It's hard to say quite how many cars styled by Giovanni Bertone’s design house have been described by the automotive press as ‘Fair to middling’, but the ŠKODA Favorit is certainly one. Quite possibly the only one, in truth.
The boxy hatchback was a departure for the Czechoslovakian car maker. Another one. The svelte sports coupés and saloons of the 1950s, ’60s and 1970s had become tired and clearly budget-constrained by the 1980s – they bore some resemblance but barely. For the 1990s, as the world opened up, the Favorit was apparently the car to take ŠKODA – and the country – into it.
Tasked with the styling was Bertone, the design house that had created some of the most iconic and striking cars and concepts the world had seen. Including, most famously of all, the Lamborghini Miura. Almost without doubt it is deemed the world’s first supercar.