(first posted 10/17/2013) Some things in life just go together, like Abbott & Costello or George & Gracie. It seems so natural, just like sunshine and blue sky.
Other things just don’t seem as natural, like going to a nice restaurant in Boston and ordering fried green tomatoes for an appetizer or seeing a Tatra where Elvis parked his Cadillac.
Yes, Virginia, this is a Tatra with Massachusetts plates parked curbside on Union Avenue in Memphis, Tennessee. What makes it even better is this in front of Sun Studios, about 100′ away from where Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Johnny Cash recorded their first songs.
Something about this Tatra in this location is so wrong yet so right, rather like driving from the starboard side (or the port side, depending upon your locale).
One thing I have learned at Curbside Classic is that the more you think you know, the more you realize you don’t know as much as you thought. This is healthy. In the immortal words of Jefferson Davis Hogg, another famous southerner: “If a man don’t grow, he dies!”
The Czechoslovakian Tatra can trace its roots back to Schustala and Company (and the company has an awesome video, here). It was founded by Ignác Šustala in 1850, initially producing carriages and couches – which do go together quite nicely if you think about it. The firm would venture out further when they began manufacturing railroad trucks in 1882.
source: www.ntm.cz
In 1897, the company produced its first automobile, the Präsident, under the brand name of NW (Nesselsdorfer Wagenbau). It was the first automobile produced in Central Europe and Tatra is the third oldest vehicle manufacturer in the world behind Mercedes and Peugeot.
Tatra has a formidable history of innovation, with 1906 designs for both an overhead camshaft valve train and a hemispherical combustion chamber. Nine years later, in 1915, Tatra would be one of the first to build a passenger car with four-wheel brakes.
The legendary T77 passenger car was introduced in 1934. Paul has a fabulous article on Hans Ledwinka’s revolutionary work here.
All Tatra production would be within Czech lands by 1945 with the state taking ownership of the corporation in 1946.
In 1956, Tatra introduced the T-603 passenger car. Might it have been the first post-war Cadillac?
From looking at the picture at the top of the page, you can see this Tatra wasn’t exactly a loner on the street as there was a conglomeration of various cars I will show some other time. This one stood out like a grasshopper in a tequila bottle – there simply was no missing it amongst the Ford F-1s and Chevelles.
Instinct told me this green cruiser was European and was not a run of the mill puddle jumper. Discovering it was a Tatra T-613 didn’t immediately ring a bell about its name, yet there was the realization of “holy cow, you’re in a hurry, grab some pictures and forget the rest of this stuff!” A quick peruse on the old iPhone an hour later – after it was gone – told me what had been captured.
The T-613 series was introduced in 1973 with the concept originating five years earlier. Italian designer Vignale penned the shape you see.
The Tatra T-613 was aimed for whomever had the coin to ante up – as long as the coin was coming from government and corporate honchos. This dedicated government work didn’t mean the T-613 was a wheezy, underpowered oaf that would huff and puff to its destination. Far from it. The T-613 was equipped with a 3.5 liter V8 engine with dual overhead camshafts and two carburetors each having two throats.
Seeing the car from the rear made me wonder if something was even more out of the ordinary with this Tat, Tot, T___; well, let’s just say the name didn’t immediately stick with me.
This unfamiliar European car was indeed out of the ordinary as this Tatra sports an air-cooled V8 placed in the rear. The more I’ve learned about this car, the more intriguing it is; that’s a natural reaction.
While the engine is in the rear, Tatra’s T-613 technically wasn’t rear-engined, either. With four cylinders ahead of the rear axle and four behind it, the T-613 has been accurately described as being a “semi mid-engine.”
For anyone thinking the United States had cornered the market on eccentrically colored interiors during the 1970’s, think again. It was certainly flourishing in Czechoslovakia. While the thought flashed through my head to describe this interior using an adjective that starts with “br” and rhymes with “foam”, I won’t because it isn’t. But some of you may now be thinking the very same thing.
Note the handle between the seats; during this era, every Tatra was equipped with a four-speed manual transmission. The location of the gear shift is beside the driver more than in front of him. I cannot help but wonder if this ever posed a problem for operators or if it was simply a matter of familiarity. Rowing gears beside your person does seem a bit unnatural.
