Classic shrine: Škoda Muzeum

By Will Rimell

| 14 Nov 2024

Classic & Sports Car – Classic shrine: Škoda Muzeum

If you find yourself at a loose end in Prague, head 40 miles north-east on the E65 to the small city of Mladá Boleslav.

With a population of just 45,000, you’ll be forgiven for not realising that this is actually the country’s automotive hub.

In short, this is Škoda’s city.

Nestling among the huge factory, head office and themed restaurants (yes, really, but not in a tacky way), there lies a treat: the Škoda Muzeum.

The Škoda Muzeum’s understated frontage belies both the extent and the quality of the collection of classic machinery that lies within

It sits just two buildings down from the towering main works, but is easy to miss with its inconspicuous greyness.

Luckily, the chunky Škoda signage and beautiful glass entrance draw you closer.

It’s a good thing they do, because for lovers of the Czech car maker, this place is the Holy Grail.

The museum is a collection of some 340 vehicles, from the pre-Škoda early days of Laurin & Klement right up to today’s EVs. That’s 124 years of history.

Laurin & Klement Voiturette A in the Škoda Muzeum

The building itself is also special: it’s the firm’s former factory, which built vehicles up until 1928.

And you can feel that history as you walk around, with much of the original architecture, and floor rails for moving heavier machinery, still in place despite an extensive reconstruction in 2012 to make it more fit for its current purpose.

Now, upwards of 275,000 people visit each year.

As soon as you step inside you’re drawn to the huge amount of cars on show.

Škoda is rightfully proud of its motoring heritage (left); 1929 6R shows the development of Škoda/Laurin & Klement bodies

In the entrance hall sits a special exhibit featuring a dozen cars that are not normally on display; during our visit it was ‘Škoda milestones’, including a 154 fire engine and the 2003 Fabia WRC car.

Tales are told through other media within this exhibit.

Cabinets filled with pictures and relics create an intriguing, snaking pathway of history.

Inside, original snaps and artefacts detail Škoda’s famous month-long, 10,000km trek across Africa in 1933, during which the firm set out to show the reliability of its 1.8-litre 633 in the most severe of climates.

Works 2024 Škoda Fabia rally car contrasts with its Favorit ancestor

This, along with the Stanislav and Marie Škulin husband-and-wife team’s 1.4-litre Rapid trek in 1936, is credited with establishing Škoda as the largest Czech car manufacturer and exporter of the time.

It’s a position the marque still retains.

The airy entrance hall then entices you right, guiding visitors through an archway and into the main hall.

You’re surrounded by more metal, but the first exhibit you encounter is not one you might expect: a huge, floor-to-ceiling generator that looks like something out of the industrial age.

The Laurin & Klement/Škoda 110 was introduced in 1925

One of few left in existence, this once powered the plant that stood on the site.

It towers over an 1895 Laurin & Klement Slavia bicycle and a 1903 Type 1 motorcycle – more like a modified bicycle, by modern standards – which really does touch on the company’s humble beginnings as a maker of all things two-wheeled.

Its first ‘proper’ four-wheeled machine, the historic 1905 Voiturette A, sits close by, as do the beautifully sculpted 1911 Laurin & Klement S and 1921 RRK-M.

As you walk up the vast hall, later models appear, built following the brand’s 1925 Škoda Works takeover.

Exhibits are stacked up to four storeys high throughout the museum (left); Škoda 1000 MB Rally

You’re flanked by the glorious 1934 Popular (in drop-top guise, complete with canvas roof) and the famous 1964 1000 MB.

The latter was Škoda’s first mass-produced car, and one that could easily be billed as the Czech Ford Anglia.

Fun fact: due to its rear-engined configuration it has a ‘frunk’ and a spare wheel hidden behind the drop-down grille.

Keep moving forward and you’re hit by the bold and off-centre-badged 1987 Škoda Favorit – the brand’s final independent car before the merger with Volkswagen in 1991 – and its 1994 Felicia successor, which really does scream ‘Mk3 Polo’, especially if you look at its interior.

More classic Škoda gems are hidden in the Depository

The modern Rapid, Superb and Vision RS concept complete the floor display.

But there’s much more. Look to the left and you’re greeted by a wall of cars.

It usually follows a theme, and for our visit – much to our barely concealed delight – it was the history of Škoda estates, with the saga of the racing coupés celebrated further up the four-tiered structure. Joyous.

All the cars on display are in wonderful condition, especially considering some are pushing on towards a century since their creation.

This 1950 966 Supersport was restored at the Škoda Muzeum

But it is not only about the visual presentation: for the most part, these cars are in running order, too.

This is thanks to a dedicated team of five, led by Michal Velebný, the Škoda Depository’s honcho.

