Last Tatra

[Trav]

I though some may find this interesting. Tatra was using air cooled engine in the rear long before Ferdinand Porsche thought of the peoples car or Porsche models and settled a law suit out of court over it. Tucker I would bet also used their design as a base for his cars, they look remotely similar to the old 603.
They had an air cooled rear mounted V8 hemi that was surprisingly good, the cars were well made.

The Bittersweet Joy of Driving the Last Tatra

The Tatra 700 was the Czech automaker's attempt at a modern, air-cooled, rear-engine luxury sedan. It was the last passenger car Tatra would ever make.

www.roadandtrack.com

 

[daves87rs]

Quite cool and quirky!

 

[ecotourist]

Tatra was a really neat auto manufacturer. The interior of the 700 is very nice.

 

[Passport1]

V8, air cooled, rear engine, manual transmission. That is a really neat car. Czech ed all the boxes for me.

 

[Pelican]

Was the NSU the first with rear air-cooled engined like the Prinz?

 

[john_pifer]

They‘re really cool, unique, and well-made cars! I’d never heard of Tatra until I visited Lane Motor Museum here in Nashville, which had several on display, including this manual transmission 700.

 

[john_pifer]

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[oggb]

They‘re really cool, unique, and well-made cars! I’d never heard of Tatra until I visited Lane Motor Museum here in Nashville, which had several on display, including this manual transmission 700.

That's actually the exact car that's in that article.

 

[Trav]

I almost bought a 603 when the wall first came down, back in those days it was a nice MC ride to the border to buy cheap smokes that were made in Bayreuth Germany that was not far away but sold at low prices with no tax if you bought them from the legit inter shops and not the Vietnamese roadside markets.
The look of the 603 with its quirky engine appealed to me but then the questions of parts and how I would service it not knowing much about Eastern Block cars, so I sort of let it go from my mind, today I wish I had bought it. At that time it was being sold for next to nothing and appeared to be in decent shape with a nice interior.

 

[Jetronic]

I would never equate Tatras with cheap, uninspired, or low budget.

What isn't mentioned, they made some of the fastest cars pre and post war, winning a lot of long distance races. They seemed to know what they were doing at Tatra.

 

[Trav]

Some of their trucks are amazing off road vehicles and often seen in big rallies like the Paris-Dakar. I see they have postage stamps with their image.

 

[2EHA]

the czechoslovaks designed and used a lot of their own stuff during the cold war.

guns, trucks, armored vehicles, trainer aircraft and more