https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?...41845.356023601185992&type=1&relevant_count=1 http://www.tatra-club.com/graphics/msgboard/19599/full/200620123129.jpg http://www.tatra-club.com/graphics/msgboard/19806/full/200620123131.jpg http://www.tatra-club.com/graphics/msgboard/19806/full/200620123127.jpg http://www.tatra-club.com/graphics/msgboard/19806/full/200620123125.jpg The photos are few years old.They showed on the FB now. I didn't find any other informations. It was kinda hard to get a new car in the commie era, but for some unknown reasons you could get a spare body. This was probably reason for creating this... There were many "inverse" cars-Beetle/Kdf chassis with a front engine car body (Skoda, or used prewar Steyr Baby...)
You might want to mention that it has a Ford flathead for power as it is not the type of car they like on here but the flathead may save you.
Jose85....thank you for posting the Tatra / Flathead Ford V8 conversion. I am always interested to see, and am impressed by, the ingenuity of people, most especially those who have very limited resources.
Looks like the headlights were an after thought, or maybe an option?. I reckon you could do something with those bumpers.
Hans Ledwinka was a fascinating character as was Josef Ganz. They both had their work heavily plagiarized by KDF - later VW and Porsche.... www.hemmings.com/hsx/stories/2006/06/01/hmn_feature23.html en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josef_Ganz
I think there is a significant Tatra and Skoda underground here...there are Citroen cultists...and I like the little Czech 1930's 2 stroke chain drive cars, even though I cannot remember their name... I think that car is of sufficient age, too...production ENDED in '62. I spent some time in Czechoslovakia the year after the Russian invasion, and found some neat old cars, some of them Ford V-8's. In that time, I think five dollars American would have bought anything in the country! We even bribed the border guard on the way in, communism was so far down the toilet no one official gave a crap about anything. I saw a perfect looking '38 Ford there, good enough to make Ryan drool...
I think the implication here that Ferdinand Porsche, the primary designer/engineer of the KDF/Volkswagen, plagiarized others work overstates the case. If one researches F. Porsche's prior work for Lohner and several other manufacturers in the early 20th Century, you will see he too was a gifted person with many advanced design credits to his name. My comment is not meant to undermine or discredit Ledwinka in any way. His work, especially with the fabulous Tatra's is something I have long admired. This kind of similar "creativity" in the same time frame is not at all unusual and there are many examples of it over the decades. Perhaps some of that is due to state of the art thinking...some may be due to sharing a few beers or schnapps.
Rear engines, backbone chassis, unitized bodies, swing axles, torsion bars...I think all were mid-1930's fads, almost, amongst car of the future designers. Ford, Benz, the Czechs, etc. were all messing with this stuff. Ford here incorporated a lot of these ideas on experimental cars vaguely related to the Zephyr and on a small Ford design around 1934, too. I remember a bunch of backbone/swing axle oddities in the Benz museum, probably all related to Dr. Porsche in some way, and the Czechs were actually producing stuff that looked like the future as depicted on the covers of Popular Science magazine!
well, It's either one of those lets use all the left over parts out of the warehouse cars or the designer subscribed to the 60's/70's American customizers credo that if we add another scoop there we can get five more points at the show. But it does have a flathead and possibly wide five wheels by the rim in the trunk.
Very early this morning, when I first saw this thread, I thought, "hmmm...I am surprised by the engine placement in this car, I thought all Tatras were rear engine vehicles". I then just dismissed it as "well, maybe the later models were front engine". Now, I just looked closely at the photos the OP first posted and suddenly it came to me that this WAS a rear engine car and has been, apparently, mounted on an early Ford ('36 to '39) chassis and running gear....not just a flathead Ford engine swap! Talk about coming late to the parade!!!!
Have not heard from the Mods, so I guess a pre 62 flathead powered car is alright here. I love posters from far away places and the perspective they bring!!
My college adviser road raced a Tatra in the 50's and 60's. In 1955 he installed a new 265 chevy small block in it. He eventually rebodied it, still using the Tatra/ sbc chassis. Dave
Wa. & Tx reactions read in this thread are tiresome. Carefactor 0. This thread only confirms my belief that Czechs are generally one of the most ingenious cultures around. Czechs have made some neat stuff. What came first? Tucker, or Tatra? Hnstray, you aren't the only one late to the parade. Mark me down.
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