Tatra with illustrious military history at Panshanger

| 13 Nov 2010

A remarkable slew of vintage and classic cars (as well as planes and motorcycles) featured at the second Panshanger Revival Day on 22 August.
An American-built Spartan Executive was flown in by UK aerobatics ace Mark Jeffries, while standout British machinery included an Auster and a de Havilland Dragon Rapide.
Nick White's '32 Tatra Type 57 led a chequered past, including being commandeered by the German military to flee the Russians in Czechoslovakia towards the end of WW2. They made it across the Austrian border before running out of petrol and abandoning the car. It was then acquired by the local burgermeister, who pushed it into a ditch to make it look as if it had crashed and later laid claim to it, having had his own car requisitioned for the war effort.
His daughter subsequently married an Englishman who was given the car and it eventually found its way to the UK.
White has got it back on the road after much fettling over the past two years. He said its air-cooled, pushrod flat-four is "devilishly noisy".