For his 9th Dakar, Ales Loprais is perhaps at a turning point in his career. Although there has not really been a falling-out with the Tatra brand that has shaped his family’s long history (6 Dakars won by his uncle Karel), the most consistent Czech driver of the modern era will be taking starter’s orders in a MAN truck!

Just before entering the technical scrutineering circuit, Ales showed that he has already dealt with the sentimental side of a change in colours: “The family name is definitively linked to Tatra, but now I’m embarking on a new journey, and for me it’s an entirely positive step.

More:http://www.motorsport.com/dakar/news/ales-loprais-for-me-it-s-an-entirely-positive-step/

NEW DELHI: The government is open to reviewing cases of blacklisted defence firms on merit as it prepares a new policy that will allow foreign defence firms to legally hire agents, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar has said.

He added that banned firms can be conditionally allowed to do business in the country. “Based on merit and necessity, one can think of lifting the ban to a reasonable level,” he said.

Parrikar said state-run Bharat Earth Movers Limited (BEML) has been allowed to supply spare parts for Tatra trucks, as long as it does not deal with the British subsidiary of the company that was banned following irregularities in its deal with BEML.

He pointed out that one should not just go by the name Tatra as there are 3-4 companies which make the trucks.

“The company which has been banned is Tatra UK and we have permitted BEML to deal with the original company which is owned by different people now,” he said, adding the condition is such that it should not have relations with “questionable individuals”.

“A restricted Non Objection Certificate has been granted to BEML, because we do need for defence purpose Tatra vehicles. It has become critical for certain applications,” he said.

Heavy vehicle maker Tatra was banned in March 2012 after then Army Chief General V K Singh’s allegations that he was offered bribe to clear sub-standard trucks supplied by the company to the Army.

Meanwhile, the Congress has reacted sharply to the defence  minister’s statement.

Senior party leader and spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi said, “It is a serious issue, the government should call an all-party meeting to take the views of other political parties. This is not a matter that can be decided through the Defence Minister’s off-the-cuff remark.”

http://www.newindianexpress.com/nation/Banned-Suppliers-to-be-Granted-Only-Conditional-Nod-Parrikar/2015/01/01/article2597919.ece

Defence procurement in the country has been hobbled by charges of corruption and of illegal commissions pocketed by middlemen. It became a political storm with the Bofors’ Rs64-crore kickbacks story with Rajiv Gandhi losing the 1989 election. Ever since, arms purchases had become hot potatoes as it were. The Tehelka sting operation about payments to politicians and army personnel in 2001 had led the then defence ministerJaswant Singh in the NDA government to set up a committee under BG Verghese to evolve a clear defence procurement policy (DPP). Thirteen years later, Singh’s successor in NDA-II, Manohar Parrikar, has revealed that a new DPP will be announced soon.

Parrikar has also indicated that arms agents, he uses the term technical representatives, will be allowed to participate in the process of purchases. Ministry sources, according to agency reports, have said that these technical experts will be allowed a fee but no commissions or bonus on the purchases. It is easy to quibble over the terms and argue that middlemen in arms deals are being allowed in through the back door. But the need to be less rigid and more practical in these matters is dictated by the exigency that critical arms acquisitions are getting unduly delayed because of the controversies created around major arms purchases.

As part of this new pragmatic approach, the minister has allowed public sector unit, Bharat Earth Movers Limited (BEML) to supply spare parts to Tatra trucks which involved partially lifting the ban against Tatra. UPA-II had imposed the ban after the then army chief and now minister of state for north-eastern affairs, VK Singh, claimed that Tatra offered a bribe to him. Parrikar has found a technical way out of the impasse saying that it was Tatra UK, a subsidiary of the mother company, which was banned and there is no restriction in dealing with the other units of the company. Again, it is possible to criticise him saying that this is but a fig leaf. It has been found that Tatra trucks are crucial for the army and it is to deal with this pressing need that the ban has been partially lifted.

Parrikar’s pragmatic approach is free of his party’s shrill rhetoric against corruption when it was in opposition, and his willingness to take decisions based on the country’s security needs. He is not taking the rigid position that any company which has been blacklisted will always remain on the list. He has given enough indications that there will be a review of those decisions. As a matter of fact, this makes a lot of sense because an erring foreign arms company should be penalised for breaking rules, and the penalties imposed should be punitive so that giving and taking of bribes will become counterproductive. It should not be kept away if its wares are crucial for the armed forces.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s plan to make India an arms manufacturing hub will take time to take root and become a reality. In the meanwhile, there is no escape from making huge defence purchases from foreign companies. The need then is to establish these purchases on a firm and clear footing. There is need for an open debate on the issue of arms agents and the commissions they get paid by the companies they represent. Ways have to be found to prevent the commission amount being factored into the final price.

http://www.dnaindia.com/analysis/editorial-dnaedit-pragmatic-parrikar-2048794

“After the last Dakar, where Artur Ardavichus introduced a brand new Tatra Jamal, I promised to construct two more trucks. We really managed to construct and prepare them for the Dakar. I am glad that from the technical and development point of view, we can be compared with the best ones. I would like to thank everyone who participated in the construction of the trucks and preparing the technical base of the team before leaving for Dakar,” said Tomáš Vrátný, the chief of the team and the pilot of the Czech-Slovak team crew. Together with him, the Slovak navigator Jaroslav Miškolci and Milan Holáň, the on-board mechanic and the main team technician, will present themselves in the cabin of the new bonneted special Tatra Jamal.

