Škoda aimed to get closer towards the front of the pack with it's Fabia WRC car. However, it's evolution from the Octavia didn't exactly go as planned.
Just so everyone is aware, I know that the Failed Racers channel has also done a video on this car last week. For those that don't know, here's a link to the awesome video here: th-cam.com/video/ABSrJdgxEek/w-d-xo.html . As I stated at the end of my video, this has taken around a month to create. Most of that time was spent doing research and creating the script around it. As I was getting round to editing the video together, I saw Failed Racers video come up, but thought I would still upload my video, as I didn't want to put what was around 3 weeks of work to waste. It's purely coincidental that two videos about this rather forgotten and obscure mid 00's rally machine have been made in the space of a week. I would also highly recommend that you subscribe to the Failed Racers channel, as his other videos are brilliant.😀 I hope that clarifies things for everyone. 👍
I like your video! It covers different things to mine and it's done in a different style, two channels can definitely cover the same topic. I'll probably do the Suzuki WRC and the Hyundai Accent at some point which you've already covered.
No matter how good it performed, for a guy born in the 90s, after the "classics" such Lancer, Impreza, 206 and Focus, the Octavia Mk.I in my imagination was (and still remains) to this day an icon of the late Golden Era of WRC.
A good night’s sleep, what bliss. Just once, perchance, to wake up rested and ready and looking forward to a bright new day. I wish unto you just that, my friend
Nicky Grist has a good explanation of what happened with the clutch swap failure in Australia on his channel, basically came down to their car running rookie mechanics who shouldn't have been put in that position
I wonder if Schwarz' team had a chance to jump on to help or it there was something else that prevented them for getting involved too, seems mad to throw away a podium and possible win like that.
I think that the Struggles that the original Beefy Little Power Machine had really made Skoda think and make future iterations that we see in WRC and an assortment of other major local championships as reliable and competitive as it is, it was Skoda's first big steps that had a lot of stumbles here that allowed them to run now - also great video as always, and it's great to see the respect between yourself and Failed Racers for both covering this car in the same week no less
Without it we maybe wouldn’t have the Škoda rally2 we have today. Even though it was kinda bad. Škoda stuck with the 2nd class and we now have one of if not the most dominant WRC2 car ever.
I honestly think that Skoda's problems at that time were the drivers they chose. In 2005, they've had Armin Schwarz as the lead driver of the team, when he proved time and time again that he couldn't fill that role. I think that, if there ever been a chance, they should've tried to get Markko Martin for 2005.
Doubt he'd have been interested when seats at both PSA brands were up for grabs (albeit for one season only). Regardless of its relaibility woes in 2004, the Peugeot 307 WRC was still more competitive than the Fabia and therefore more appealing option. Even if a seat at Peugeot (or Citroën) wasn't availlable, Märtin would've either stayed at Ford or returned to Subaru. I'd argue that Skoda should've moved heaven and earth to convice Colin McRae to sign with them for 2004 and 2005. His name alone would've been a sponsor magnet and maybe, just maybe would've seen Red Bull involved with the team. But alas, I don't think Colin was impressed by the sales pitch Skoda presented to him
Since you've covered the struggles of Skoda, Suzuki and the first go-around of Hyundai, perhaps your next flopped WRC program could be SEAT's shortlived WRC effort with the Cordoba WRC
Very good work. Your research and dedication it's outstanding. On the program itself, I think the drivers need to be held some responsability as it's failure. There were several clumsy and severe accidents that could have been avoided.
I love these videos! There were many Intriguing Cars in WRC's history, that were forgotten simply because of lack of success, and your videos shed a much-needed light on them. It is clear you spend a lot of time preparing them - they are very thorough and well-written. Looking forward to future videos from this series (if you are planning to continue, that is.)
Such a big fan of these Motorsport documentaries! I'd love to see a GT1 episode, one of the most memorable race series from this era. Saleen S7.R perhaps?
