1948 Skoda 1101 Cabriolet

Skoda is a Czech automobile manufacturer that was founded in 1895 as Laurin & Klement. They were established as an arms manufacturing plant. After World War I, in 1919, the company had its own automobile department and began building cars under license. A few years later, in 1925, they began producing cars under their own name.

The company's first post-World War II car was the 1101 series. It was basically an updated version of the pre-World War II Skoda Popular. It had a steel body on a wooden frame mounted on a backbone chassis. The 1101 Series was available as a police car, delivery van, roadster, ambulance, or Jeep for the armed forces. A 'Tudor' two-door body style and a four-door version were also available and most of these were exported to Europe, South America, Africa, and Australia.

Powering was from a 1089cc 4-cylinder engine offering 32 horsepower and mated to a four-speed gearbox with synchromesh on third and fourth gear. Top speed was achieved at just over 60 mph.

The 1101 Series was in production from 1946 through 1949, with 66,904 examples produced.

By Daniel Vaughan | Jul 2017