IT IS NOT UGLY! And it's not a dead trap. In fact these cars were robust, had big and well-designed deformation zones and were one of the safest cars on the road. They were also extremely reliable. You can run over million kilometres on these engines - no problem. But it is coroding a lot.
The death trap refers to tatra 87, produced since 1938. It had a lot more power than anything else, reached 160km/h and had heavy engine in the back. It was safe and stable until you tried to turn. The car was also very heavy, and breaks were a bit weak. Germany had no equivalent of such vehicle, no wonder the officers died when showing off.
It really is quite easy to find detailed and accurate information about the T613 series. The model is extremely impressive, especially to drive and certainly not a 'death-trap' in corners (the engine is aluminium and positioned above and slightly ahead of the rear axle). There are active, friendly and helpful Tatra clubs and parts are available. Of course, it is a relatively esoteric automobile so the owner has to be prepared for the 'challenge'.
The configuration is common for CZ cars, my father had a Skoda S100, it has the engine in the back too. Ac car made into the late 70s. The Skoda 742 was made until 1990, it still had the engine in the back.
The TopGear car was 'the blue car', as we called it. I was part of the small team of British (and one Ozzy) who did the development work on the T613/5 which we considerably modified for the European market for Tatra (who were not able to do the task themselves yet, due to something of a technical gulf between Soviet and Western emissions and sociatal requirements). We added power steering, safer heating systems, fuel injection that was mostly bespoke beyond the injectors and pump, leather and walnut trim, and a whole raft of additional features that a top modern car of it's day would be expected to sell with. The engine was retuned to 200bhp continuous and 220 bhp for short bursts of acceleration. This was achieved by dropping out the cooling fan drive for a few seconds, releasing more power at high engine speeds. The cams were bespoke as was a full Euro emissions exhaust system and inlet tract (designed to cope with high air flow yet be as quiet as possible). The T613 was around 55/45 rear weight bias (exceptional for a car with that engine layout), and our mods brought the weight bias pretty much to 50/50. The car was very good on fuel, particularly once our novel ECU had 'learned' a driver's driving style, seeing around 40mpg regularly. The steering geometry was altered to improve reaction to steering input, which made driving the car like driving a giant go-kart. On a memorable trip to Tatra's Pribor factory, during cold weather testing, the ECU had a hissy fit in Slovakia. I had to be rescued by Tatra's rally-team outfit. This was a standard T613 with the rear seats removed and a partition behind the front seats, dragging a socking great trailer. It was bitterly cold, the roads were all hard packed snow, and I was given the rear of the tow-car to sit in, with the jacks and tool boxes. We had to take the back roads to avoid the worst of the customs check-points (Slovakia and CZ were on bad terms at the time). Being towed, sitting loosely in the back of a rally support vehicle while dragging another identical car on a massive trailer was an unforgettable experience. Both guys in the front were in the rally team and drove absolutely flat out on the ice and snow without a care in the world. Let me tell you that watching the trailer doing power drifts on those narrow roads was a sight for sore eyes! Ultimately Tatra did their own version, the T613/4, but it was our work under the skin. This later formed the underpinnings of the T700. Unfortunately Tatra had neither the cash, nor the expertise to get their product in front of a sufficiently wide audience to make the thing a profitable exercise. It could have worked, as Bristol Motors were doing pretty much the same thing back then, both business building hand-built, bespoke vehicles, but time tells a different story.
I'd buy it in a heartbeat. BY the way, there's actually a government interest in restricting exports of Tatras. But on this one, where's the air cleaner system?
Wow, I was a bit worried there Stu! I’m sure that someone will love it. Really doesn’t seem much of a drivers car though- I wonder if owners must declare that they drive one to their life insurance policy? ;)
As a driver's car I was trying to imagine just how bad it would be with a couple of oversized VIPS in the back and a tiny chauffeur on a greasy roundabout. In a moment of common sense I baulked at the prospect of having to source or manufacture anything that broke. Back to the 928 project!