Thanks for the video. Appreciate the attention to detail. My track day mk3 superb is off to the Nordschleife for some early season evening laps next month... Our loca škodal garage runs fabias in 3 different classes
Good thing is, Skoda learned a lot from their Fabia WRC failure, asked help from Oreca and build the all-consuming Fabia R5/Rally2 that dominated Rally2 events. Much to the annoyance of Ford fans.
I loved the Octavia and always wanted Skoda to do well but they could never really get any momentum going with the Fabia. A good result was usually followed with a series of issues. Was such a shame that the clutch cost McRae a shot at the podium.
The Fabia definitely had potential but probably needed a bigger budget to realise it. You'd have to think that VW took much of what they learned from the Fabia (like how not to do it) into their own Polo WRC program a few years later. You should do a video on the Mini WRC program from the early 2010s which was run by Prodrive, it was somewhat disappointing.
I really love skoda espacially this era of them although i have to say i kinda wish they would have stuck with the octavia as their WRC car so we would have a proper euro competitor for the WRX and Evo.
"The results that it did achieved, weren't all the Fabulous." :) Recently I've seen a video about Fabia and how it basically set platform that other brands start using and winning with it. If it's true, then it's quite Superbous achievement.
Yes, the runs they had were not quite spectacular, plagued by those gremlins in the gearbox and other rather useful components of a WRC car. However, and bear with me on this one, it was a blast to see a Czech car running in the WRC back in the day. I absolutely loved seeing this car in the Eurosport highlights on the rallyes, together with the truly successful manufacturers. A failure, perhaps, yet it was the stepping stone for something that has now evolved into the R5. Also, someone made a great add-on of the Fabia into the Richard Burns Rally game. Good days :-)
I always liked the Skoda in old rally games. Underpowered but nimble, and it looked good. 1:00 I have a Fabia ‘17. It’s very strange to see your own car out there. I keep reminding myself ‘that’s not your car, really it’s not. Calm down.’ I’d like to have a go at the brick, in a game. I’m sure there are things you can do to make it behave a bit better. Or at least I want a try. It’s not just another brick.
Except for the massive fauxpas with the 5 cylinder engine (it was a 4 banger like every other World Rally Car) a great summary of the program's misfortunes. My guess is that with better drivers they would have had much better results. Excluding McRae's two-off, Auriol was the best they had, even though he was way past his prime, and was gone too soon to show the car's potential. Gardemeister was 2nd best in the roster, although he never was a world class driver, as were Tuohino and Paasonen. Schwarz was so far past his prime at that time that you couldn't even remember how it looked like when he was on it. A coming out a two year retirement Colin McRae, whose driving style wasn't the best fit for these computers on wheels that the World Rally Cars had become by this point, kicking his ass that big was not something to be proud of. Kopecky and Bengue were okay on tarmac but that was it. I think drivers like Grönholm, Märtin or Sainz could have scored podiums with this car in 05.
Do you know what was the purpose of those weird looking things inside the steering wheel? The thing that looks like a wheel itself, if it was purely for style purposes, someone at Skoda probably was high when they came uo with the idea
if i had a nickel for channels im subbed to that have covered the Škoda rally program id have two nickels, which isnt a lot but its weird that it happened twice
I always wonder. How do the winners get to be successful? Soooo(oooooo) many things can go wrong, it’s a wonder anyone finishes a rally at all. Or a roadrace. Or Dakar. That one tuppenny air intake temp sensor can ruin it, never mind the big stuff.
If I had a penny for every Skoda WRC breakdown on TH-cam in the last few weeks I'd have two pennies. Which isn't much but it's weird that it happened twice.
This little b- sized ugly duckling became all the sudden more endearing upon knowing it ran with an in-line 5. That aside, don't know all of this 'car too long' against the Octavia, Subaru competed with the Legacy, Mitsubishi with the Gallant and Ford with the Sierra, the wheelbase was too long and they ran, and a couple of times won, nonetheless. Should not have been allowed from the start to run d-sized sedans, and when they suppressed Group B it was a good time to cut out potential limos from the viable options.
