Skodas were certainly in the Mobilgas Trials of 1957 and '58. This little 1979 publication by Harry Cape relates how he entered the Redex Trials and the two Mobilgas Trials. The first four times were in FJ and then FE Holdens, but in the '58 Mobilgas entered in a Skoda 440, later known as the Octavia. Three were entered by Hercules Motors, the Skoda importers, one driven by Ken Tubman. When they picked the cars up in Sydney, they took one look at the protruding diff drain plug, but was told not to worry about it. Sure enough, two of them left long trails of oil after the plugs were knocked out on the high crowned roads leading up the Western Australian coast. Tubman actually finished 12th and took out the 'Overseas entry' ahead of the Datsuns and Toyopets. The photo of the crew under the car shows a Czechoslovak rego plate, but Harry Cape relates that the car was taken back to his farm where it was restored to normal by removing all the special rally bits, and later sold. Maybe the importers didn't want to pay the duties on one of the cars, so instead of it returning to Czechoslovakia was destroyed.