Jan Kopecky will start the Rallysprint Pelhøimov this weekend with No.1 on the door of a Super 1600 Fabia Kit Car.
The new machine, which has been prepared as a joint project between Skoda Auto, Skoda Motorsport and Impromat Car S.R.O., has not yet been homologated as the engine under the bonnet is not currently in the Fabia range of road cars.
Powered by a sleeved-down version of the 1.8litre 20valve engine on which the Fabia WRC's 2.0 litre turbocharged engine is also based, the Fabia Kit Car is said to push out 225BHP at 8500RPM through it's front wheels.
Skoda are also rumoured to have been preparing a more extreme version of their RS road car, powered by a turbocharged petrol engine coupled with 4wd transmission. If this car was to go into production, possibly with a variation of the 1.8 turbo engine or the Volkswagen Group's new 2.0 litre FSI turbo engine, this could pave the way for homologation for this new Super 1600 version of the popular supermini.
Indeed, Czech motoring server
www.auto.cz today published photos of what is possibly one of the Mlada Boleslav firms test vehicles to this specification.
Reigning Czech Champion Kopecky, will face stiff opposition from several World Rally Cars on this weekend's event, as well as the Renault Clio 1600 of Josef Petak. We'll bring you the news and results after the event as well as any further development with the homologation of the latest Skoda rally challenger.