CarBrandLogos archive · Škoda · 1964

Škoda1000 MB

A new factory, a die-cast aluminium engine block and the rear-engine era begins.

The story

A defining chapter in Škoda history.

Explore the ideas, engineering and context that shaped the Škoda 1000 MB, then continue into its specifications and place in the marque's lineage.

Origins

The 1000 MB was the largest single investment Czechoslovakia's car industry made in the postwar period. The letters stand for Mladá Boleslav, where an entirely new plant was built to produce it, and the car itself broke with everything Škoda had done before: monocoque construction in place of the old backbone chassis, and a water-cooled four-cylinder engine hung out behind the rear axle.

Skoda 1000MB front · Ludek · CC BY-SA 3.0

Design and engineering

That rear-engine layout was fashionable in 1964 — Renault, Fiat, NSU and Volkswagen were all committed to it — and it gave the Škoda a flat floor, light steering and good traction in snow, at the cost of the handling balance that would later drive the industry to front-wheel drive. The engine was notable in its own right: the block was pressure die-cast in aluminium, an advanced production method for a state-owned factory in the mid-1960s.

Škoda 1000MB, Jihlava 1992 · sludgeulper · CC BY-SA 2.0

In production

It was a genuinely competitive small family car when new, exported across Europe including to Britain, where its price and its five-seat cabin made a reasonable case. A 1.1-litre version followed, and the two-door MBX coupe added a pillarless body.

Skoda1000MBXde Luxe · Alofok · CC BY-SA 3.0

Legacy

Some 443,141 were built before production ended in 1969, and the layout carried on through the 100/110, the pretty 110R coupe, the 105/120 and finally the Rapid, which meant Škoda was still selling rear-engined saloons in the late 1980s when the rest of Europe had long since abandoned them. That is what made the front-wheel-drive Favorit such a break.

At a glance