This Car Looks Like This Because Soviet-Era Engineers Couldn’t Build A Smaller Headlight

If I lived to be 5,000 years old, I think I’d still be learning things about cars built before I was old enough to be able to drive. The mass production of the automobile was probably humanity’s defining industrial achievement for at least the first half of the 20th century. For instance, for all my love of Škoda, I had no idea why the Favorit looks like the Favorit.

As a company founded in then-Czechoslovakia, the automaker we now know as VW-owned subsidiary Škoda was limited for many years by its position behind the Iron Curtain. While not technically a part of the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia was stuck with a Soviet-style planned economy and limited access to outside markets.

Aware that the company’s old, RWD platforms were highly limited when compared to any modern car from a Western automaker, Škoda embarked in 1982 on a quest to build a competitive, FWD car in the mold of a Volkswagen Golf.

The result was the Favorit, a car that went into production in 1987 and showed that the automaker was capable of more than the same re-heated models it had been building for decades. Even with the limitations of the planned economy, Škoda was able to access help from European firms to make its car something worth buying, as the company explains:

The renowned studio Stile Bertone from Turin was responsible for designing the hatchback model and other body variants derived from it – from the notchback saloon to an estate and pick-up version. The design of the new vehicle was in the hands of ŠKODA experts, but the Czech company also enlisted the expertise of foreign specialists such as Porsche. For example, the sports car manufacturer provided support for the engine suspension and front axle geometry, and also shared its experience in optimising the interior noise.

By the standards of Iron Curtain vehicles, the Favorit was a hit, and when the “Velvet Revolution” of 1989 saw the end of Communist rule, it helped attract the attention of Volkswagen, which quickly acquired the company as its budget-friendly brand.

While it may not quite have the familiarity in the United States that models like the Golf or Escort had, there’s enough equity in the nameplate that Škoda decided to get designer Ljudmil Slavov to take a crack at a modern version as a design exercise.

These are just renders of what I assume is a Renault R5-like rebirth of a classic model. It looks attractive and definitely evokes the Favorit, especially with the headlights. That’s not a coincidence, as the press release about the redesign explains:

One of the concept’s standout features is its headlight design, a clever nod to the original model. In the late 1980s, even the acclaimed Bertone design house grappled with integrating the large, mass-produced headlamps made in Czechoslovakia at the time. Despite their size, these lights had to be seamlessly incorporated into the car’s design.

In keeping with this tradition, Slavov invested considerable thought into reimagining the headlights for today. His solution features ultra-slim LED strips at the front and rear, set behind semi-transparent covers that mirror the size and volume of the original lamps. “These covers allow the lights to project different patterns, which owners could personalise,” Slavov says.

That’s hilarious. Bertone probably had an idea for a smaller headlight in the design to compete with the Giorgietto-designed Golf or even something like the Nissan Sunny/Sentra. Instead, it had to deal with a large headlight because that’s all the Czechoslovakians could make. You can see the basic design for the light in the Skoda Rapid 135, which predates the Favorit by a couple of years:

That’s just a really large, flat bulb.

The way the stylists from Bertone got around this is actually quite clever:

As you can see in this close-up, the actual headlight itself is a big flat piece similar to what’s in the Rapid above. In fact, they’re probably the same design. And like the Rapid, it has a separate amber turn signal. The difference here is that there’s a much larger headlight assembly that protrudes from the lens itself, giving it a bit of shape and style. The turn signal is also an amber bulb that loses the Rapid’s amber lens.

Once someone explains that the headlights are big because they had to be big, you can’t ignore it. They are a little large for the car. That all being said, it’s also what makes the Favorit kind of charming, right? The version of this without the big headlights is probably something like the Renault 19, which is altogether a forgettable car.

I love the big headlights. It’s like the Gurney Bubble on the Ford GT40. It had to be there because it had to be there, but now it’s hard to imagine one without it.