This car is an online veteran and is much more distinctive than a baby blue ’57 Thunderbird sporting a Continental kit. When researching what constituted a T-613, I found an article about this very car at hooniverse (here). While I was not fortunate enough to snag a ride in it, I did find it curbside by divine coincidence. With 11,000 made from 1974 to 1996, one isn’t likely to stumble into very many in the United States.
A few hours after seeing this car, I saw it again. The owner had it parked in the parking lot of one of those twenty-four hour pharmacies that litter the urban landscape. As I passed, he was opening the door to climb inside and was grinning from ear to ear.
Grinning while driving this car seems as natural as can be.
I discovered Tatra sometime in the mid-80s in the pages of Australia’s Wheels magazine. To a 10-year-old me the styling was outlandish but timeless and cool. The pre-war models looked fantastic – I’ve been lucky enough to see a 1936 T77 in the metal – and I also find the T603 attractive in a weird sort of way. Incidentally the link under the picture of the T603 above isn’t working; it produces the P̶e̶u̶g̶e̶o̶t̶ Error 404 message.
The T613 isn’t as attractive to my eyes, but I still find it a technically and conceptually fascinating car – and who doesn’t love flying buttress rear pillars!
Thanks for the story and pics Jason, this probably ranks as one of the most unexpected (but totally cool!) finds to grace the hallowed pages of CC!
It was quite unexpected for me, also. There were also a number of other chariots parked nearby I need to write up.
Interestingly, while this part of Memphis seemed rather tranquil, there were two cops guarding these cars.
It is said that the Tatra T603 had killed more party dignitaries than the stalinian purges because of its very peculiar roadholding…
Not surprising…isn’t it rumored that the T77/T87/T97s were referred to as the “Czech secret weapon” because so many Nazi officials were killed in accidents, being unfamiliar with the Tatra’s handling charcteristics?
I have heard that not too long after the conquest of Czechoslovakia the Nazi high command banned officers of the party and military from driving Tatras.
Wow, truly a needle in a haystack. Bet you didn’t get up that morning saying to yourself “Hmmm, think I’ll go looking for a Tatra today.” You certainly get the award for rare find of the week.
A very interesting car, and I am quite sure that I have never seen one. I was familiar with the older ones from PN’s earlier piece, but either never knew or forgot that they were made this recently.
The hooniverse article quotes the owner as believing there are less than a dozen of this generation Tatra in the U.S. It was indeed a needle in a haystack.
The T613/700 range has to be one of the most fascinating cars developed in modern times. Sure, it was flawed dynamically, and the Vignale styling isn’t to everyone’s tastes (I think they did the best they could do given the engineering parameters), but it’s hard not to be moved by its quirky mechanics. I’m constantly looking for new footage on YouTube for these intriguing machines. Luckily, most that have survived seem to have wound up in the hands of those who are passionate about these cars and wish to see them preserved.
And, again, for those of you who have not seen the Czech video “Happy Journey” featuring a Tatra 603, here it is, in two parts.
http://youtu.be/vuERAdRCTf8
http://youtu.be/cP_7WyAqRps
A lighthearted glimpse behind the Iron Curtain. Worth 18 minutes of your time.
In 1992 I was in Prague and my only Tatra sighting was of a 613 as it disappeared around a corner. Even in the diplomatic part of town, it was all Mercedes and Cadillac.
It’s funny that you mention this. When Paul first posted about the Tatra back in, I believe, 2008, he linked these videos to his story and I was hooked!
This year I was “thisclose” to replacing my rusting and aging license place with one that had a variation of “Happy Journey”. Sadly, the cost talked me into getting another year out of it…
Dang it, Jason, now you’ve got me picturing Boss Hogg in the back seat of a Tatra with his driver trying to keep up with the Duke Boy’s on a Hazard County dirt road!
“Rosco, zip your flappin’ lip. You’re lettin’ the cold air into your empty head.”
That’s an unnatural combination, isn’t it? Maybe this is his rainy weather car…
Remarkably, the actor that played Boss Hogg (Sorrel Brook) spent a decade on the New York stage, and arrived in Hollywood with a theatre degree from Yale.
I’d argue casting him as Boss Hogg is as unlikely as finding a Tatra in Memphis.
Nice rare and unusual,thanks Jason
Well, this qualifies as a CC Holy Grail, finding a Tatra curbside. Now go find us a Rumpler, please.
