Air cooled Tatra V8!

[Decolliber]

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/31/automobiles/31CARS.html

There is one in a Czech museum near where I live - must go and see it.

[Z-man]

Linky no worky, unless you're a subscriber to NYTIMES...

-Z-man.

[Decolliber]

Its free; just sign in.

Or go to NYT home page and you may be able to get to it w/out signing in

[Victor]

My Czech father in law reckon's Porsche and the Nazi's stole all of their automotive concepts from Tatra when Chamberlain did his deed.

[Decolliber]

Here is article. Note reference to Porsche.

An East European Tour de Force, Often Copied but Still Unsung
By MATTHEW HEALEY

For an American car enthusiast, the first sighting is often a chance encounter on the streets of Prague. There is a magical quality about the beast, weird and coolly beautiful at the same time. The American may be puzzled - weren't all Eastern European cars small and boxy like the Yugo?

If the viewer is lucky, the car will be in motion and the purr of the air-cooled V-8 engine will reply, no, I am a Tatra, the streamlined Czechoslovak queen of the road.

Until the 1990's, vintage Tatras were little known in the West - hardly a surprise, since they were mainly used by the Politburos and secret police of several East bloc nations, prized for their size, speed and good mileage. They were far too expensive for ordinary citizens, and attempts to export the cars to the West were sporadic and lackluster.

William McCoskey, however, managed to find and purchase the car he had dreamed of since 1957, when as a 5-year-old he fell in love with Tatras after seeing a T 603 in Time magazine. "It was so unlike any other car I had seen," said Mr. McCoskey of Taneytown, Md. "From that moment I knew I wanted one."

He finally got his Tatra in 1993, having found one in Germany. Now president of a Tatra enthusiasts' group, Mr. McCoskey estimates that there are just 20 to 30 T 603's and Tatraplan 600's in the United States and Canada; owners are unlikely to share the spotlight at any local show.

The story of Tatra is one of innovation, repression and vindication. The company got its start in the 1850's in Moravia (then part of the Austrian Empire, later Czechoslovakia) making buggies and railway cars. Auto production began with the Präsident in 1897.

A brilliant young engineer named Hans Ledwinka joined the company around that time and introduced innovations like all-wheel brakes, air-cooled engines and a central tube chassis with independent rear suspension. The Tatra's design and construction were years ahead of their time, strongly influencing Ferdinand Porsche, who was developing the Volkswagen Beetle on orders from Hitler; Porsche appropriated several of Ledwinka's ideas for VW.

"Porsche admitted he was basically looking over Ledwinka's shoulder," Mr. McCoskey said.

By the early 1930's, Tatra was testing aerodynamic design elements by a Hungarian designer, Paul Jaray. Many of these were incorporated into the design of the Tatra 77 of 1934. The air-cooled V-8 engine was placed behind the rear axle, allowing a spacious, quiet interior, and the car had a top speed of 90 miles an hour.

Ledwinka continued to tinker and produced a more graceful and compact model, the T 87, in 1936.

To keep the car light, much of the Tatra V-8, an advanced overhead-cam design, was made of aluminum. Like its predecessor, the sleek T 87 had an airplane-type central fin at the rear, air-intake scoops along the sides to direct cooling air to the engine and a third headlight that turned with the front wheels to cast light around a curve - as the Tuckers did years later.

After World War II, Communist central planners shifted production to a rival carmaker, Skoda, where the Tatraplan T 600 was made. But in 1957 car production returned to Tatra with a new streamlined model, the T 603. A descendant of the T 87, the first 603 also had three headlamps, an air-cooled V-8 and the same innovative chassis, although it traded the distinctive tailfin and louvers for a normal rear window.

A handful of Tatras were imported to Canada during the cold war. "Canadians loved the 600 for its cold-weather abilities," Mr. McCoskey said. "The air-cooled engines are perfect for the winters."

Today, the streamlined Tatras have a devoted, and growing, following. "Many people love the look of it," said Alex Veronac, a full-time Tatra importer and restorer in London, Ontario. Mr. Veronac supplied the pair of T 603's used in the recent Paramount film "Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events."

Mr. Veronac pointed out that the 603 was not for private owners - the colors were bland and the plastics were plain. When he refurbishes a car, he spends as much effort on upgrading the interior as on the engine and body. "If you're investing $30,000 in a car, you don't want it to feel like it was done on a beer budget," he said.

Obtaining parts in the United States can be a challenge. Danny Burnett of Las Vegas bought his T 603 at auction for a mere $2,500 in 1984, but after many years in the sun it needed new paint and "jewelry" - a hood emblem and light lenses. Mr. Burnett eventually got a box full of replacements for $150 from a Czech émigré with contacts at the Tatra factory. "I was like a kid at Christmas when that arrived," Mr. Burnett said.

One of the few Tatras on display in the United States is an orchid-blue T 603 at the National Czech and Slovak Museum in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. It belongs to Larry Claypool, a devotee of air-cooled engines and offbeat cars who runs an automotive business in Illinois. Mr. Claypool's car was found by a friend in Austria and came with detailed documentation of the car's provenance. "The first owner was the Planning Ministry in Prague. They kept track of every mile driven."

Tatras were generally returned to the factory in Koprivnice, Moravia after a few years for refurbishing, including "upgrades" like a more conventional front end with four headlamps. For this reason, original 603's with three headlights are rare.

Production of the T 603 continued until the 1970's, when the car was phased out in favor of the grim T 613, which had all the style of a Soviet-era apartment building. Tatra's last automobile was the ungainly T 700; car production ended in 1997. Today, Tatra makes trucks that are often used for mining and exploration.

Asked about obtaining a Tatra today, Mr. Veronac laughs. "Ten years ago, you could get a T 87 for $10,000 or $15,000, if you could find it," he said. "Today, an owner has invested $50,000 or $60,000 and he won't sell it because he is completely in love with it."

Karel Simek left Czechoslovakia in 1968 and eventually settled in New York. In the late 1990's, nostalgic for the cars of his youth, he asked a friend in the Czech Republic to find him a T 87.

"After a year and a half of searching, he still couldn't find me anything but high-priced wrecks," Mr. Simek said. "So I settled for a 1949 Tatraplan 600." He now has three Tatras: the T 600, a dark green T 603 that was restored in the Czech Republic and a 1920's T 57. "For the T 57, I needed a letter of agreement from the National Technical Museum in Prague to export her," he said.

Mr. McCoskey, the club president, explained: "You can bring in a pre-1968 T 603 quite easily. They are available in Europe, although you have to search a bit.

"For a prewar T 87, you need an export license from the Czech Republic, which can be harder to get, because they've realized what a national treasure it is."

[Superman]

I really want to see some pics.

[Victor]

Originally posted by Superman
I really want to see some pics.

Close your eyes.

Think of a giant grey cockroach on wheels with a split rear window. And no legs.

[SteveStromberg]

Here are some links.
Anyone in San Pedro seen the one parked by the Catholic Church?
http://www.team.net/www/ktud/Tatra.html
http://www.tatra.demon.nl/
http://www.tatra-register.co.uk/
http://www.tatraworld.nl/
http://www.clearlight.com/~brawicz/tatra_trucks/
http://www.mujweb.cz/www/tomasm/
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/HYPHEN/tatra.htm
http://home.att.net/~mikekiley/
http://home.clara.net/peterfrost/tatra.html

[Decolliber]

From my Observer's Book of Automobiles for 1961:

[SteveStromberg]

[SteveStromberg]