CarBrandLogos archive · Tatra · 1936

TatraTatra 87

The finned rear-engined saloon that drove from Prague to Cape Town and kept going.

Photo: Hilarmont · CC BY-SA 3.0 de

The story

A defining chapter in Tatra history.

Explore the ideas, engineering and context that shaped the Tatra 87, then continue into its specifications and place in the marque's lineage.

1947 Tatra T-87 Saloon - Engine Compartment

Origins

The 87 took the aerodynamic argument of the Tatra 77 and made it practical. Ledwinka and Ubelacker kept the streamlined fastback body with its dorsal fin and the rear-mounted air-cooled V8, now a 2,969 cc unit, but reduced weight substantially and improved the packaging, producing a five-seat luxury saloon that was quick, quiet at speed and remarkably economical for its size. Around 3,056 were built at Kopřivnice between 1936 and 1950.

1947 Tatra T-87 Saloon - Engine Compartment · Philip (flip) Kromer from Austin, TX · CC BY-SA 3.0

Design and engineering

The most famous demonstration of its abilities was not a race. In 1947 the Czech travellers Jiří Hanzelka and Miroslav Zikmund set off in a Tatra 87 and drove it through Africa and South America over three years, covering enormous distances on roads that barely qualified as such. The car came back, and the books they wrote about the journey made it a national object in Czechoslovakia.

1947 Tatra T87 dashboard · Mr.choppers · CC BY-SA 3.0

In production

Its other reputation is darker. During the occupation, German officers acquired Tatras and discovered that a heavy, rear-engined car with swing axles behaved very differently at high speed on an autobahn from anything they had driven. Enough of them crashed that the type acquired a grim nickname, and officers were reportedly discouraged from driving them.

Tatra 87 · Hilarmont · CC BY-SA 3.0 de

Legacy

Mechanically the 87 sits at an interesting point. The V8 was light, made extensive use of magnesium alloy castings and drove through a four-speed gearbox mounted ahead of it, and the whole rear assembly could be removed as a unit for service, which was a practical answer to the awkwardness of working on an engine buried under a fastback tail.

Chapter 5

Production continued after the war under the nationalised company until 1950, when the 603 took over. The 87 is now the Tatra that collectors want, both for what it was and for how far ahead of its contemporaries it looked.

At a glance