The 613 is curious beast, with its rather odd proportions and Vignale styling. And how Tatra finally dealt with the eight distribution problem by locating the engine directly over the rear wheels, not unlike the Toronado’s power train, but in back.
These were built for so long, there’s quite a lot of variation in their styling, trying hard to keep it looking contemporary in the 80s and early 90s. I rather like the early version like this one, but the fatter wheels on the later ones make it look a bit more capable.
There was also a LWB version, with long rear doors, for the really big wigs.
There were also two other variations I found. The first is the ambulance; there is a second that was a friction tester for airport runways. It had an opening behind the driver that would lock up a suspended tire and it was hooked to umpteen controls (I’ve been inside a friction tester here, and it’s a convoluted mess).
The police had them, but it was extremely few.
other ‘special’ T613s:
For the head bigwig/honcho, there was also a parade car, with a restyled grille.
http://gomotors.net/Tatra/Tatra-613-K-cabrio/gallery.html
They also built a coupe, which wasn’t half bad (but completely out of the question for Tatra to produce)
http://www.tatra-club.com/graphics/msgboard/27630/full/26431_t613-coupe-vignale-oe.jpg
Both these cars were made by Tatra, at least two of each (there’s a red ’77 coupe out there on the web, slightly different from this one).
The coupe is the best-looking one yet, that should’ve been the standard model (hey, it’s not like they were concerned about sales in France/UK/Australia/other two-door-phobic markets). Just gotta promote Party members based on limberness!
I though that spotting a Volga M21 in the capitalist shopping paradise of Tyson’s Corner, Virginia several years ago was an impressively ironic find of a Communist bloc car. You, sir, have left me many miles behind.
I spotted a Chaika in the South Kensington area of London when working as a bus driver but I’ve never seen a Tatra in the metal
Wow. This was the clue car AND someone got it right. Only at CC.
You got that right. My jaw dropped when I read that comment.
I noticed the pad on the driver’s seat,have they popped into the chemist for some Preparation H?
Quite the rare find indeed, and totally out of sync with the 48-50 Ford pickup.
Make that “Massachusetts plate”, not plates. It has a contemporary Czech plate on the front.
And I thought I was Joe Cool when I spotted that unrestored Charger RT a while back. I have been beaten! I’ve never seen one of these beasts anywhere except on the Internet. I especially like these cars because they are what Tuckers might have been.
I believe that shade of interior is called “algae”.
That’s a good one. The first word that came to my mind was “bilious”. Seeing as how I follow up on things, no matter how disgusting, I Googled for images and I was right. It’s exactly the same color. Mercifully, I did not provide any links. You’re welcome.
Definitely one of the better finds in CC history.
Wow, wow wow! What a find! If I ever saw a Tatra on the road around here, I would probably drive off the road in shock.
That reminds me, I saw a similarly unlikely foreign car at a cruise night a few months ago. I think I know what my next post will be…
What a great find, I never ever saw a Tatra car on the road.
In the seventies and early eighties another “T model” Tatra was pretty popular though.
That was the conventional T148 6×6 truck with its backbone tube chassis and howling aircooled V8 diesel. These were really “Kings of off-road”. Striking was its strong positive camber when empty. It was always spectacular to see (and hear) them mud-wrestling, and they were damn good at it.
(Photo: Ludek)
Here’s a Tatra I snapped curbside in Palo Alto, California earlier this year. I believe it’s a T600. There’s at least one running on-the-road Tatra military truck locally also.
Very cool!
Could habve been the template for a Saab 93 four door sedan.
Nice. This one might also be added to the list, in the thread about cars with no grilles ?
Vignale’s contribution to the high-belted body type might be the tapering leading edge of the hood, providing a subtle “smile.” (Do eyebrows smile ? Or is that a quizzical frown ?) Love the tall greenhouse.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tatra_613
Since reading this the first time, I have to wonder if this car has some connection with the Lane Museum. Although Nashville to Memphis would be a decent drive, the cars their do get out for regular exercise. I tried to read the signage on the side, but was unable to make it out.
Nope, we only have two T613s…a black one and the ambulance. I love the color on this. I had our 1996 T700 out recently, which to me is very similar to the 613. We believe it is one of the last passenger cars Tatra ever produced.
There was a tidy-looking 613 coupe which sadly never reached production.
