“I joined the communist party when I was around forty-nine years old, working for the institute. How should I put it – back then they asked me why I was entering the party. I told them that I thought that if I did my job properly and well, it would be sufficient but then I found out that it wouldn’t. And they clapped their hands for me… But it was true. As long as one wasn’t a party member, one wasn’t allowed to serve in decision-making offices. And since I wanted to do it; wanted to take part in it, I had to join the party. Let me tell you, when someone in your life gives you the opportunity to develop a car according to your vision, you can’t say no. So obviously I took the opportunity and designed the Favorit model.“
“First thing we did is that we brought back a car model made from plaster – it looked like a car but it wasn’t a car. Various government representatives came to see it and they liked it, so that was good. But still, there was no coming back. Even if they had said they wanted it done differently, there was nothing I could do. The same goes for the name Favorit – I saw it as a reminiscence of my daddy. Before the war, Škoda produced four models: Popular, Favorit, Rapid and Superb. Rapid was already taken for a coupé produced in Kvasiny. Superb was out of the question; everyone would have laughed at me. So I was left with either Popular or Favorit. And Bertone said he wouldn’t like it to be Popular. So, we called it Favorit. And then various magazines, such as Svět motorů, undertook a public survey for the name of the car while I kept saying – you can easily do that but the name is done. I had everything ordered, all the inscriptions on the car, all of it was already being produced. There was no way the name would change.“
“So I applied. I remember this to this day that I had enrolled on 30 August 1948 as an apprentice of mechanical engineering – No. 9809 – to the Škoda factory. Back then there was still this sort of a society in Mladá Boleslav – businessmen and hotel owners whose property wasn’t stolen by the communists yet – who pitied my daddy. They said that it was horrible for his son to become a simple apprentice. For them, it was something unworthy. So I went to train there and after a year applied for a technical school and was accepted. I graduated with honors – practically straight A’s. Nevertheless, by the end of the final exam, an assessment arrived claiming that I was a great student who helped his colleagues, gave public Russian courses, was engaged in various activities, but allegedly, ‘doing all of this only to further damage the socialist system!’”
Petr Hrdlička was born on 12 September 1934 in Mladá Boleslav into the family of the director of the local automobile factory ASAP, a predecessor of Škoda. As a child he experienced the times of the Protectorate during which his father had to leave his job at the factory and only narrowly escaped an arrest by the Gestapo during a house search. From 1944 until 1948 Petr Hrdlička studied an elementary school in Mladá Boleslav. Following the communist coup of February 1948 he had to do a one-year apprenticeship in the Škoda factory. After that he was allowed to study at a technical school which he finished in 1953. He then got a job placement at the Research Institute for Motor Vehicles in Prague where he served as an assistant, and where he spent a significant portion of his professional life. Over the years he worked his way up and became an indispensable expert in car design and construction. He participated in the development of Škoda 1000 MB model and already during the 1960s gained international experience by working for the Peugeot and Volkswagen car factories. His life success became a project announced in 1982. It was a new Škoda car with motor placed in the front, which was named after a traditional model of the factory - Favorit. Ever since 1990 when he left the factory, Petr Hrdlička has worked for several Czech and international companies working in the production and sales of cars, tramways and other vehicles.
Hrdinové 20. století odcházejí. Nesmíme zapomenout. Dokumentujeme a vyprávíme jejich příběhy. Záleží vám na odkazu minulých generací, na občanských postojích, demokracii a vzdělávání? Pomozte nám!
