An expensive Czech equivalent to a Cadillac, the streamlined Tatra T87 was very fast for its day, with a top speed of 103 mph. But not many were sold outside Czechoslovakia. It’s hard to sell something before its time.
My Tatra T87 sedan was built in the small city of Koprivnice, in 1938. It’s powered by a rear-mounted, cast-magnesium, air-cooled 2.9-liter overhead-cam Hemi-head V8 with a four-speed transaxle. The suspension is fully independent, with twin transverse leaf springs in front and a unique swing axle setup in back.
People go nuts for Tucker cars these days—they sell for over a million dollars—but the Tatra was developed a good 10 years before the Tucker, and it was much more advanced. It had a V8, not a flat six, and it didn’t use somebody else’s engine or transmission. The Tatra is really what the Tucker should have been—a truly aerodynamic car that got 20 mpg at 60 mph. In the ’30s, fuel consumption for most big six-passenger cars was 6 to 9 mpg. More……