![ช่วยพาฉันผ่านเวลา - วสันต์17 [Official MV]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/HFnntWoqc54/mqdefault.jpg)
Just so everyone is aware, I know that the Failed Racers channel has also done a video on this car last week. For those that don't know, here's a link to the awesome video here: th-cam.com/video/ABSrJdgxEek/w-d-xo.html . As I stated at the end of my video, this has taken around a month to create. Most of that time was spent doing research and creating the script around it. As I was getting round to editing the video together, I saw Failed Racers video come up, but thought I would still upload my video, as I didn't want to put what was around 3 weeks of work to waste. It's purely coincidental that two videos about this rather forgotten and obscure mid 00's rally machine have been made in the space of a week. I would also highly recommend that you subscribe to the Failed Racers channel, as his other videos are brilliant.😀 I hope that clarifies things for everyone. 👍
and i just watched that video tdy😭💀
I like your video! It covers different things to mine and it's done in a different style, two channels can definitely cover the same topic. I'll probably do the Suzuki WRC and the Hyundai Accent at some point which you've already covered.
@@ginnardapplewhite3705is that video a good one?
that must suck, rip
@@FailedRacersgame recognizes game
Man what is it with all these deep dive videos into Skoda's WRC ventures all of the sudden?
You watched the Octavia and Fabia video from the British guy didn’t you ?
@@gasler8556 Me too 😁
Haha had the same thought.
Same here bro, same here
@@gasler8556the Fabia still looked gorgeous like the Octavia WRC.
No matter how good it performed, for a guy born in the 90s, after the "classics" such Lancer, Impreza, 206 and Focus, the Octavia Mk.I in my imagination was (and still remains) to this day an icon of the late Golden Era of WRC.
You know your sleep schedule is fucked when you are awake for a TyDye upload in central Europe
Bro is build different 😂
Well that could be very cool btw.
A good night’s sleep, what bliss. Just once, perchance, to wake up rested and ready and looking forward to a bright new day. I wish unto you just that, my friend
5 Cylinder? It's 20V because 5V per cylinder. It was an Inline 4 1995cm³ engine.
Well its more like 5.5 Cylinder engine.
@@purwantiallan5089 I don't understand
@@purwantiallan5089 what the...
it's just an inline 4
with 5 valves per cylinder
5x4=20
I had to rewind to see if I heard that right!
Nicky Grist has a good explanation of what happened with the clutch swap failure in Australia on his channel, basically came down to their car running rookie mechanics who shouldn't have been put in that position
I wonder if Schwarz' team had a chance to jump on to help or it there was something else that prevented them for getting involved too, seems mad to throw away a podium and possible win like that.
I have heard general concesus is that it was planned by Skoda to be able to end their WRC program without dishonour.
Suggestion for another underarchieving factory program: Honda's time in WTCC between 2012 and 2017
Skoda WORLD RALLY TEAM still an underrated rally team even till this day. Makes me miss them on PS2 WRC days.
I think that the Struggles that the original Beefy Little Power Machine had really made Skoda think and make future iterations that we see in WRC and an assortment of other major local championships as reliable and competitive as it is, it was Skoda's first big steps that had a lot of stumbles here that allowed them to run now - also great video as always, and it's great to see the respect between yourself and Failed Racers for both covering this car in the same week no less
Without it we maybe wouldn’t have the Škoda rally2 we have today. Even though it was kinda bad. Škoda stuck with the 2nd class and we now have one of if not the most dominant WRC2 car ever.
I honestly think that Skoda's problems at that time were the drivers they chose. In 2005, they've had Armin Schwarz as the lead driver of the team, when he proved time and time again that he couldn't fill that role. I think that, if there ever been a chance, they should've tried to get Markko Martin for 2005.
Doubt he'd have been interested when seats at both PSA brands were up for grabs (albeit for one season only). Regardless of its relaibility woes in 2004, the Peugeot 307 WRC was still more competitive than the Fabia and therefore more appealing option. Even if a seat at Peugeot (or Citroën) wasn't availlable, Märtin would've either stayed at Ford or returned to Subaru.
