Cars from Mladá Boleslav have borne the Škoda emblem since 1925, and they soon drove to their first successes at the Monte Carlo Rally; in January 1936, the duo Zdeněk Pohl/Ing. Jaroslav Hausman took an excellent second place in the up to 1,500 cm³ class with the Škoda Popular Sport roadster. This result inspired the company to expand its model range to include the Škoda Popular Sport Monte Carlo, which the manufacturer offered as a roadster and a coupé. Just seventy of these vehicles were built between 1936 and 1939.
One year later, Pohl and Hausman decided that they would not start the 1937 rally in Athens, which was ‘only’ 3,852km away from Monaco, as they had done the previous year. Instead, they would depart from Palermo in Sicily, 4,134km away, earning them 500 points. Only four of the original 30 vehicles survived the rigours of this demanding route. With their Škoda Rapid coupé, powered by a reliable 1.4-litre SV four-cylinder engine, they successfully passed the checkpoints.
However, the duo ended up in fourth place overall instead of second because of two penalty points. These were deducted by the commissioners after their English rivals protested about the rear-view mirror being too small. The mirror’s outer dimensions were in line with the regulations, but the reflective surface without the frame was much smaller.
Pohl and Hausman could have swapped the mirror for a larger one before the official inspection, but this would have gone against their spirit of fair play. Upon returning to Prague, the management of the car manufacturer at the time also publicly acknowledged this sportsmanship.