As out of a TV movie, this Skoda 110 concept is the heroine of the Czech film, Upir Z Feratu, mixing horror and science fiction!
First produced in 1972 as a Rally prototype, it first appeared in cinema in 1977 in its original livery, a second in 81 as Ferat, and a third time in 1986: Czech cinema will have abused this car with a futuristic look for the time.
It all started in 1969 with the launch of the 724 program: it was about giving Czechoslovakia a competitive and modern rally car. Rear engine, rear-wheel drive, lightness thanks to the use of a fiberglass body, it will above all offer Czech enthusiasts an unprecedented look on this side of the Iron Curtain. Streamlined, elongated, pointed, it has the particularity of having an accessible interior only by lifting the entire "cockpit", including the windshield.
The prototype 724 called Skoda 110 Super Sport was ready in 1971. For the first runs, it was fitted with a Skoda 1100 engine, 1147 cm3 and 73 hp, but quickly it recovered the engine of the rally version of the Skoda 120 S Rallye pushed to 104 horsepower. It doesn't seem like much, but the car weighs only 898 kg. It will be presented at the 1972 Brussels Motor Show, where it will cause more enthusiasm than in its own country: the car's taut lines seem prohibitive for the Czechs. Not to mention its row of futuristic retractable headlights, and its swarm of round lights at the rear, which destabilize a clientele more accustomed to classic shapes.
In fact, Skoda engineers will not go down the path opened by the 110 Super Sport in the end. They will eventually move towards more classic choices (especially in terms of style) which will give birth to the 130 RS, a car that will damn many Western cars in the early 80s. The 727 will quickly join the reserves of the Czech firm. She will show the tip of her nose again in a first Czech film, Zitra vstanu a oparim se cajem.
But it is in 1981 that she will know fame as the main role in a film that would qualify as Series Z in Western Europe, but which will experience its small success in Bohemia or Moravia, Upir z Feratu, literally, "Ferat's Vampire". Don't laugh right away, wait until you see the pitch: inspired by Nosferatu, and directed by Juraj Herz based on a scenario by Josef Nevsvabda (renowned Czech science fiction writer), the film tells the story of a vampire car, whose engine runs on human blood and which pumps its victims through the accelerator pedal while providing them with immense driving pleasure. That's it, you can laugh. Admit that the scenario is pretty cool, isn't it?
So this Vampire car, "Ferat", is our good old 110 Super Sport already 10 years old. History to stay in the coup of the 80s, those years references for good taste in terms of style and fashion, Herz will call on a famous painter and costume designer, a big fan of cars in front of the eternal, rally driver in his wasted hours and for the occasion converted into a car designer: Theodor Pistek.
Strangely, Theodor is not going to go into a neo-futuristic delirium, but to lay us a very eighties car, and ultimately more classic than the original. Goodbye to the row of retractable round headlights at the front, make way for very classic lights and a false radiator grille (the engine being at the rear). Goodbye white paint, make way for black with red edges that better suits his role as a vampire. At the rear, the round lights are retained, but the 110 "Ferat" Super Sport has a pie shovel spoiler which for once rebalances the car more than it distorts it. In terms of novelties, the Ferat recovers beautiful golden BBS type "honeycomb" rims.
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