I was reading James May's article on the Lada Niva in TG Jan and he refers to "air cooled Skodas" From the context his is obviously referring to the rear engined Estelle and its predecessors but I thought they were water cooled?

I went to check on this on the web and found a 5th gear article on the Roomster referring to "rear engined air cooled saloons" made by Skoda until the mid 80's

Am I wrong? Were these air cooled? If not Have Skoda ever produced an air cooled car?

Having Googled "Skoda Estelle radiator" I've answered my own question, but have Skoda EVER produced an air-cooled car?

Skoda - not that I'm aware of, but I think Tatra may well have made some air-cooled cars. There's no connection between the 2 companies beyond both being Czeck.

Here's a link I just found to the article I refer to: http://www.ladaniva.co.uk/topgear.pdf

The "air cooled Skoda" reference is in the third column second page. Oh and the door handles aren't anything like a Morris Marina by the way.

Here also is the 2006 Roomster review expressing similar erroneous views: http://fwd.five.tv/cars/medium-mpv/skoda-roomster

Edited 11 February, 201115 yr by juan27

Here's an air-cooled 'Skoda':

All the rear-engined models starting with the 1000MB in 1964 were water-cooled, although they had the radiator in the back until the Estelle - it was the 1000MB engine that lived on all the way to the 1.4 in the Fabia, and ironically ended up back in 1000cc form in a VW Lupo. The preceding front-engined 440/Octavia/Felicia models from the '50s were also water cooled, and from what I can find it looks like pretty much everything before that was, too - L&K bicycles aside, of course

I suspect the confusion stems from the people who mistakenly think the Skodas were simply a copy of that air-cooled Tatra ripoff from Wolfsburg. Tatra did specialise in air-cooled engines and pioneered a lot else like aerodynamics and rear-engined layouts in the '30s, which later attracted the attentions of a certain Herr Porsche. From the '50s onwards they produced the luxury 603 and its successors with their rear-mounted air-cooled V8s, which are especially lovely

Must be a mistake for sure.May knows that estelle's were water cooled,himself being such an old car enthusiast he must know,think he was referring to the Tatra ... here's another intersting article by Hammond http://www.topgear.com/au/richard-hammond/richard-hammond-czech-mate-28-01-09

Edited 12 February, 201115 yr by 110ivan

Must be a mistake for sure.May knows that estelle's were water cooled,himself being such an old car enthusiast he must know,think he was referring to the Tatra ... here's another intersting article by Hammond http://www.topgear.com/au/richard-hammond/richard-hammond-czech-mate-28-01-09

The Rapid Hammond is referring too is my regal red 136 that they borrowed!

How come they never showed it on TG when they did a feature about communist built cars ?,probably it was the best of the lot and they wouldn't have had found anything wrong to say about it ....

How come they never showed it on TG when they did a feature about communist built cars ?,probably it was the best of the lot and they wouldn't have had found anything wrong to say about it ....

They filmed a whole 'communist cars' feature at an airfield somewhere a few years ago that seemingly never got used - my dad was part of it with his Wartburg (or possibly of his Trabants, I don't quite remember). In all there were about 12 or so different cars from all over eastern Europe, I think. I do however remember what he told me about what Clarkson's like off camera...

Must be a mistake for sure.May knows that estelle's were water cooled,himself being such an old car enthusiast he must know,think he was referring to the Tatra ... here's another intersting article by Hammond http://www.topgear.com/au/richard-hammond/richard-hammond-czech-mate-28-01-09

Slip of the pen perhaps.....but I expect better from May. Shame the editor didn't notice either.

The Rapid Hammond is referring too is my regal red 136 that they borrowed!

"Yes the car is for sale" I think they missed the words "over Dave's dead body" off the end of that sentence

I reckon he was taring Skoda with the same brush as VW Beetles just because the engine is in the same place! When you watch TG as much as I do (too much my wife says) the whole programme is riddled with inaccurate and misleading info.

Top Gear were going to do an Eastern European cars feature. They contacted me via the Skoda Owners' Club and asked to use one of my cars for the show. I agreed on the strict understanding that it was not to be damaged or have pianos dropped on it ect. Top Gear collected my Rapid for the show and invited my wife and I to be in the audience. They told me that the Stig was going to drive it round the track as part of the feature! Anyway, they decided after they had already got my car [they told me while I was at the show] to change the feature to Russian cars, which obviously Skoda isn't. Hammond and May apparantly fell in love with my Rapid and I was contacted about selling it...my answer was a very firm NO...I'd been messed about quite enough and wasn't prepared to lose one of my special cars to a piano dropping incident or similar.

From what I heard though, a lot of the Marinas that bought the farm were purchased by BBC researchers masquerading as private buyers, so as not to set off alarm bells..

From what I heard though, a lot of the Marinas that bought the farm were purchased by BBC researchers masquerading as private buyers, so as not to set off alarm bells..

Of course the researhers bought them....who do you think makes the program?!? Clarkson, May and Hammond are just presenters who happen to have an interest in cars. How would you masquerade as a private buyer as opposed to a researcher?

I know of two Marinas that sit together in Portsmouth that haven't got pianos on their roofs (Yet) Wise not selling it to them tho. Look at the way they treated that Lancia Strattos replica. I bet the owner was horrified to see it being destroyed by Jeremy and his baffoons.

The Lancia Stratos replica wasn't finished or properly running when they lent it to the program which was half the problem.....there was a big hoo ha by the Lancia OC (or Stratos OC) over it....led to the chairman resigning after he started making litigious claims on behalf of the club I think!