The Cal-look Lounge

maybe some of you can apresiate this buitiful automobile. it deffenetly cought my eye because its odd. from far away were i was looking at it  resembels a beetle. i read just a short parigraff on wickapedia on it. volkswagen actualy got sued from the company.    THE TATRA what a cool car. maybe keith or deano can shed some more light on this buity. excuse my ignorince on the car but i thought i mite bring some aircooled excitment to the table its been awile . UD .

Your right, what a car.  It was built in German occupied Czechoslovakia. It's a 1941 year with air cooled V8 rear engine.
At least I think this info is correct. The only thing I am note sure about is the where it was made. I'm pretty sure thou.
It sure brought a little bit of oddity to our parking lot this morning.  The Tatra automobile is still made. They also make trucks and I think electric car also.  Dave Rhoads

Those lights look almost like Marchals, or some kind of multi bulb hallogens.

pretty cool .
leno has one , but not sure if you see it in his virtual garage .

Yeah Tatra is pretty far from being a german car. It is a very old automotive brand from former Czechoslovakia, now Czech republic. My country is well known as a place where Ferdinand Porsche was born, and also for original Pilsener beer from the city of Pilsen and budweiser beer from the city of Budweis.

It is an long time ongoing heated debate whether F. Porsche stole the ideas and concept of central tube chassis and rear aircooled engined car from Hans Ledwinka, chief engineer of Tatra. It is sure that they knew each other and as Porsche later said, "they looked over each other shoulder". 

here,s another version a TATRA snow mobile 1 of them was only built this one is a replica.  8) UD .

Tartra 87 – have driven one on various occasions as a good friend of mine owns one, along with a Tatra 603 and a Tatraplan. The black car in Fred's photo is a Tatraplan, which is the flat-four-engined 'compact' model. The cooling arrangement on this looks like a poor man's 356 Carrera set-up!

Driving the Tatra with its big rear-mounted air-cooled V8 engine, is like driving a London bus. It's big, unwieldy and makes the most amazing sound. It almost literally stops other traffic dead in its tracks. The handling is best described as 'interesting', as it is a swing-axle design at the back. The car was first seen pre-War and it is rumoured that Nazi officials were forbidden to drive them during the war as several fatal accidents occurred when drive at speed. I can quite believe it!

http://www.jaylenosgarage.com/video/clips/tatra-t87/277881/

Very interesting car.

While that's true I don't really see the point in that debate.

Bolt pattern was among the ideas the Ferdinand copied, another Luftsick member has this later model V8 Tatra with repro Berms:

(http://www.terovirta.com/images/2000_AmCarShow_18.jpg)

(http://www.terovirta.com/images/2000_AmCarShow_22.jpg)

(http://www.terovirta.com/images/2000_AmCarShow_20.jpg)

That's a second generation 603. Very cool...

working on it ;)