Meet the Skoda that ran on human blood
It was only a one-off, but it was one of the best-looking vampires on the big screen
As a fan of horror movies, I was outraged when Twilight saga depicted vampires as friendly creatures who are sponsored by Volvo. In my mind, vampires need to look fearsome, menacing and cruel. So, if you ask me, one of the best-looking vampires on the big screen is actually a car - more precisely a Skoda 110 Super Sport.
Credit: Skoda Heritage
In a 1982 Czechoslovak movie Upír z Feratu (or ‘Ferat Vampire’), an ambulance driver Mima starts working as a rally driver for a foreign company Ferat. To make things scary, rumours circle around saying that Ferat cars use human blood as their fuel…and that is the fun of the movie. If you haven’t seen the movie, I recommend it, but for now, let’s focus on the car.
Movie poster. Credit: IMDb
It was presented at the 1972 Brussels Auto Show and immediately gained a lot of attention. The most unusual thing about it is the fact it had a Skoda badge, which really stood out in the company’s line-up.
This angular-shaped mid-engined 2-seater was completely modern for its time, being a result of pure petrolhead imagination. At the front, it had 6 pop-up headlights. 6!!! They were styled to look like huge rally fog-lights and would pop out of the upper part of the “nose”. At the back, there were 16 taillights made to look like rocket jets.
That wasn’t because designers were smoking something funny, but because they were inspired by the whole ‘jet-styling’ insanity. And they didn’t stop on the lights…
Instead of initial plans to use ‘scissor’ or ‘gullwing’ doors, the designers went for something even cooler - a canopy that would tilt forward. BRILLIANT!
Credit: Skoda Motorsport
For the movie purposes, the car had some changes. The original white paint was removed, and it received a more sinister black and red spec. Pop up headlamps were replaced with fixed square ones, while rear lights were replaced with those from a Skoda 120.
The Ferat Vampire redesign. Credit: Skoda Motorsport
What’s interesting is that the Super Sport didn’t use an existing chassis but received a new one. With added roll-cage and fiberglass body, the car weighed only 900 kilograms. Its bloodthirsty heart was a 1.1-litre 4-cylinder engine with 73 HP. This was enough to give it a top speed of 180 kph (112 mph).
The initial plan was to develop a 1.5-litre OHC engine for it, but that never went into production due to political reasons. Instead, the car received a heart transplant and was given a more powerful 104 HP 1.2-litre engine (borrowed from a Skoda 110 L Rallye), which improved the top speed to 211 kph (131 mph).
During filming of 'Ferat Vampire'. Credit: Skoda Motorsport
The Super Sport was meant to have a limited production run which, sadly, never happened. Only one was ever made, and after appearing on the big screen (almost a decade after being revealed) it received the word ‘Ferat’ in its name.
Skoda Fabia R5. Tribute for the 110 Ferat. Credit: Skoda Storyboard
During its 48 years of life, the 110 Super Sport Ferat has not changed its address and still resides at the Skoda HQ at Mladá Boleslav. The company wanted to repaint the car to its original spec after movie was finished, but they eventually agreed that it looks better in black and red spec and left it as it is. On the 35th anniversary of the movie premiere, Skoda presented a Fabia R5 with the same color scheme as a tribute to a car that put Skoda on the big screen.
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Comments (22)
On of great eastern cars that failed "due to political reasons".
Lol look at my name.
Very cool car I have never heard of. Talking of cars running on blood I watched a movie based in a apocalyptic world where water in short supply and fuel was in short supply, to get around the shortage of fuel and strange group of people converted their cars to run on humans and they have a race across America. The main character had ironically a classic 1960's Chevrolet Camaro (insert Clarkson's joke on murders car). I can't remember what the film was called but if anyone knows please let me know.
Blood Drive? Red 67 Camaro(
That's the one.
Such a cool story
Uber cool if you ask me
The car looks like a child between an Aston Martin V8 Zagato and an Alfa Romeo Navajo. It's a compliment XD