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- The Tri-State Area
Skoda replaced its bulky Octavia WRC with an all-new car for the 2003 season, with the much more compact Fabia WRC.
Developed by the experienced Skoda Motorsport World Rally Team and its new signing Didier Auriol, the Fabia WRC was surprisingly unsuccessful considering the relative - and improving - competitiveness of the Octavia as used in the early half of the 2003 season.
The team persisted with the car through 2003 and 2004, although it was clear that it wasn't a particularly rapid or reliable machine (both qualities necessary in a WRC car...), resulting in a major update in 2005 with the Evo II.
Performances improved somewhat, as the Fabia began to match its predecessor, but even so the team managed just four top ten finishes in 16 rallies that year. Its best result was in the hands of Alexandre Bengue at the Tour de Corse, with a sixth-place finish, while Colin McRae (yes, really) also scored a seventh place in his home Rally GB, and had been running third before the clutch gave out.
Skoda withdrew as a manufacturer at the end of the 2005 season, although the Fabia was campaigned privately by other teams in 2006 and 2007. Czech driver Jan Kopecky managed to place fifth twice in those seasons, in the best ever result for a Fabia WRC, although on the flip side the seven-time WRC race winner Gilles Panizzi quit the sport entirely after dragging the car to only tenth in the 2006 Rally Catalunya.
Nonetheless, the Skoda Fabia WRC is a piece of rally history and at least in GT its mechanical woes won't be replicated.
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