{"id":12258,"date":"2019-10-25T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-10-25T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.secret-classics.com\/85-years-of-koda-superb\/"},"modified":"2020-10-08T11:43:55","modified_gmt":"2020-10-08T11:43:55","slug":"85-years-of-koda-superb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.secret-classics.com\/en\/85-years-of-koda-superb\/","title":{"rendered":"85 Years of \u0160koda Superb"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Since the beginnings of the company’s history, when the brand was still known as ‘Laurin & Klement’, \u0160koda has had luxurious automobiles to offer. As early as 1907, an eight-cylinder engine was produced in Mlad\u00e1 Boleslav for the first time in Central Europe, which installed in the type FF. This was later followed by inline six-cylinder engines based on the Knight design principle with gate valves instead of normal valves, and finally the prestigious \u0160koda 860 came along in 1929 with a newly developed inline eight-cylinder engine. On 22 October 1934, the Czech company presented the 640 with a central tube frame and independent suspension all around as the successor model. The saloon was 5.5 meters long, 1.7 meters wide and 1.66 meters tall. In addition to the pure number designation, \u0160koda also chose a real model name for the first time and baptized the 640 ‘Superb’. Next to the English meaning of the word (great, extraordinary, outstanding), the Latin word stem ‘superbus’ was also used to advertise the car, as it means ‘proud’. All in all a very fitting name for a luxury car.

Despite its premiere in October 1934, it took until January 1935 before the first car was delivered. It was painted red at the request of Pavla Loevenstein, the wife of the then \u0160koda Group General Director, JUDr. Karel Loevenstein. Regular customers received their 640 Superb from March 1935 and soon had to put up with longer waiting times due to its great popularity. From today’s point of view it may be amusing, but at that time there were four weeks of wait for the closed limousine and even eight weeks for the Superb Cabriolet, which was considered as a long time with some customers. If someone chose certain optional extras such as rosewood shelves behind the front seats, the production time could be further extended. \u0160koda also offered a car radio with tubes at that time. The car was powered by a 2.5-liter straight six-cylinder engine with 40.5 kW\/55 hp.<\/p>\n\n\n

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