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Skoda hints at what's to come from Volkswagen with S2000 WRC title

To the outsider, it would be all too easy to forget that the FIA World Rally Championship has more than one class. Just like Le Mans endurance racing has various LMP and GT racing categories, and NASCAR has the Sprint Cup, Nationwide Series and Camping World Truck Series, so too does the WRC have more than one tier. So while the Sebastien Loeb and the Citroën World Rally Team were locking up their seventh title in the top tier of the championship, Skoda took its first title in the Super 2000 category as its Finnish crew Juho Hänninen and Mikko Markkula won took a class win and 10th overall in the RACC Rally of Spain this past weekend.
So what, who cares, you ask? Well you'd be forgiven for dismissing an overseas automaker (whose products we don't even get here) winning a second-tier rally series that doesn't come here, either. (Mexico's the closest stage on this year's calendar.) But we'll tell you why it matters: Skoda's sister (or parent) company Volkswagen is entering the top-tier WRC next season with the new Polo R. And while VW has enjoyed much success in rally-raid events like Dakar, the WRC is an entirely different beast.
In order to prepare for its assault on the most world's foremost rally series, Volkswagen has been looking to Skoda's program to test out everything from machinery to personnel. And given that Skoda - whose motorsport division celebrates its 110th anniversary this year - has come out on top, we could be looking at a very serious contender from Wolfsburg for next year's championship.

Seat officially unveils new Toledo

One week after leaked images appeared online and just a few days after its sister car, the Škoda Rapid, was revealed, the Seat Toledo has taken a bow. Expected to "write a whole new success story" for the Seat, the five-door and its "timeless personality" has a mission to be "a great car for a great price." All of which sounds like the Spanish marque really has very little to say about their new model, eh?
In contrast to the Škoda's seven powerplant options, three will be on the Seat menu at launch: two petrol-flavored offerings in the form of a 1.2-liter, 73-horsepower TSI and a 1.4-liter, 119-hp TSI, and an oil-burning 1.6-liter, 102-hp TDI. Next year, a less potent 1.6-liter, 88-hp diesel will be added to the range.
We'll have live shots of it from the Paris Auto Salon floor later this fall, after which it will appear in Spanish and Portuguese showrooms before exports expand to other parts of the world. Prices will be announced closer to launch, so scroll down for a presser with the other details on Seat's new baby.

Skoda recreates Stonehenge out of old cars

The UK has a burgeoning car market filled with all sorts of cars we don't get here. So to get buyers' attention, automakers need to make a real splash. To that end, Skoda has erected a fresh take on one of the island nation's oldest landmarks... only in a more automotive form.
Dubbed Citihenge, the installation is inspired by the ancient Stonehenge in Wiltshire, recreated out of old cars. It was built over the course of three months under the direction of renowned installation artist Tommy Gun, and put in place in less than 12 hours. Using eighteen scrap cars weighing a total of 36 metric tons, each of the henges measures five meters tall by five meters wide and is made to withstand force-12 hurricane winds. Still, it can be entirely recycled.
The installation was erected on the south bank of the Thames next to London's famous Tower Bridge just in time for the summer solstice, and marks the arrival of the Skoda Citigo (the Czech version of the Volkswagen Up!) in the British market.