I'd argue that Skoda should've moved heaven and earth to convice Colin McRae to sign with them for 2004 and 2005. His name alone would've been a sponsor magnet and maybe, just maybe would've seen Red Bull involved with the team. But alas, I don't think Colin was impressed by the sales pitch Skoda presented to him
Babe wake up, new video about WRC failures is up
Since you've covered the struggles of Skoda, Suzuki and the first go-around of Hyundai, perhaps your next flopped WRC program could be SEAT's shortlived WRC effort with the Cordoba WRC
I just noticed that out of these 4 teams.Toni drove for 3 of them.
@@jt-hb8lhseems he was basically the Roberto Moreno of WRC
Colin was extremely classy and professional in regards to the dissapointment in Austrailia.
Please make a video on Mazda's rally efforts, especially their rotaries.
Very good work. Your research and dedication it's outstanding.
On the program itself, I think the drivers need to be held some responsability as it's failure. There were several clumsy and severe accidents that could have been avoided.
I love these videos! There were many Intriguing Cars in WRC's history, that were forgotten simply because of lack of success, and your videos shed a much-needed light on them. It is clear you spend a lot of time preparing them - they are very thorough and well-written. Looking forward to future videos from this series (if you are planning to continue, that is.)
Such a big fan of these Motorsport documentaries! I'd love to see a GT1 episode, one of the most memorable race series from this era.
Saleen S7.R perhaps?
I hope in 5-10 years you will do a video about the (insert succes factor) dacia sandrider dakar programme
Thanks for the video. Appreciate the attention to detail.
My track day mk3 superb is off to the Nordschleife for some early season evening laps next month...
Our loca škodal garage runs fabias in 3 different classes
The Octavia looks so funny, it's just crawling along at a rather relaxing pace relative to the other smaller and more nimble cars 😂
Good thing is, Skoda learned a lot from their Fabia WRC failure, asked help from Oreca and build the all-consuming Fabia R5/Rally2 that dominated Rally2 events.
Much to the annoyance of Ford fans.
I heard that vw learnt and forced vw polo face would be put on fabia wrc and skoda can have lower rally classes.. so that did🤷🙋
It was my favorite car to choose in WRC Evolved and still used it in DR2.0 and EA WRC. Such a shame the team couldn't make it work
I loved the Octavia and always wanted Skoda to do well but they could never really get any momentum going with the Fabia. A good result was usually followed with a series of issues. Was such a shame that the clutch cost McRae a shot at the podium.
The Fabia definitely had potential but probably needed a bigger budget to realise it. You'd have to think that VW took much of what they learned from the Fabia (like how not to do it) into their own Polo WRC program a few years later. You should do a video on the Mini WRC program from the early 2010s which was run by Prodrive, it was somewhat disappointing.
I really love skoda espacially this era of them although i have to say i kinda wish they would have stuck with the octavia as their WRC car so we would have a proper euro competitor for the WRX and Evo.
Love your documentarys, amazing job 👏👏👏👏
Also important to mention is this car served as basis for the WRC Polo and we all know how that turned out
"The results that it did achieved, weren't all the Fabulous." :)
Recently I've seen a video about Fabia and how it basically set platform that other brands start using and winning with it. If it's true, then it's quite Superbous achievement.
Would like to see a video on Mitsubishi’s fall from glory. Especially its 2004 & 2005 campaign
Great video as always 👍
Yes, the runs they had were not quite spectacular, plagued by those gremlins in the gearbox and other rather useful components of a WRC car. However, and bear with me on this one, it was a blast to see a Czech car running in the WRC back in the day. I absolutely loved seeing this car in the Eurosport highlights on the rallyes, together with the truly successful manufacturers. A failure, perhaps, yet it was the stepping stone for something that has now evolved into the R5. Also, someone made a great add-on of the Fabia into the Richard Burns Rally game. Good days :-)
Hey love the video, could you please make one about the mini rally team ?
You could do a video about Copersucar Fittipaldi next
at least the czeck rally department return with the bonus of nowadays being probably the best rally 2 car araund
Seat next? 😉
I'm onto it :)
The Red Bull Fabia’s were 🔥
I always liked the Skoda in old rally games. Underpowered but nimble, and it looked good.
1:00 I have a Fabia ‘17. It’s very strange to see your own car out there. I keep reminding myself ‘that’s not your car, really it’s not. Calm down.’
