Vintage Thing No. 158 - Skeetle

 

It all looks so innocent

At the 1999 MCC Testing Trial, I took these photos of a Skoda convertible with a difference. These are rare cars and getting rarer but this car was unique. It was based on a VW Beetle chassis.

Beetle chassis have much to recommend them and during the sensational seventies many manufacturers used them as the basis for their exotic kit cars. The Nova and Eagle spring to mind. There were many lesser known ones like the Centron and the Car with No Name.

The obvious thing to do, to counterpoint all those exotic faux supercars, was to mount a convertible Skoda bodyshell on a Beetle chassis and go trialling with it.

This is the Skeetle built by Dave Nash. Dave built a series of trials specials on Beetle floorpans, which used MGB and Reliant Scimitar GTE bodyshells as well as this one with a Skoda body.

Beetles and Skodas have a great deal of trialling heritage so combining them in this way seemed to be an innovation that would be assured of immediate success.

Both are cheap and plentiful but I humbly suggest the Beetle had the edge over a Skoda. I remember talking to the late and great John Aley who campaigned a Skoda for a while. 

"Olga the Eastern Bloc mud wrestler didn't do as well as we'd thought," he said simply. He couldn't say zactly why. On paper, Skodas had much in their favour for trials use but in practice they lacked something. My mate Adrian Booth tried one for a few seasons backalong and concluded the gearing was the main issue.

Consequently, improving the running gear by replacing it all with Beetle parts makes sense.

Dave Nash had a stepfather with a Skoda dealership and had been introduced to joys of trialling by Alan Ballamy. After building Shorty, a shortened open top Skoda Estelle, they conceived Skeetle using Dave's taste for Skodas and Alan's experience with Vee Dubs following years trialling a VW notchback and his restoration of a Brasilia.

After considering a 1600 VW engine from a rusty Brasilia, Alan provided a good type three VW motor, which not only allowed a lower centre of gravity but more room in the boot area, enough for a spare wheel to be mounted over the engine.

The resulting Skeetle took to the road in 1995. After a few years, Dave Nash replaced the Skoda dodyshell with one from a Reliant Scimitar GTE. Somehow I missed this incarnation. I also missed the MGBeetle which took the concept further, this time - obviously - with the bodyshell of an MGB GT but that one had a different chassis and registration number so I may yet make its acquaintance

Skoda dropheads are rare but the Skeetle was unique

All this swapping around of shells onto the VW Beetle floorpan begs a question about wheelbases of donors and recipients. A Beetle has a wheelbase of 2400mm and so has the Skoda! The Scimitar is 99.5 inches which is 2527mm so a little jigsaw work and laminating might have been required.

The Skeetle was such a good idea though that it sired a couple of equally interesting VW based specials that somehow escaped my attention. I missed Dave Nash's MGBeetle, an MGB shell on the same Beetle chassis and looked the other way for some reason when he replaced that with a Reliant Scimitar GTE shell on the same chassis.