Skoda has a surprisingly rich back catalogue of cars, though what was once popular on the other side of the iron curtain might not pass muster with the company’s current high quality output.
But what if you mashed up some of the icons of yesteryear with Skoda’s current design language? That was the challenge put to Skoda designer Martin Paclt with a reimagining of the 1969 Skoda 100.
The original 100 was built from 1969 to 1977, with well over a million of them rolling off production lines of the Skoda factory in Mladá Boleslav, 30 miles northeast of Prague. The Czech carmaker’s first big seller looks surprisingly good for a car of its age and provenance, but the modernised concept version penned by Paclt looks even better.
“I wanted to work with a car that people know well – and that many once owned themselves. The Skoda 100 appealed to me with its clean, timeless lines, which resonate strongly with the current Modern Solid design direction,” said Paclt on his inspiration for the car.
The Skoda designer of more than 10 years has contributed to much of the company’s current range of SUVs, but the updated 100 has been recreated as a sleek four door saloon that would certainly sit nicely as an electric limo somewhere between the Octavia and Superb models.
Paclt said that he wanted to keep a realism to the concept while maintaining the links to the original, so the absence of a back window has been used to good effect to provide cooling for the rear mounted electric motor. The front end looks vaguely comparable to Skoda's latest cars, but the back end is slightly racier than the company has been used to.
Storage is the opposite way round on the concept car compared with standard electric vehicles too, with a substantial frunk offering the bulk of stowage space underneath the bonnet, which is complemented by a smaller rear compartment on top of the motor.
Skoda says that this is just a bit of fun rather than anything that’s going to make production, but we’ll take ours with the 286hp motor from the Enyaq and its 77kWh battery and be getting along, if that’s alright...
Skoda designer Martin Paclt stands next to Skoda's first million selling car, the 100 
