Any Tatra is a rare sight in the UK, yet in the February 2015 issue of Classic & Sports Car, available via our digital archive, Andrew Roberts assembled four of the Czech luxury saloons.
These bizarre, air-cooled, rear-engined V8 limousines are such an interesting counterpoint to how the luxury saloon developed in the rest of the world.
Trapped behind the Iron Curtain, shielded from market forces and competition, Tatra is a view into a parallel universe, where from a starting point of the pre-war T77, the Moravian company continued with a pioneering design that would ultimately prove a blind alley, all the way until the late 1990s.
Rear-engined V8 Tatras are an unusual sight in the UK, but we gathered four in our February 2015 issue
Andrew’s story in the February 2015 edition of Classic & Sports Car starts with the beautifully ornate T87, a car that convincingly displays pre-war Czechoslovakia’s status as Europe’s fifth major industrial country, after Britain, France, Germany and Italy.
Post-war, the Tatra became the limousine of communist government officials, via the 603, one of history’s true spaceships, with its rounded front end, teardrop shape and split rear window.
