Clockwork orange; Nearly half a century down the road, the second of two very special racing cars has finally found its way safely back 'home', writes BRUCE BOOTH.

Byline: BRUCE BOOTH

SO you think you're a bit of a motoring buff. Well, can you identify this rare little sports racer OK, there's no prizes for guessing correctly, but here's a couple of clues. It's not a kit car and it wasmadeby a mainstream manufacturer who have been around for more than 100 years.

Give up?Well don't take it too much to heart if you didn't guess, but what you're looking at is in fact a 1958 Skoda 1100 OHC sports racing car.

One of only two built by the Czechoslovakian company, the 92bhp, 1089cc, 125mph rear-wheel drive machines made their markon Eastern European tracks away from the prying eyes of the Western motoring press, so their racing history is a little sketchy.

At the end of theirracing careers Skoda put one of the machines into their ownmuseum while the other becameunusedand neglected.

However, Czech student Martin Svetnicka was aware of the second car's existence andmanaged to track it downand bought it.

Svetnicka was a student at Imperial College, London, when the Russians invaded Czechoslovakia, but he got permission to visit Prague for a month over Christmas 1968, and got the car going, intending to drive it to London.

With no roof, no windscreen and all his posessions packed inside,Svetnicka and a hitchhiker set off in the snow for the longdrive. But their visas were not quite in order and the car wasimpounded overnight at the German border.

Svetnicka talked a goodgameand the border guards finally relented, letting him continue his journey.

More trouble followed when the car broke down outside Wiesbaden.

A local garage owner agreed to store the car in his workshop for a month, after which time he said hewould scrap it if it wasn't removed.

True to his word, Svetnicka returned with a friend andthe Skoda was finally towed safely to England.

Svetnicka never managed to fully restore the car and in 1972 it was sold to the Midland Motor Museumwhere it languished at the bottom of their restoration list for 15 years.

In 1987 the Skoda was bought by Alex Postnan and journalist Jonathan Gill, who tracked it down after reading an article about its appearance at the 1959 Geneva Motor Show.

It was Postnan'sintention to rebuild and race the race in the UK.

However, Duncan Rabagliati persuaded Gill and Postnan to sell it to him after it was pointed out that to modify it for six-foot Postnan would destroy a very rare and original car.

Rabagliati had the tubular-framed, glass fibre machine partially restored in time to take part in the 1989 Norwich Union Classic Car Run.

But in April, 1998, the racer returned"home" when Skoda UK paid pounds 47,000 for it, the highest price paid to date for any modelby the Czech auto manufacturer