Even this might have been initially excusable if the cars had been reliable out of the box, another trait of Skodas of yesteryear, but they weren’t. At their first event, the 1999 Monte Carlo, neither Armin Schwarz or Bruno Thiry got further than parc ferme before mechanical failure sidelined them. Quite the inglorious start to the year. But Skoda persevered ,spurred on by the desire to get the upper hand as the rally branch of the VAG stable. Indeed the Octavia spent most of its competitive life fighting against the mechanically similar Seat Cordoba. Whilst this scrap for points raged the rest of the rallying world wondered what VW was thinking allowing two of its manufacturers to contest the same championship at the same time. Echoes of the Fiat/Lancia fiasco in the mid seventies were all to clear.
.jpg)
However eventually Skoda did manage to make the Octavia the reliable rally car it had always promised to be. It was still too long though and was never lighter than 1300kg so was never destined to be particularly competitive on asphalt. However on tough gravel events with high rates of attrition it came good. The car came home an impressive 7th in the 2000 Safari in the hands of Schwarz and whilst Thiry’s 4th on the 1999 RAC was fortuitous it nevertheless showed the cars inherent strength.
Such results were the exceptions that proved that Skoda really needed a small hatchback to compete regularly for podiums in the high speed European events. The Fabia WRC was always on the cards and soon it became evident that the Octavia was no more than a stop gap and a test bed. In 2000 the team resorted to using Luis Clement, a pay-driver through and through, to help fund their championship assault. By the end of 2003 it was curtains for the big, noisy car as the Fabia debuted on the German rally. Although unreliable the new machine certainly looked much more at home on a special stage with its neat styling and short wheelbase. It had much more promise but it must be said ,lacked the drama of its predecessor which was always one of the noisiest of the modern crop of WRC cars. So the axe came down on the Skoda Octavia WRC. It must be classed as a failure if such things are measured in the amount of silverware collected. However the Octavia did succeed in one crucial respect; Seat withdrew from the sport at the end of 2000. Skoda had won the inter-company struggle to compete in the WRC and the Octavia had seen off Seat’s equally unsuited Cordoba.
Sunday did indeed turn out to be a much better day weather wise. So much so that I actually manged to get sunburned, an odd sensation when coupled with the constant 'squelch' of muddy shoes and socks! Thankfully rat-look being full of clever, forward thinking individuals* had decided to camp next to the movable fence separating the mud from the road, so when morning came we simply reversed out to safety. 
