See these Great Czech Cars in Tampa

I've been to a couple of great car museums in Florida(one with a Tucker) but this place my friend went to in Tampa looks truly unique in their selection of cars. Anyone else even know about some of these Czech models?
http://bit.ly/J2fuPl

 

Nothing more, but I can vouch for it as a great museum. And there are more neat cars than just Czech ones! Gary

 

Tatras are really cool looking cars, especially the fastback models (early 50s?)

 

Thanks Garry and Hellfish .czech cars were just his focus today, but he will show some others of that unique museum .the czech cars surprised me though

 

I have to say some of those Czech cars were pretty surprising. OK, some looked like German and French cars of the same era, but the Tatra 26-30 in those pictures is a little off the radar. It's a front-engine car (louvers on sides of hood), but no grill...just sort of a ship's prow front...and at the bottom of that, an opening that looks like it's for an engine crank...but the car is from 1929! And if that weren't enough...it's a 6-wheeler, with twin axles at the rear.

The captions says there were only 181 built, doesn't surprise me...but why would you build what looks like a lightweight with 3 axles?

 

This from Wikipedia
Both Hitler and Porsche were influenced by the Tatras.[6] Hitler was a keen automotive enthusiast, and had ridden in Tatras during political tours of Czechoslovakia.[1][6] He had also dined numerous times with Ledwinka.[6] After one of these dinners Hitler remarked to Porsche, "This is the car for my roads".[1][6][7] From 1933 onwards, Ledwinka and Porsche met regularly to discuss their designs,[8] and Porsche admitted "Well, sometimes I looked over his shoulder and sometimes he looked over mine" while designing the Volkswagen.[6][7] There is no doubt that the Beetle bore a striking resemblance to the Tatras, particularly the Tatra V570.[6] The Tatra T97 of 1936 had a rear-located, rear-wheel drive, air-cooled four-cylinder boxer engine accommodating four p***engers and providing luggage storage under the front bonnet and behind the rear seat. Another similarity between this Tatra and the Beetle is the central structural tunnel. Tatra launched a lawsuit, but this was stopped when Germany invaded Czechoslovakia. At the same time, Tatra was forced to stop producing the T97. The matter was re-opened after World War II and in 1961 Volkswagen paid Ringhoffer-Tatra 3,000,000 Deutsche Marks in an out of court settlement.[1][6][7]

Although not as well known in this country Hans Ledwinka is one of the all-time great automotive designers.

 

Where's the yugos?

 

Yugos were Yugoslavian, not Czech.

"Tatra launched a lawsuit, but this was stopped when Germany invaded Czechoslovakia. "

Problem?

 

Jay Leno had a nice piece on his Tatra in Popular Mechanics.
He loved his and thought it was very innovative.

 

Thanks for the post some pretty cool unknown stuff made in Europe.

 

Gnichols-Drfumblefinger shows the German cars in the collection today.I'm impressed at the variety and the eccentric cars pictured so far.


http://bit.ly/1esKuqi

 

I did not realize this was open to the public.

I very good friend of mine who is now in his 80's worked on the restoration of many of these cars in the years he worked for the owner of PolyPack.

I know where the museum is located but I thought just the owner and a very few others were allowed inside to see the cars.

My friend tells me about the time Jay Leno came and he either purchase a car or traded a car with the owner.

I will have to show this to my friend Carl.

Thanks for posting. Jimbo

 

Thanks Jimbo, Very interesting about Jay Leno visiting. I've missed that museum too over the years but will go next time I'm in Tampa

 

The Czech's also built some fine motorcycles and firearms under the following logo.

 

thanks,I'm learning so much.One more thing for me to research.

 

I forgot to post the last of the series, the French cars! I think these are the best of the museum.

http://www.travelgumbo.com/blog/tampa-bay-automobile-museum-2-french-car-collection

 

Wish I knew about this museum when I was in Tampa in November.

 

My 2 sons and future son-in-law had the pleasure of going to that museum in December. Very interesting place. You just walk in, pay an admission and take your time looking at all the vehicles on display. There's also a number of people around to ask questions. PolyPack owner Alain Cerf's son was in the museum at the time, and was busy attending to starting and running the Maserati (which had to be done at frequent intervals) He was very courteous and answered a lot of questions by the many visitors.

Also impressive was the only full-size working replica of the Cugnot steam-powered vehicle which the museum staff take out on occasion or for parades and actually run the thing. The original is in Paris, but does not run.

http://www.tbauto.org/cars/cugnot.htm

The above linked site shows a lot of the cars in the museum, but there are many not pictured.

I've got a number of pix from there, including the Cugnot replica, but as most of them are not HAMB topics, I'll refrain from posting........unless there's sufficient interest.

The PolyPack facility is right next to the museum. http://polypack.com/

 

Great added info everybody. Thanks, am itching to go myself!