The Skoda Fabia R 5 will be the new competitive weapon of the Skoda brand . The successor to the Fabia Super 2000 should appear on the scene in the course of 2015. The successful Skoda Fabia Super 2000 sports project will thus have its successor.
In 2014, work on the development of the Skoda Fabia R 5 competition special will begin in Mladá Boleslav. The new car will appear on the scene during 2015. This year Skoda Motorsport has had one of the most successful seasons in its 112-year history . The highlight was winning three continental championships and six national triumphs.
In the 2014 competition program, Skoda will continue with the existing and proven Fabia Super 2000 car . Skoda fans have something to look forward to again. "The current Fabia Super 2000 is a confirmation of our technical capabilities, which is proven by a number of international successes. It will be a big challenge to build on them in the future. Therefore, with great effort, we will start working on the development of a new competition special based on the Skoda Fabia car for the R 5 category," says Dr. Frank Welsch , Skoda Auto board member responsible for technical development.
Michal Hrabánek , head of Skoda Motorsport, adds: "According to FIA regulations, the new R 5 category rally special will be equipped with a 1.6 turbo engine, which will be a significant change compared to the current naturally aspirated 'two-litre'. The R 5 category is the continuation of the existing Super 2000 and will allow us to build on our successful involvement in regional championships and in the customer program. Entering the R 5 category is thus a logical step for the Skoda brand. At the moment, we expect the car to be homologated by mid-2015."
Skoda will be on the competition stage next year as well, with proven technology – the Skoda Fabia Super 2000 . "We are planning to start again in the Asia-Pacific Championship (APRC) and we also want to introduce ourselves in selected competitions of the European Championship (ERC). Our factory pilots will switch roles for next year, while Jan Kopecký and Pavel Dresler will start in APRC, Esapekka Lappi and Jann Ferm in ERC. On the European stage, they will be joined by the German duo Sepp Wiegand/Frank Christian from the Skoda Auto Deutschland team, who will have our factory car at their disposal," concludes Hrabánek .
The Skoda Fabia Super 2000 project is one of the most successful in the brand's 112-year motorsport history. He saw the light of day in 2007 at the Geneva Motor Show , where his design study was presented. The Fabia Super 2000 experienced its first sharp start at the famous Monte Carlo Rally 2009 . Already a year later, the Skoda Fabia Super 2000 celebrated its first major international success – an overall triumph in the IRC (Intercontinental Rally Challenge) series, both in terms of brands and drivers (winner Juho Hänninen ).
Skoda was able to repeat this result twice more in the following years in 2011 and 2012 (winner Andreas Mikkelsen) and became the most successful brand in IRC history with 27 victories . In 2011 the Hänninen/Markkula factory crew won the SWRC World Championship and in 2012 the European Championship series.
The year 2012 also marked the first contact with the APRC Asia-Pacific Championship , where Skoda won thanks to the private MRF team in the evaluation of brands and drivers (Chris Atkinson) and the successful APRC campaign continued this year with full factory support – the winner was Gaurav Gill with Glenn by Macneal . The Skoda Motorsport factory crew of the Esapekka Lappi/Janne Ferm team contributed to the brand's overall triumph in this year's APRC with three victories.
The season of his life was crowned with a sovereign victory in the ERC by factory pilot Jan Kopecký , who, together with Pavel Dresler, dominated six races out of eight starts and stood on the podium in the other two.
Gustavo Saba (Paraguay) celebrated another continental driving title with a Fabia S2000 in the South American CODASUR championship . In addition, Umberto Scandola in Italy , Raimund Baumschlager in Austria, Dimitar Iliev in Bulgaria, Ricardo Moura in Portugal, Marouf Abu Samra in Jordan as well as Gustavo Saba in Paraguay became national champions with a Skoda Fabia Super 2000.
Source: Skoda Auto