The second team crew will consist of the Kazakh-Czech trio composed of Artur Ardavichus, who occupied the excellent third place in 2012, while representing the Kamaz team, the navigator Alexey Nikizhev, and the on-board mechanic Daniel Kozlovský. The third racing special of the Bonver Dakar Project team will be driven by Robert Jan Szustkowski. This talented Polish racing driver will be accompanied by the navigator Jaroslaw Kazberuk and the on-board mechanic Filip Škrobánek.

More: http://www.bonverdakarproject.com/the-biggest-czech-team-bonver-dakar-project-is-heading-for-the-dakar-rally-2015-with-a-renowned-asset

All the Tatra best for 2015!

The company was established in 2007 and it focused on support of Steelbro products sales. After several months, the business activities of the company were spread to sales of Hiab Ltd. products. Subsequently in 2008, the portfolio was extended to assembling work and service providing for the supplied products.

Within the scope of the provided services, the company lays great stress on sales and after-sales services, which are provided by employees trained directly at the manufacturer’s site. We want to propose new and reliable technical solutions with products supplied by us to our customers in advance. Owing to the increasing tendency towards use of container transportation, we offer products of world leading companies allowing handling containers among various kinds of transportation.

Our work is based on perfect customer care. We communicate with our customers, listen to them, respond to their comments, and we satisfy their requirements quickly and reliably.

The quality of an organization is as superior as good and professionally skilled its employees are. Therefore, CON TSYSTEM s.r.o., maintains and increases professional knowledge, awareness and experience of all its employees. Each employee is responsible for the quality of his or her outputs. All of us are internal suppliers and customers. A satisfied, motivated and qualified employee is, therefore, as important as an external client.

Adherence to the information and data protection provisions is one of the basic principles which is held by the management of CONTSYSTEM s.r.o. Information is valuable property, therefore the control system of this company provides its protection, continuous development of information security with the aim to secure information confidentiality, its full integrity and availability. The company pledges itself to create, establish, maintain and check the complex system securing continuous protection of information assets of the company, to fulfil legislative requirements relating to the protection of information and data, above all, the act on personal data protection, and to secure awareness and education of its employees in the field of information security, thus creating respective provisions leading to limitation, loss, leakage and misuse of information.

http://www.contsystem.cz/en/news/

One-off diamond-layout 1960 Pininfarina X heads to auction – See more at: http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2014/12/24/diamond-layout-1960-pininfarina-x-heads-to-auction/?refer=news#sthash.gG7g23PH.dpuf

http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2014/12/24/diamond-layout-1960-pininfarina-x-heads-to-auction/?refer=news

“But this was an original T77. Not the tamer and more tractable T87. The T77 was longer, wider, and had a coefficient of drag of only 0.212—unheard of even to this day. The car became a favorite of Dr. Eugen Heydrich, the Deputy Reich Protector of Bohemia and Moravia, who used it on ‘official’ and ‘unofficial’ business throughout Czechoslovakia, before it somehow found its way into Leningrad, just before the war ended. These so-called spoils of war were auctioned off…”

I just self published a book called FOUND, The Lives of Interesting Cars & How They Were Discovered that I think group may enjoy… It’s a ‘barn-find’ book with a twist: It’s a novel and consists of exciting discoveries of amazing vintage cars threaded together through a relationship between a young car fanatic and an elderly car collector.

Many interesting cars from Tatras, to Saabs, to Hemi Cuda’s—there’s something for every car buff.

“Tanner has the habit of stopping at every dilapidated garage, warehouse, or barn he comes across: What could possibly be lurking inside? A ‘66 Shelby, ‘32 Bugatti, or a clapped out ‘75 Mercury Bobcat?”

“An amazing friendship blossoms when a young car fanatic meets a seasoned collector after noticing his Riviera Blue BMW 2800 CS parked amongst a sea of Camry’s and Cavaliers at a local greasy-spoon.”

“Coffee turns into marathon conversations about amazing vintage cars, their colorful owners, and their own next chapters.”

Here’s another excerpt I picked out for the the Tatra Group for obvious reasons!

“Hey Mr. Brant. Do you know anything about Tatras?”

“Yes, a matter of fact I do: Groundbreaking aerodynamic design starting with the T77 in ‘34.”

“Do you know anything about Tatraplans?”

“It’s the 4 cylinder version, smaller fin, no louvers, lots of rear windows. They imported some into Canada back in 1950.”

“Well I’ve met an old guy, well, I mean, an elderly gentleman like you…”

“Did you stalk him as well? Does he have a restraining order out on you by chance?”

“Not yet… he told me about an old Tatraplan that’s been sitting forlorn in a blackberry bush for decades and gave me sort-of directions. He said he’s not mobile enough to check it out himself so I’m wondering if you’d be interested in going on a Tatra hunt sometime with me?”

Available on Amazon.com around the world by searching:

FOUND The Lives of Interesting Cars & How They Were Discovered. A Novel.

https://www.facebook.com/FoundCarsofCascadia/photos/a.1536806269891123.1073741828.1536382653266818/1536805906557826/?type=1

Follow

Greg Long loves interesting cars. Actually, the weirder the better. But not just weird for weird-sake–but cars that changed the world through their designers amazing ideas and true innovations, many of which can be found in many ‘normal’ cars today. 

Greg got the vintage car bug as a teenager in Victoria, BC when his brother gave him a ‘dead’ old Citroen DS–why not start on this journey with one of the most complicated cars ever built!? Decades later he’s still sleuthing for interesting old cars, resurrecting them, and then trying desperately to store them. 

Greg is married and has three boys–two at colleges in Washington State and one still in high school. Greg lives in Kirkland and works, by day, for a major technology company.

While making a traffic cop police instruction  movie on September 1st 1954, this 1949-150 was passing by. T 87s were rare in NL, with less than 20 units imported between 1943 and 1950. (Photo Fred Heddes)