That lime green velour upholstery is appealing to me. I saw a shag throw rug in that same shade of green in a furniture showroom and I thought it went well with the other modern furniture that were displayed.
Also, it looks like you got the year wrong for the first posted date (first posted 10/17/2017).
Hmm… at first glance I took the Tatra in second to last pic for an Audi 5000. ( I wonder if there was any relation between those cars).
I think the front looks like a VW Dasher and the trunk looks like a Ford Capri but you are right, the middle section looks like an Audi 5000!
And the front end on the later years ends up looking like a 1988 Ford Mustang with Acura Integra mini-headlights.
This Tatra looks interesting.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MTX_Tatra_V8
I was looking for Citroen DS cars or parts in the ’70’s. Told about an eccentric old man on a remote road with some, I went to see. He had Traction Avant parts, but what else he had was amazing. Two black Tatra 603 sedans, a driver and a parts car, both stored inside. I’d seen photos before, while I looked at his 603’s he looked at my DS-21 Pallas, sparkling outside. I was fascinated. We talked, he started it. We went for a ride over dry bumpy roads. I told him I’d love to find one, he said “You have”. I told him I could only afford $100 cash and needed to make payments. He told me, “No, ya don’t, I’ll take the hundred for both. I’m 89 years old and got so much wrong with me I should of died last Tuesday. While yor at it, take all the Citroen stuff too.” I told him a better idea, I’d send a friend out, that was restoring an Avant. That friend helped me get the parts car home, I DROVE the other one. In days to come I cleaned and buff and waxed the 603. The black gleamed, I painted whitewalls on with Western Auto whitewall paint (I was an expert at that), the thing looked great. I went back to show the old man. The place was empty. I was afraid of the 603 at first, but I drove friends Porsches and even a tricky 300 SL gullwing that tried to flip over. The 603 felt loose, but good, sort of like hitting wet spots on corners only. I loved it but as often before, after aquiring an unusual car I was afraid I couldn’t keep it up. I called a friend, a college professor (who I think passed me because I helped work on his cars), I knew he’d take good care of it. When he moved to another school the Tatra’s, a Chaika, and a Wartburg went with him.
Chancing on something like this in the US is like finding an Infinity QX56 (covered in one of the previous articles this week) by the curbside here in Austria. Vienna is only 40 minutes away from Bratislava and I can remember 613s being driven from there by their Slovak owners who had jobs in Vienna in the 1990s. Not an everyday sighting, but it did happen. Nowadays those are recognized classics in the Czech and Slovak Republics so are unlikely to be used in this way but are still seen in classic car shows (as well as the 603s and 600s, and the older 87s and 97s).
In the past 30 years or so, in I’ve seen a black Volga sedan (possibly the same one mentioned above) parked at a gas-station in Vienna Virginia, a grey ’71 Trabant in a guy’s front yard, a derelict red ’63 Skoda Octavia Combi (wagon) in someone’s side-yard, and a grey ’53 Moskvitch (Russia’s recycle of the pre-war Opel Kadett), all in Alexandria.
I even had the honor of taking that Moskvitch for a brief test-drive!
Being next door to Washington DC, I used to see an occasional Lada on the road ,probably from one of the embassies.
Up in Germantown Maryland, I visited Bill McCoskeys repair & restoration shop before it closed about 20 years ago and had a good look at his collection, including his black ’68 Tatra 603.
Happy Motoring, Mark
Tatra was the ‘inspiration’ for Hitler’s people’s car, Ferdinand Porsche’s VW Beetle after the Nazis invaded Czechoslovakia. In 1965, Tatra won a lawsuit and Porsche was required to pay the equivalent of 4 million US dollars in compensation.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tatra_97
Not sure if this is true. Nazi-Germany invaded Czechoslovakia in 1938. Whereas first Kdf-Wagen (Volkswagen Beetle) prototypes already existed in 1936.
Nevertheless, there is a Tatra relationship. The story goes like this (as far as I know):
Tatra presented a small streamlined four-seater in 1933. It was dept Type V570. The same year the V570 car was presented at the Berlin Motor Show. Hitler, as a visitor, accompanied by Mr. Ferdinand Porsche, was inspired by the small car and asked Porsche to design such a vehicle as “the people’s car.”
