FOR years it was at the receiving end of some of the cruellest car jokes to be told but never was one made about the Skoda 1100 Spider.

It's one of the rarest cars on the planet, only three were made, only two survive and only one works - and we have just driven it.

Valued at a quarter of a million pounds the Spider was part of an eclectic mix of models old and new that Skoda brought together in the UK to mark its 120th anniversary.

Built in 1958 and with Ferrari-esque looks, the Spider is a stunning piece of engineering that demonstrates all the qualities of Skoda's rich lineage.

In the 1960s it claimed several race victories behind the Iron Curtain including a one-two in Leningrad in 1962 and even by today's standards it feels fresh and free on the move.

Powered by a 1,089cc four stroke overhead cam high revving engine the Spider could call on a healthy 92bhp at 7,700 revs - an incredible specific power output for its day.

Designed by Frantisek Sajdl, the Spider has a tubular spaceframe chassis and a fibreglass body which gives it a weight of just 550kg.

It has a five-speed gearbox - again something which would be considered an innovation back in the 1950s - and once fired up there is no doubt of its potency.

A distinctive thrum turns into a growl under acceleration and with the cockpit exposed behind a tiny windscreen and a high seating position there is a considerable rush under acceleration.

On a small handling track at the former RAF Bicester air base in Oxfordshire where Skoda staged the anniversary event, the Spider felt remarkably nimble as it went through its paces.

Even with worm and nut steering it demonstrated considerable accuracy although with drum brakes all round it demanded a degree of respect.

The Spider is good for 125mph, the acceleration is as sharp as any sportster of today and for its time you could consider it in the same league as the mighty machines from the likes of Porsche, Jaguar and Maserati.

For a 57-year-old car it displayed all of the innovation which has become a characteristic of the Czech brand.

Move forward eight years to the Skoda 1000 MB from 1966 and there was another example of originality with this rear-engined four-door saloon having a remote release fuel filler cap doubling up as its off-side front wing badge.

It also had a full-sized spare wheel stowed beneath the boot at the front of the car while inside the speedo was unusually calibrated with divisions of 15, 30, 45, 60, 75 and 90mph.

The latter was probably a little ambitious given its top speed of 78mph yet out on the road it drove with a degree of composure that would have been very acceptable back in the Swinging Sixties where with a list price of £580 it was considerably cheaper than the likes of a Ford Cortina - and it had a heater as standard as well as reclining front seats.

Skoda has always done things differently - take the likes of umbrellas fitted inside the armrests and an ice scraper concealed behind the filler flap on some of its current models - but go back to the likes of the Octavia saloon of 1964 and you'd find a backwards gearbox with first sitting where third or fifth resides today.

Or how about a different pedal arrangement as we found on a 1929 Skoda 422 - the oldest car at the event - where the accelerator was in the middle and the brake pedal to the right. A challenge to drive if ever there was.

The 422 was produced 25 years after Skoda made its first car, the 25mph Voiturette Type A in 1905. - at the Mlada Boleslav factory which still is home to most of its models.

The company was created by mechanic Vaclav Laurin and bookseller Vaclav Klement in 1895. Both were cycling fanatics and set out to make bicycles under the name Slavia at the Mlada Boleslav factory which still is home to most of its models.

Four years later they moved into motorbike production, changing the company name to Laurin & Klement and enjoyed considerable success even winning the unofficial world motorcycling championship, the France's Coupe Dourdan, in 1905.

In the 1920s it merged with the Skoda engineering company and continued to feature strongly in the European motor racing scene both before and after the Second World War, notching up class wins in the Monte Carlo Rally and going on to win the European Touring Car championship in 1981.

It became part of the Volkswagen Group in 1991 and has blossomed with global sales passing the million cars a year milestone in 2014.