I think you're actually wrong about this not being a driver's car 😊. I watched recently some documentary about testing driving performance and it was actually very impressive in good hands - an oversized rally car if you pushed it. Absolutely unexpected, kind of opposite of what you'd expect. Unlike older pre/war time Tatras mentioned, that were killing nazis, this car had 55:45 weight distribution, that helped to achieve query good handling. Apparently drivers loved the car too, at least this is the impression from some documentaries I've seen. I've seen some of them personally during meetings of old-timers. I think in the context of their time they were beautiful cars.
They are surprisingly decent. I gather that they are or can be an issue in wet weather as far as handling goes. But at least it should be relatively easy to maintain
No these Tatra's have a history that goes back to the 1930's. In fact this Hans Ledwinka design was copied by one of his pupils Ferdinand Porsche. The Tatra's from that era were streamlined, had a fin on the back and during WW2 many German officers loved the Tatra. During the communist era, Moscow initially forbid Tatra to make their luxury cars but they soon foubd out that their ZIL was crap compared to the Tatra's just like the Autobianchi Primula, the Tatra's are the misjudged talents of the car industry!
Those German soldiers were getting killed in tatras because they were hot dogging in them ,it was a beast and it could plow through snow and mud so well that it would cause over confidence in inexperienced drivers, way too much power for 20-year-old Boys full of testosterone basically, that's what was killing them not anything bad about the car
1985 and i got my licence 1350 in cash and off i went to a local caryard to find myself a good car ,i walked into a Bayswater caryard vowing not to buy the 1st car i see , a salesman greeted me i instantly told him ive never owned a car i just got my licence and ive got 1350 in cash to spend 28 minutes i drove out with a v8 powered on the colum manual 1958 Simca vedette four door ,hmmmmm
In czech its uncommon, well not that uncommon they produce about 4145 units and few hundreds of them were modified and upgraded or turned into a saloon limo or a kabriolet
@@Morgenstern1914 KGB used TATRAs 613, mostly in Moscow and Moscow Region. Black TATRA 613 was common in Moscow of 1980-s. Can be seen in some movies of late 1980-s early 1990s as a KGB car, for example in the movie Corruption (Коррупция,1990) ruclips.net/video/iCUObPiHOlc/видео.html
There are some videos on RUclips of these things running. I think it's probably got to do with the firing order and exhaust manifolding, but they don't sound particularly inspiring to me.
We had the older version of 613 when I was a kid. I still remember the sound of the engine and the speeds it could reach on highways. The highest we tried was 200km/h.
Not just for Communist officials - they were frequently used as tax cabs (as was the previous 603 generation). The 613s were designed by Italian Vignale. You can look up the final T700 design which definitely shows its Italian design language. The limited GT version of the T700 had a 4.4L engine and a very high top speed. Never drove one, but rode in them during my visit to Prague in '91. Also raced one through the streets of Prague. I had an '84 Audi 100 Avant with the 5 cylinder - despite my lighter weight and fuel injection advantage, I couldn't pass the 613. Nothing else like them on the road in the West.
YES. 613-4 was final version with injection and 200+ HP and reasonable consumption around 10-12l/100km. Previous 3 generations had carburetors, separate for each bank of cylinders. If not synced properly (very common), consumption was 18+l/100km. But this was common practice for drivers, they could prove that consumption was really up to 20l/100km, then fix the carbs and keep all the 5-6l/100km of petrol for many years. I wouldn't count T700 as new version, it was more like new trim level with western gadgets.
Fun fact: There is no corrosion protection on the car, the service manual states, that the whole car body must be replaced every 6 years regardless of the mileage.
Common in european cars. Simca, Fiat and Matra also had no rust protection. This contrasts with Volvo, mbenz and some russian cars that most of them had rust protection.
I am late with this comment, but there's this promo video for Tatra 603 which is the best car promo I've ever seen. Just write "Stastnou cestu Tatra 603" and you'll find it. It's over 12 minutes long, but it's really worth watching from start to finish. Too bad the Tatras were just for communist officials in higher positions and not for common czech folk.