If / to which extend Porsche just copied the Tatra design is heavily discussed. But similiarities between the two cars as well in shape as in tecnical design are obvious. Therefore th law suit.
However, the Tatra V570 itself might not be the initial Beetle design. As there is a strong resemblance to automotive sketches by Hungarian engineer Bela Barenyi, whose works date back to the late 1920s (but not were published before 1934).
Whatever may have been: It seems Dr. Ing Ferdinand Porsche was not such a great genius he often is supposed to be (also read the history of the Porsche tank …).
I’m sorry, but you’ve got your facts all mangled up.
It wasn’t the V570 Tatra showed in Berlin in 1933; it was the chassis for the upcoming T77. By that time, Porsche had already drawn and built several small rear engine prototypes, as had a number of other companies.
I did a very in-depth post on the origins of the VW; it’s all there, in great detail:
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/automotive-histories/automotive-history-whos-the-real-father-of-the-volkswagen/
Porsche did not just copy any Tatra; he had designed a small rear engine aerodynamic car before Tatra ever did. And that lawsuit over patent infringement was only over some specific aspects of the air cooling ducts. Nothing else.
Porsche genuinely was a great engineering genius. The WW2 tanks he designed were simply following Hitler’s orders,which were far from ideal and practical. But his legacy work at starting in 1898 and then at Austro Daimler, Mercedes, Steyr, and then his own design firm puts him at the very top of his field, with numerous designs, engines, cars, trucks, airplane engines, hybrids, electrics, military vehicles, etc.. Anyone who thinks he was less than one of the greats simply hasn’t read up on his vast legacy of accomplishments.
“Porsche genuinely was a great engineering genius. The WW2 tanks he designed were simply following Hitler’s orders,which were far from ideal and practical.”
May be – may be not. I guess, everybody else than Hitler’s Austrian compatriot and Nazi-Party member Porsche (NSDAP member Nr. 5.643.287) would have been executed …
The only thing better than one wild and crazy Czech mobile (all Tatra’s are wild in my opinion) would be two. These two “Wild And Crazy Guys” aka the “Swinging Czech Broders” from SNL TV show around the same time fit this car perfectly. I can totally see Yortuk and Georg crusin’ for some “Hot American Foxes” in this t-613.
Oh, the Tatra is MUCH cooler than Yortuk and Georg!
Not that the Festrunk brothers didn’t try mighty hard.
LMAO!
If you want to spot a Tatra you should try hanging out with Citroen owners. There is a significant overlap between the relatively large Citroen owners crowd and the minuscule Tatra owners group. People intrigued by the moderately weird Citroen are also attacked to the extreme weirdness of the Tatra. As a long time Citroen owner (2CV) I have met several others who also owned Tatras. One owned both a T77 and a T87, and some others. Another owns a 613. The photo is from the last time I saw it which was in 2021. He used to rent it to movie shoots as an “iron curtain” car, so might have seen it in shows filmed in Toronto.
A smaller version of the photo
Back in ussr large Tatra trucks were pretty common, I even got a ride in one when I was a kid. Only when I came to US I learned about existence of Tatra cars, I knew a guy who has a couple of them in rural Maryland, older, very cool designs and tech. . And yes they also saw a black Volga 21, in northern VA, though I was in some kind of KGB time warp.
My mother is Slovak; we’ve had a couple of trips (my Mom more than I) over there…the other brand name we reuse is “Tesla”, which was a company that made electronic devices…I remember watching “Star Trek” dubbed in Slovak on a Tesla TV during our trip in ’93…we stayed in an autocamp which turned out to be the least expensive place I’ve ever stayed…equivalent of $1.00/night for 5 people (we added $.50 to park our car inside the gate). Tesla was a Croatian, but I think many Slavic people identify with him…guess he was pretty famous 100 years ago. Wonder how the Tesla (car) company uses the name when the Tesla (electronics) company predates it…maybe because they don’t sell Tesla electronics in North America?
My (step) Grandmother was also Slovak, from a small town in the Tatra mountains. I had a friend here in the US who was from Poland, he used to have an outdated calendar in his office that had photos of the Tatra Mountains…I brought him a replacement “current” calendar that had photos of the Tatras…from the Slovak side.
I’ve seen Tatra cars over there, but not yet in the US. Trucks, probably, but I’m not sure…not able to identify them so hard to know.