The Škoda VOS is a

full-size Full-size car—also known as large car—is a vehicle size class which originated in the United States and is used for cars larger than mid-size cars. It is the largest size class for cars. In the United Kingdom, this class is referred to as ...

luxury car A luxury car is a passenger automobile providing superior comfort levels, features, and equipment. More expensive materials and surface finishes are used, and buyers expect a correspondingly high quality (business), build quality. The term is ...

produced by the Czechoslovak automaker AZNP at their plant in

Mladá Boleslav Mladá Boleslav (; ) is a city in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 47,000 inhabitants. It lies on the left bank of the Jizera (river), Jizera River. Mladá Boleslav is the second most populated city in the region. I ...

between 1949 and 1952. For a few years it was the preferred car for senior political and military personnel in Czechoslovakia. It was never sold to the general public.

Background

In 1949 the plant at

assembled the last Škoda Superbs, large

six-cylinder A straight-six engine (also referred to as an inline-six engine; abbreviated I6 or L6) is a piston engine with six cylinders arranged in a straight line along the crankshaft. A straight-six engine has perfect primary and secondary engine balanc ...

limousine A limousine ( or ), or limo () for short, is a large, chauffeur-driven luxury vehicle with a partition between the driver compartment and the passenger compartment which can be operated mechanically by hand or by a button electronically. A luxu ...

s evoking the style of American cars in the late 1930s. The authorities needed a more modern replacement and instructed

Škoda Škoda means "pity" in the Czech and Slovak languages. It may also refer to: Czech brands and enterprises * Škoda Auto, automobile and previously bicycle manufacturer in Mladá Boleslav ** Škoda Motorsport, the division of Škoda Auto responsi ...

to develop one. This was the car that would become the Škoda VOS. The letters VOS indicated a "special car for the government" in Czech or Slovak (''Vládní Osobní Speciál'' or ''Vládny Osobný Špeciál'').

Design and Production

The car went into production in 1950 with the

bus A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a motor vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van, but fewer than the average rail transport. It is most commonly used ...

manufacturer and

coachbuilder A coachbuilder manufactures bodies for passenger-carrying vehicles. The trade of producing coachwork began with bodies for horse-drawn vehicles. Today it includes custom automobiles, buses, Coach (bus), motor coaches, and passenger car (rai ...

Karosa Karosa (, ) was a bus manufacturer in Vysoké Mýto in the Czech Republic. It was the biggest manufacturer of buses in Czechoslovakia. In 2007, its name was changed to Iveco, Iveco Czech Republic, and now the company produces buses under the name ...

. Final assembly took place at Škoda's own plant. The car was designed by Oldrich Meduna who previously designed military tanks. The car had a front-mounted 5.2-litre engine delivering and driving the rear wheels. The engine came from a

Praga Praga is a district of Warsaw, Poland. It is on the east bank of the river Vistula. First mentioned in 1432, until 1791 it formed a separate town with its own city charter. History The historical Praga was a small settlement located at the e ...

truck. Because of the weight of the armour plating, the standard car weighed nearly 4 tons. The top speed was restricted to 80 km/h (50 mph) on the orders of the interior ministry. A "Light-weight" version without the armour plating was also listed. Unusually for the time, the car was fitted with air-conditioning. The air-conditioning mechanism occupied most of the space in the boot, and it became common for dignitaries moving by VOS to travel followed by a second car to carry luggage.

Celebrity connections

Famous owners included President Gottwald,

Enver Hoxha Enver Halil Hoxha ( , ; ; 16 October 190811 April 1985) was an Albanian communist revolutionary and politician who was the leader of People's Socialist Republic of Albania, Albania from 1944 until his death in 1985. He was the Secretary (titl ...

Zhu De Zhu De; (1 December 1886 – 6 July 1976) was a Chinese general, military strategist, politician and revolutionary in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Zhu was born into poverty in 1886 in Sichuan. He was adopted by a wealthy uncle at ...

Ana Pauker Ana Pauker (born Hannah Rabinsohn; 13 February 1893 – 3 June 1960) was a Romanian communist leader and served as the country's List of Romanian Foreign Ministers, foreign minister in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Ana Pauker became the world' ...

and

Mao Zedong Mao Zedong pronounced ; traditionally Romanization of Chinese, romanised as Mao Tse-tung. (26December 18939September 1976) was a Chinese politician, revolutionary, and political theorist who founded the People's Republic of China (PRC) in ...

, the communist leader of the

Romanian Workers' Party The Romanian Communist Party ( ; PCR) was a communist party in Romania. The successor to the pro-Bolshevik wing of the Socialist Party of Romania, it gave an ideological endorsement to a communist revolution that would replace the social syst ...

(later to become the

Romanian Communist Party The Romanian Communist Party ( ; PCR) was a communist party in Romania. The successor to the pro-Bolshevik wing of the Socialist Party of Romania, it gave an ideological endorsement to a communist revolution that would replace the social system ...

) had a Škoda VOS built for running on tracks, reaching speeds of up to 115 km/h with a total weight of 5 tons. The model is now up for display in the train Station of

Sinaia Sinaia () is a town and a mountain resort in Prahova County, Romania. It is situated in the historical region of Muntenia. The town was named after the Sinaia Monastery of 1695, around which it was built. The monastery, in turn, is named after ...

. The driver's secure wind shield is smashed after a supposed attempted attack near the Roşiori Nord train station.

The end

Production of the VOS ended in 1952, by when 107 had been built. Škoda were not invited to replace the car, and the nation's political elite switched to the

Tatra 603 The Tatra 603 is a large rear-engined luxury car which was produced by the Czechoslovak company Tatra from 1956 to 1975. It was a continuation of the series of Tatra streamlined sedans which began with the Tatra 77. In Socialist Czechoslovakia, ...

References

Sources

*Bernard Vermeylen, Voitures des pays de l'Est, Boulogne-Billancourt, ETAI, 2008, 239 p. () (OCLC 470767381) *KRÁLÍK, Jan: Utajené projekty Škoda; GRADA Publishing 2007, *CEDRYCH, Mario René & NACHTMANN, Lukáš: ŠKODA – auta známá i neznámá; GRADA Publishing 2003, *Škoda VOS: Pro bolševiky od Prahy po Peking

External links

Škoda VOS in Škoda Auto museum 2003

Picture of Škoda VOS
{{DEFAULTSORT:Skoda VOS (1949-1952) VOS 1950s cars Rear-wheel-drive vehicles Full-size vehicles Luxury vehicles Sedans Cars introduced in 1949 Cars discontinued in 1952