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After World War II, Tatra found itself stranded behind the Iron Curtain.  Hans Ledwinka was accused of collaborating with the Nazis and was imprisoned from 1945-51.  The T600 was introduced at the 1947 Prague Auto Salon.  After World War II, Tatra’s chief designer was Julius Mackerly.  He used many elements of the T87 to design […]

When Germany invaded Czechoslovakia in 1939, the German military dictated the output of Tatra factories.  Before you is an interesting project that was designed for war use only.  The German military wanted Tatra to develop a vehicle that could move people across the vast snowy plains of Russia.  Tatra began work on the Aerosled in

In 1931, Tatra introduced the T57 model, with the air-cooled, four cylinder, overhead valve engine placed in front.  The T57 was one of Tatra’s most popular models – four series were produced.  It remained in production until 1949.  The T57 was a faster and more powerful version of the T12.  By adding two cylinders, Tatra

The Tatra T11 was the first car made entirely by Tatra in 1923. The T11 was famous for its robust and innovative designs which featured an air-cooled engine and swing axle rear suspension. The T11 was designed by Hans Ledwinka who was one of the most original and logical designers to work in the motor

Mort Smit was a Subaru 360 enthusiast that built this special car he called “Peanut”.  Mort retired and converted an old Greyhound bus into a motor home to travel in.  He wanted to have a car to drive when he was parked at different campgrounds, but did not want to tow a car behind the

In 1999 the smart City Coupe was introduced in Europe.  This small 2-seater car was designed to be used in heavily-populated urban areas.  Smart decided in 2000 to expand its line of cars, and showed a concept of the smart Roadster at the 2000 Paris Motor Show.  Smart Roadster production finally started in 2003, and

This Skoda Octavia is totally original except for the fluids, battery, and tires.  It has a mere 2,384 miles on it.  A Czechoslovakian couple moved to Brooklyn and opened a restaurant.  The business did pretty well, and in the 1960s they wanted to buy a car from their home country.  There just happened to be

In 1958 Simca updated the Aronde and made the body more modern-looking.  The model here is called the Plein Ciel, which means “full sky”, because of the generous amount of window area.  The bodies were built by the Parisian coachbuilder Facel. This car is also equipped with the Rush Super engine which gives it very

Parisian racer and auto enthusiast Jean-Claude Hrubon created this shortened version of the Mini Moke. Mr. Hrubon started production in 1980, but quickly sold the manufacturing rights in 1981 to Bernard Schmitt, who produced most of the cars. The majority of them were sold in kit form, and there were three different engine options: Mini