“You could say that it runs in the family,” Michal smiles, while standing in front of his grandfather’s signature, which adorns one of the walls at the museum.

The Czech native has been working at the company since 1990 and took on his current role a decade ago – and for a special reason.

Škoda’s rich rallying heritage is well represented

“My grandfather, father and uncle, they built the history,” he tells us proudly. “I’m now maintaining it.”

Note the ‘depository’ label, distinct from ‘museum’: those in the know realise that means there’s more to be discovered.

Sitting above the museum, and requiring not only a special key but also a guide to enter, the Prototypes and Sports Cars Depository is one of the most sought-after attractions at the Mladá Boleslav site.

It is a space filled with some of Škoda’s most important one-offs and treasured cars, and is one of many rooms that make up the collection of unique, classic and rare gems gathered by the Czech manufacturer.

A 110-based Škoda Buggy

There are almost 250 vehicles housed within the museum stores (not including the cars on show in the main building), either polished up and on display like those we see here, or placed for public viewing whenever they can be fitted into the nooks and crannies of the old museum and its outbuildings.

So large is the collection that 80 further cars are stored off-site.

Within this cosy space there’s just a single aisle, flanking visitors with some of the brand’s most unusual creations, from concept-only cars such as the Joyster hatchback to the first designs for the Roomster MPV and Yeti SUV.

Škoda Roomster concept car shows its innovative design (left); Ferat Vampire was claimed to run on human blood

A real one-off appears in the form of a silver-screen D-lister: the Ferat Vampire-mobile.

A prototype of the never-released 110 Super Sport adapted for 1982 Czech horror flick Upír z Feratu (Ferat Vampire), it apparently runs on human blood and its party trick is that the whole passenger canopy – complete with the instrument binnacle – lifts up for entry.

Among the motorsport classics on display are the successful Octavia and Fabia WRC cars, the Porsche-like 130 RS A5 and sleek Škoda MTX 1-01 single-seater formula car.

The Škoda 130 RS A5 racer uses a 183bhp, 1.6-litre, four-cylinder engine

But even these aren’t the real highlights.

Some of the collection’s most intriguing additions – many of them undergoing restoration – are housed in a large but very secluded room hidden in the underbelly of this treasure-filled museum.

The space is packed with scattered metal, but these workshops aren’t open to the public – and only a few staff enter.

Inside, your eyes are first drawn to a partially restored 1960s Formula Three car and a chrome-clad Popular Monte-Carlo.

The 1958 Škoda 1100 Coupé racer has been rebuilt from a fire-damaged wreck and is the only remaining roadgoing example

Yet it’s the gloriously sporty-looking red machine at the end of the room we rush to first.

One of two 1958 1100 Coupés, this one boasts a 91bhp overhead-cam engine.

“This car we restored from a burnt chassis,” Michal explains. “The driver climbed out of the back window after it crashed and burst into flames.”

This once-feared 555kg sports car is so beautifully styled it could easily wear the badge of one of Italy’s finest.

Škoda 422 Cabriolet (left) and others undergoing restoration in the collection’s always-busy workshop

It was previously owned by Hanuš Hrabánek, father of current director of Škoda Motorsport Michal Hrabánek, and is the only example remaining in roadworthy form.

“It’s a special car,” Michal enthuses.

Elsewhere sits a 1928 Škoda Hispano-Suiza 25/100 KS.

Limited to just 100 units, it is fitted with a 6.6-litre, aircraft-derived six-cylinder engine and weighs in at around two tonnes.

This 1928 Škoda Hispano-Suiza 25/100 KS has been painstakingly restored to original condition

The imposing-looking machine is one of just a handful of survivors.

“It didn’t always look like this,” Michal explains, pointing at the deep-blue paint, glistening chrome and near-perfect trim.

Before the museum acquired the car it was restored by the previous owner, who used a photo of another for reference.

“Everything was wrong,” laughs Michal.

Today, following its demanding, multi-year rebuild by the museum, it has been returned to its former glory.

The glorious machine will soon join its relatives in the exhibition halls, adding further to the Škoda Muzeum’s vivid retelling of the marque’s story.

If you’re ever in the Czech Republic, be sure to pay it a visit.

Images: John Bradshaw

The knowledge

Name Škoda Muzeum
Address Mladá Boleslav, Czech Republic
Where? Just off the Václava Klementa main strip. If you see the main Škoda factory, you’ve gone too far!
How much? 100 Czech Koruna (£3.55); reduced fee for the elderly, students and children 50 Czech Koruna (£1.77)
Opening hours 9am-5pm all year, except 9am-2pm 31 Dec; closed 24-26 Dec, and 1 Jan
Tel 00420 326 832 038
Web museum.skoda-auto.com