“The Story of a 30-Year-Old Škoda Favorit with Only 37 Kilometers Driven: A Piece of History”

Did you know that there is a 30-year-old Škoda Favorit in the Czech Republic that has only driven 37 kilometers so far?

It’s the car we wrote about last year at the end of September when it was auctioned in Greece, and then again in October. We got together with its new owner, the Czech Jiří Mičánek Jr., a competitor and manager of the Mičánek Motorsport powered by Buggyra team.

Now we are reminded of the remarkably well-preserved Favorit by Škoda, of course in collaboration with Jiří Mičánek. And it offers a number of interesting facts, including why the 1993 car had so few miles on it. This information was not yet known at the time we wrote our articles.

According to the available information, the Skoda was chosen by a customer at a Greek dealer, for whom the trip home from the dealer represented a return to the wheel after many years. She managed the 34-kilometer journey with flying colours, but when she parked in the garage not far from her house, she decided that driving was simply not for her.

And so the odometer of this Favorit showed the number 34 for the next three decades, which the car spent in underground garages in the suburbs of Athens. He was freed from them by last year’s auction, in which the already mentioned Jiří Mičánek Jr. acquired the car. “Someone discovered the car in Greece in the fall of 2022 and put it up for auction. When I saw it, I thought I had to have a piece of history like this.” narrates.

When Favorit went on his first and last ride in 1993, he was only seven years old. But racing blood ran through his veins. Since the 1970s, his father Jiří Mičánek Sr. has raced in formula championships in what was then Czechoslovakia and in Eastern Europe with single-seaters that mostly had Škoda engines. With them, he won more than ten titles of Czechoslovak champion both on circuits and in uphill races.

“I too started my career on formulas with a Škoda engine. We had a Favorit model at home as a car for regular driving, and dad also used it in his circuit school in the early 90s,” explains Jiří Mičánek, explaining why he decided to fight for the “Greek” Favorit in the auction.

He finally succeeded. In the final, he remained in the fight against the only opponent – another Czech competitor, Boris Vaculík. “When we found out, we called each other and told each other straight up how far we were willing to go. I was taller, so we agreed that we wouldn’t fight each other anymore,” Jiří Mičánek laughs today. Even so, the car cost him 24,000 euros, converted according to the current exchange rate to about 600,000 Czech crowns. That’s about six times what the car cost in 1993 when it was made. After accounting for inflation for three decades, the price actually corresponds almost exactly to the current value.

After two months, the Škoda Favorit traveled in a shipping container to Frankfurt am Main, where the new owner picked it up.

Thanks to the fact that the Skoda spent thirty years in underground garages, it looks as if it had just left the factory. There are even protective plastic covers on the seats, the paper labels are completely intact in the engine compartment, the clean snow-white wheel arches reveal that the Favorit drove the 34 kilometers from the shop to the garage on a dry road. However, we can also find a few scratches on the car from parked cars and passing drivers. They are mainly visible on the doors on the edge.

Also interesting are the accessories, added by the seller apparently at the request of the customer. It is, for example, an imitation of the wooden decor of the dashboard, or a then modern colored sticker, copying the side line of the car. Otherwise, it is the basic version, then denoted by the letters LX. Its owners had to do without a tachometer, for example, its place in the dashboard is occupied by a clock.

A 1.3-liter engine with a power of 40 kW works under the hood. It is already controlled by Bosch electronics, which replaced the original carburetor. The current owner only changed the oil and filters and of course added a new battery. The favorite is said to start immediately after turning the key and only a quiet rumble comes from the engine compartment. After being transported to the Czech Republic, Mičánek drove three kilometers, so today the value on the counter is 37. He does not plan to drive it any further.

But he wants to display it at the team’s headquarters in Brno. “When Dad was retiring the Favorites from his circuit school, I bought one from him out of nostalgia. Of course it is completely worn out, but I want to restore it and then display both cars together – the racing and the civilian one.” reveals Jiří Mičánek the younger.