Skoda brings Communist-era coupe into the modern age

The Skoda 1000 MBX concept is the latest in the company’s ‘Icons Get a Makeover’ series of digital concepts, and references a rare coupe from the mid-1960s.

Just two people from Skoda’s design team worked on the project. Antti Savio, the concept’s exterior designer, studied a number of brutalist buildings before diving into this concept.

“Modern sports cars often appear overly aggressive, while those from the ’60s and ’70s carried a certain elegance, even endearing charm — and that’s what I wanted to preserve,” he said.

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David Stingl, the car’s interior designer, says the original 1000 MBX “wasn’t a sports machine, but rather an elegant car for an active lifestyle”.

The concept revealed last week isn’t a retro recreation of the original model, but rather it’s claimed to capture its “essence” as a two-door with a focus on comfort and everyday usability rather than overt sportiness.

To that end there are four sliding doors, with an ultra-small rear set to keep the coupe flavour. Like the original 1000 MBX, the modern concept goes without B-pillars, this time to make ingress and egress easier.

Instead of grippy bucket seats, the 1000 MBX has a sculpted front bench. The cinema-style rear seats flip up to reveal a cargo area that’s supposedly large enough to accommodate a bike.

In an unusual twist, the dashboard is a glass-covered tube onto which displays are projected.

Using a dedicated electric vehicle platform, the concept has a flat floor and, as with the original, there’s no centre console. The standard air suspension allows the car to be raised to tackle rough roads, or to make cargo loading easier.

Launched in 1966, the Skoda 1000 MBX was a two-door version of the company’s mainstream rear-engine, rear-wheel drive 1000 MB sedan.

Like the sedan, the 1000 MBX had a 998cc engine four-cylinder engine making 31kW. In 1968, the range got a larger 39kW 1.1-litre engine, and the coupe became the 1100 MBX.

Production of the MBX ended in 1969, and in total just 2517 units of the 1000 MBX and 1100 MBX were made.

According to the Skoda, the original 1000 MBX/1100 MBX captured “the carefree spirit of its time”, possibly referencing the brief period of economic and social liberalisation during 1968 known as the Prague Spring.

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