The Škoda Fabia RS Rally2 has passed a significant milestone. This rally car has already been created in a hundred pieces, and it was the hundredth one that was recently taken over by Romanian driver Andrei Gîrtofan, who intends to attack the domestic title with it. The Fabia RS Rally2 thus continues the plethora of successes of its predecessors. What's more, Škoda Motorsport is still improving its car.
The latest rally special from Škoda Motorsport has already been built in 100 pieces. Yet, it only has been over a year and a half since the first World Rally Championship appearance of this new generation car, namely the Rallye Monte-Carlo 2023. The handover of the anniversary car took place directly at the Škoda Motorsport headquarters in Mladá Boleslav.
"So far I have been able to achieve top results with the first generation Škoda Fabia Rally2. But now I'm happy to switch to the Škoda Fabia RS Rally2 special, which I think is the best car to fight for the national title with at the moment."
"The sale of the 100th Škoda Fabia RS Rally2 to a customer is an unforgettable event for Škoda Motorsport. This number is also a testament to our commitment to not only building highly competitive rally specials, but also to providing our customers with excellent support," said Lukáš Paták, Head of Škoda Motorsport's Customer Programme, on the anniversary.
Ongoing improvements
Proof of this support is the fact that Škoda Motorsport is constantly working on improving its special. For example, for the second half of the 2024 season, it will offer customers a second gearbox, which will make the car even more suitable for fast events such as the Rally Finland. The carmaker's competition department has also recently improved the stability of the car's brake pedal as well as the durability of the brake cooling ducts. Further improvements will of course follow.
The goal, of course, is to keep the Fabia RS Rally2 at the top of the starting field in all the events it participates in and thus extend the already rich set of successes of Škoda Rally2 specials. Škoda cars have been collecting them in this class for almost a decade. Since the homologation of the original Škoda Fabia Rally2 (formerly R5) in April 2015, the brand's specials have collected 2,563 victories and more than 6,400 podium finishes, and over the past nine years they have scored over 22,000 starts They have also won 125 national and 28 regional championships and have also picked up success in the world championship.
The FIA World Rally Championship WRC2 title was won by Esapekka Lappi in 2016 and Pontus Tidemand in 2017 and Jan Kopecký in 2018 with a Fabia Rally2. In April 2019, the upgraded Fabia Rally2 evo was homologated, with Kalle Rovanperä winning the WRC2 Pro title and Pierre-Louis Loubet winning the WRC2 drivers' title. In 2021, Andreas Mikkelsen won both the WRC2 World and European titles, and the following year, Emil Lindholm became WRC2 Champion. Mikkelsen then repeated his World Championship victory in the 2023 season, this time with the new Fabia RS Rally2. And this year, Škoda cars are collecting more and more laurels.
Since the launch of the first Rally2 specification special, Škoda Motorsport has delivered almost 600 cars to customers in 42 countries around the world. Throughout this time, the Rally2 specification Fabia has been the most popular car in this class.
