New Škoda museum in the works – and car lovers can help build it

The new World of Škoda Museum museum planned for the Benešov region will open early next year with more than 100 unique, vintage cars on display for fans of the Czech automaker.

The museum, located in the small town of Mrač, just north of Benešov, is set to open next spring and will have more than 100 older Škoda cars spread out among 60 different exhibits. The museum will feature a 1400 m2 permanent exhibition space, short-term exhibition spaces, a café with a children's corner, and a conference room and a shop.

The masterminds behind the museum, Škoda collector Tomáš Hervert and entrepreneur Pavel Zima, have a unique way to raise the funds to renovate the building for the museum: a two-week-long crowdfunding campaign. So far they have raised over CZK 300,000 for renovations. You can check it out here.

Those who contribute will receive tickets to the museum as well as a ride in one of the sports cars. In addition, people or businesses can opt to become sponsors for one of the exhibits.

The museum will have a number of unique and rare cars on display when it opens.

Prototypes of the Škoda 1000 MB, 110 R, Garde and 720 models will be on display, as well as different bodies of the Škoda 1202. The popular Favorit will also have a home in the museum, but as a specially modified version with a hydraulic chassis for the transport of the handicapped.

The oldest car in the museum will be the 1934 Škoda Popular Coupe, a special racing edition with an aluminum aerodynamic body made for the 1000 mile Czechoslovak race.

The newest car will be Václav Klaus' presidential Superb.

The museum will also have an original Škoda 110R, which then-Czechoslovakia donated to Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev in the 1970s. Brezhnev later returned the car, as he did not like it.