By John Coyle

Editor

To be honest, I'd never even heard of Tatra before I saw this video on Jay Leno's Garage. Along with its super aerodynamic sheet metal, the Czech car had a rear-mounted V8, and got 20 miles a gallon at 60MPH. That's pretty impressive for a car built in 1937. You know what else is impressive? After the Nazi army invaded Czechoslovakia, the T87 became popular with its officers, who loved the speed and handling of the car. Fortunately, many couldn't handle the performance, and enough were killed behind the wheel that Hitler eventually forbade his officers from driving them. Way to go Tatra!   

Comments

PraetoR
Jul 28, 2008 9:18:54 AM

The first serially produced streamlined wasn't T87, but it's predecedor T77.

If you want to learn about tatra trucks design, I recommend you to youtube. There are a few nice clips from 1920's with 6x6s :)

And then go hardcore on youtube and search for truck trial tatra! Nothing can match these cars off the roads!