Most people say that car design peaked somewhere in the 60's or 70's, but it would be nothing without inspiration from the 30's and 40's. This week's episode of Petrolicious features the Tatra T87, an iconic car from the Czech republic that has been skilfuly restored back to mint condition by Mr. Paul Greenstein, probably the biggest Tatra collector and aficionado in the world.
The design of the car can be summed up by three elements – rear-mounted air-cooled V8, three headlights and a dorsal fin. Credited with is Art Deco look is Graf Zeppelin designer Paul Jaray. And what an engine!
Powering the T87 is a 2.9 liter air-cooled overhead cam V8 produced 85 hp, mechanically similar to aircraft and Zeppelin engines. A windowless cowling covers it and gives the Czech car its typical sense.
The Tatra company was started by Hans Ledwinka before World War I. After the hostilities had ended, his first true production car, the T11, came out in 1923. Eleven years later in 1934, the T77 became the most aerodynamically advanced automobile in the world with a low drag coefficient of 0.212. The T87 which came after it was Ledwinka's shining moment, unfortunately cut short by Hitler and the Nazi war effort.
When the Germans annexed Czechoslovakia, they took over the Tatra factory. Hitler himself showed interesting in the company, as the a T97 model of that time because the blueprint for the design of the Beetle, the German people's car.
Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida. Full profile
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