I’d like to have a go at the brick, in a game. I’m sure there are things you can do to make it behave a bit better. Or at least I want a try. It’s not just another brick.
Well.... now you HAVE TO talk about the Octavia in a separated video. 😊
Search "czech tank" 😜
Nowdays the Skoda has dominated in Europe Rally.
LETS GOOOO NEW TYDYE WRC VID
Except for the massive fauxpas with the 5 cylinder engine (it was a 4 banger like every other World Rally Car) a great summary of the program's misfortunes. My guess is that with better drivers they would have had much better results. Excluding McRae's two-off, Auriol was the best they had, even though he was way past his prime, and was gone too soon to show the car's potential. Gardemeister was 2nd best in the roster, although he never was a world class driver, as were Tuohino and Paasonen. Schwarz was so far past his prime at that time that you couldn't even remember how it looked like when he was on it. A coming out a two year retirement Colin McRae, whose driving style wasn't the best fit for these computers on wheels that the World Rally Cars had become by this point, kicking his ass that big was not something to be proud of. Kopecky and Bengue were okay on tarmac but that was it. I think drivers like Grönholm, Märtin or Sainz could have scored podiums with this car in 05.
I always appreciated the way the Fabia WRC car looked, sadly the reliability and performance was severely lacking.
Looking forward to the next episode of Street Track Failures about the 2024 Nashville Street Circuit.
I love how the mk1 fabia was the audi quattro from czechia.
legendary
I love the Fabia, I even bought a wee 1:43 scale model
Same i have a 1/43 and 1 18
whats the music on 22:51
Skoda wasn't the only VW brand that had a torrid time in the WRC, Seat with the Cordoba WRC didn't have much success either in 1999 and 2000
Do you know what was the purpose of those weird looking things inside the steering wheel? The thing that looks like a wheel itself, if it was purely for style purposes, someone at Skoda probably was high when they came uo with the idea
It's the paddle shifter, similar to what Peugeot used in the 206 and 307cc world rally cars
Hopefully with regulations changes for 2025, factory Skoda team with Fabia will once compete part in the highest class of WRC.
if i had a nickel for channels im subbed to that have covered the Škoda rally program id have two nickels, which isnt a lot but its weird that it happened twice
Seat Cordoba WRC review next then?
am I going nuts or was the fabia not a 4 cylinder
No, it was a 4 cylinder, but it had 5 valves per cylinder = 20 valves
Cool steering wheel they have
I always wonder. How do the winners get to be successful? Soooo(oooooo) many things can go wrong, it’s a wonder anyone finishes a rally at all. Or a roadrace. Or Dakar. That one tuppenny air intake temp sensor can ruin it, never mind the big stuff.
Where street track, or indycar..., but still good vid tho
How all of these awful WRC stints have a common link, aka signing Toni Gardemeister?
No. It was a 4 cylinder. Otherwise, great work as always.
If I had a penny for every Skoda WRC breakdown on TH-cam in the last few weeks I'd have two pennies.
Which isn't much but it's weird that it happened twice.
some awful research went into this haha 5 cylinder engine geez
Bruh
307 next 😏
Needs more phonk music 😉😜
For sure! More phonk music, the better. 🤣
"ashfalt"
Im pretty sure its a 4 cylinder
I'm a fan of Skoda
This little b- sized ugly duckling became all the sudden more endearing upon knowing it ran with an in-line 5.
That aside, don't know all of this 'car too long' against the Octavia, Subaru competed with the Legacy, Mitsubishi with the Gallant and Ford with the Sierra, the wheelbase was too long and they ran, and a couple of times won, nonetheless. Should not have been allowed from the start to run d-sized sedans, and when they suppressed Group B it was a good time to cut out potential limos from the viable options.
Skooden Skoda
7:47 strange, weird circular paddleshift shape
wow im early wtf
I know 😅
And?
It's pronounced Shkoda not Skoda
5 cylinders? 😂
No, it was a 4 cylinder with 5 valves per cylinder
Please do Mainz in your series on called street tracks even though it’s an airfield track.