Hans Ledwinka had a reputation as a stubborn visionary. He even managed to leave the Tatras when something did not happen according to him. When he returned in 1921, he was able to combine in a new way what he had learned from the competition. The Tatra 11 was created on a simple chassis. A low-maintenance car that is not in vain. At international races, Tatra competed with it.
Another breakthrough car was the Tatra 77. “Until then, the aerodynamic body was not much addressed. For cars, the air resistance only makes sense at speeds of over 80 kilometers per hour, ”explained Jan Duda from the National Technical Museum.
As can be seen from the prototypes of the 1930s, the carmakers followed each other. The similarity can be observed in the Tatra V570 from 1933 and Type 12 by Ferdinand Porsche. “Porsche looked over my shoulder and I sometimes looked over his shoulder,” said Ledwinka, according to co-author of the book about Tatra, Ivan Margolius.
The most famous car of the Tatra 87 car manufacturer managed to develop a speed of up to 160 kilometers per hour. During World War II, he was popularized by German officers and rode with him so vigorously that they often ended up in a ditch, so the Wehrmacht forbade them to ride. “Those cars killed more Nazis than the Czechoslovak army. I don’t want to touch anyone, “said American talk show star and veteran collector, comedian Jay Leno.
On the contrary, Ledwinka was convicted after the war for being too prone to the Nazis, but in 1992 he was fully rehabilitated by Czech courts.
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