another pedestrian Czechoslovakian commuter that was never expected to end up in a multi-million-dollar car collection on the other side of the world...

..a 1988 Skoda Favorit 136L.

The FAVORIT 136 is a 5 door hatchback, developed and produced by Skoda, styled by Bertone of Italy with engineering assistance by Porsche. 
The bodyshell is of monocoque construction with crumple zones front and rear and incorporate bolt on front wings. 
The bodywork is protected from corrosion by the same proven process as used on the Current range, i.e., first the shell is cleaned and then dipped in a phosphate bath and electrophoretically coated - a plastisol sealant is then applied to the underside of the body. The whole shell is then painted with primer and top coat. 

Thanks Skoda (Great Britian) Limited late-80s marketing department! Oddly detailed there..

A solid step into the mainstream for Skoda in 1987; a modern Bertone-designed hatchback body wrapped around a front-engined, front-driving chassis.
The 1289cc four appears to have carried across from the existing '84- 130 models - essentially an enlarged version of the 1174cc in yesterday's 120L - with the Favorit's 9.7:1 comp 46kw/62hp version seeming to come more specifically from the 1987 Skoda 136L.
These 62 horses propelled ~840kg/1850lb of Favorit through your choice of either a 5speed manual or 5speed manual. Yep. That'll do - no complaints here!

Racey.

What look to be the same dainty 165-clad 13" steel wheels; now with plain silver caps and what are clearly wheel-bolts.

..from the design house that brought you the Lamborghini Muira and Lancia Stratos...

Ah, the classic huge-radius aftermarket sunroof look.

The 120's stylish little handles make a reappearance...

..finally combined with more thoughtful attention to detail.

Good design works in any price bracket.

The FAVORIT 136L. Done.

While the conformist move to front-engine, front-drive, is both technically and dynamically a little dull for the enthusiast; the advantages for actual buyers are obvious. I can forgive.
Looking past the overwhelming single-stage-beige'ery, this is actually a fairly stylish little jigger..







2 comments:

  1. heh, i knew favorit is going to be next :D favorit is a great car, big fanbase, but also you can see them in traffic sometimes, they are pretty popular for theyr simplicity and easy and cheap repairs...theyr biggest downside is, they rust...alot...

    i personally like favorits alot, we had 2 when i was a kid, it was my first car after driving licence, and since then i had circa 8 of them hahaha

    currently i have one aswell, as a second car, it replaced the 120 i had i mentioned under the last post. my one is 136L aswell, same color too haha. in my case i keeping it rather stock with few decent, revertable mods, with slight inspiration in japanese shakotans. for example, i have a set of SSR formula meshes in preparation for it, haha

    btw, the steel wheels arent the same as on 120, favorit have a boxyer holes, but the main difference is the pcd, 120 have a pcd130, while prefacelift favorit like this have pcd98.the latest ones after second facelift had more usual pcd100 :D

    anyway, great post:D are you going to write about some more of these eastern cars? the perspective of someone who isnt too familiar with these cars is pretty enjoyable :D i can see lots of for me familiar cars around, i think the most interesting one from them is that grey oltcit with CZ mark on the trunk...i wouldnt ever think someone would buy an oltcit, wich have rather horrible reputation in cz, and import it across the world hahaha

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Unfortunately I couldn't get enough clear shots of the Oltcit (and many of the others there) due to how it was parked; I'd have loved to though. Almost everything you can see in the background of the shots above is ridiculously uncommon to find in Australia. My best bet would be if they remodel the exhibit at some point, or get them out and about.. in which case I'd love to have a good look over them!
      Cheers.

      Delete