Actually Skoda is to blame for this illegitimate child. i.e. not today's Skoda Auto, but AZNP Mladá Boleslav overrun by communist cadres. The short-sightedness of the people responsible remains incomprehensible even today. Yes, at the turn of the 70s and 80s, the amazing Skoda 130 RS ran rampant on the rally tracks, but it must have been clear to everyone that its homologation would one day expire. And when that actually happened after several extensions in 1983, they had nothing to fill the empty place in Boleslav. Although a 738 prototype (externally referred to as the 130 RS A5) was created to replace the 130 RS circuit cars, it was still just an improved original special with an engine from a much older 180 RS . He started only once in Most , where he did not do badly. The second prototype 739 , with an aerodynamically shaped nose, was also based on the 130 RS and was intended to race on rally tracks. But it never started in any competition and today it is displayed in the museum of the car company. The Skoda 120 L production car built according to class A5 regulations received homologation. Riders used to the previous special suddenly had to deal with a lack of power and poor balance. However, the automaker refused to produce another model, and the proposal to develop a new engine was also rejected. I dare not estimate how much the factory management was responsible for this and how much the central planning of politicians.
Prague's Metalex offered a solution. In his workshops, they reached for an attractive Garde coupe, under the rear hood of which they mounted a 1.6 engine from the Russian Lady 2106 in Prague. Today, you might not think of sharing engines in this way, but at the time it was possible to present this act as Czechoslovak-Soviet friendship . Although the installation of a more powerful 16-litre engine probably did not stem from the designers' political awareness, but rather from a pure need in the supply of suitable aggregates, it can certainly be assumed that some conscious politician would seize this propaganda opportunity. However, the hope of a competitive car for Group B dawned on the Czech competitors. Only in Mladá Boleslav they were not happy about it, so they called the car a bastard , which nickname persists to this day.
On the other hand, the socialist capitalist František Čuba , head of the famous JZD Slušovice , liked the car very much. The latter could not forgive Skoda for the fact that " they won't sell factory specification competition cars to his riders ", so on the contrary he tried to defeat the factory team. At Metalex, the Slúsovíč people ordered three cars, which were soon built. Two with Lada 1.6 engines and one with a 1.3 Turbo engine from the 130 RS prototype. The only thing that calmed Skoda was that for homologation a series of 200 cars had to be produced within twelve consecutive months. And that was no longer within Metalex 's power. But the Bratislava Automobile Works BAZ , where the Garde coupe was assembled, could lend a helping hand. And yes, everything has already been agreed and negotiated. However, Skoda definitely did not want to let potential competition get to them and stopped production of the Garde coupe in Bratislava. JZD Slušovice tried to reverse this decision, but was unsuccessful.
Nevertheless, the car could appear at least at Czech competitions. We could probably associate it most with the name of the pilot Václav Blahna . The first start was the Wallachian Winter Rally 1984 , where Blahna led with a huge lead over Nor Haugland with a Skoda 120 L. Křeček and Kvaizar also drove with 130 LR prototypes outside the competition, but even they had no chance to reduce Blahna's lead. However, the great pressure did not stop Blahn and he lost his big lead in the snow. The car then started several more times, the pilot Kašpárek also appeared behind the wheel. Due to the rejected homologation, there was no point in continuing the development, moreover, the new 130 LR special appeared to be a good competition car, even if it was weaker than the MTX 160 RS coupe.
Photo: EWRC (Jiří Fryje), iFaster, Auta5p, Autokaleidoscope