Good news, I am enjoying this channel. You driving that Tatra too fast or too often might have put an end to drives for a while, if not forever! They seem to have borrowed the flying buttress style from Jaguar which unsurprisingly didnt improve the looks. 👍
I did once see one of these on the road in the UK in the early 90s. Red, I think. It may have been the one reviewed on 'Top Gear' at about that time. I remember watching impressive acceleration up the motorway slip road. I owned several quite reliable rear-engined Skoda 120Ls at about that time; unlike Tatras they were certainly not powerful, with uneven handling especially in crosswinds (bags of sand in the 'frunk' helped) but I recall they were actually pretty good on ice and snow if driven with due care.
The TopGear car was 'the blue car', as we called it. I was part of the small team of British (and one Ozzy) who did the development work on the T613/5 which we considerably modified for the European market for Tatra (who were not able to do the task themselves yet, due to something of a technical gulf between Soviet and Western emissions and sociatal requirements). We added power steering, safer heating systems, fuel injection that was mostly bespoke beyond the injectors and pump, leather and walnut trim, and a whole raft of additional features that a top modern car of it's day would be expected to sell with. The engine was retuned to 200bhp continuous and 220 bhp for short bursts of acceleration. This was achieved by dropping out the cooling fan drive for a few seconds, releasing more power at high engine speeds. The cams were bespoke as was a full Euro emissions exhaust system and inlet tract (designed to cope with high air flow yet be as quiet as possible). The T613 was around 55/45 rear weight bias (exceptional for a car with that engine layout), and our mods brought the weight bias pretty much to 50/50. The car was very good on fuel, particularly once our novel ECU had 'learned' a driver's driving style, seeing around 40mpg regularly. The steering geometry was altered to improve reaction to steering input, which made driving the car like driving a giant go-kart. On a memorable trip to Tatra's Pribor factory, during cold weather testing, the ECU had a hissy fit in Slovakia. I had to be rescued by Tatra's rally-team outfit. This was a standard T613 with the rear seats removed and a partition behind the front seats, dragging a socking great trailer. It was bitterly cold, the roads were all hard packed snow, and I was given the rear of the tow-car to sit in, with the jacks and tool boxes. We had to take the back roads to avoid the worst of the customs check-points (Slovakia and CZ were on bad terms at the time). Being towed, sitting loosely in the back of a rally support vehicle while dragging another identical car on a massive trailer was an unforgettable experience. Both guys in the front were in the rally team and drove absolutely flat out on the ice and snow without a care in the world. Let me tell you that watching the trailer doing power drifts on those narrow roads was a sight for sore eyes! Ultimately Tatra did their own version, the T613/4, but it was our work under the skin. This later formed the underpinnings of the T700. Unfortunately Tatra had neither the cash, nor the expertise to get their product in front of a sufficiently wide audience to make the thing a profitable exercise. It could have worked, as Bristol Motors were doing pretty much the same thing back then, both business building hand-built, bespoke vehicles, but time tells a different story.
Tatra 613 production started in 1973 and in that time it was quite a powerful car, and I think also kind of nice looking car. It is definitely a safe car with a good handling thanks to the engine over the rear axle, actually the rear axle goes through the crankshaft box, so it might be considered as a mid engine car. This car was also used as a pace car in couple of F1 races. See the original design in this video, also wait to the end to hear the wonderful V8 2xOHC air cooled engine sound: ruclips.net/video/pqDkXSJrWEE/видео.html Unfortunately the communist state forced Tatra company to build a big amount of Tatra semi trucks for the USSR, and the passenger car production did not have any money for a new car development, so the T613 car stayed in the production for two decades without any major change. The small changes in the 80es did not help the car, and the design got a bit cheap and old look when the chrome parts changed to the plastic - as shown on this example. After the fall of communism it was too late to safe this car. Tatra company made a big upgrade of the T613, that was called Tatra 700. Unfortunately the T700 was too expensive and the Tatra name was already forgotten in the world , so there were not many buyers who would buy this not known expensive car. Also the strengthen of emission rules killed the wonderful engine, there was no way to pass the emissions with an air cooled engine in the 90es. Tatra company did not have enough money in that time to develop a new water cooled engine. Tatra is one of the oldest car producer in the world, they were one of the first building the aerodynamic cars, VW build up its success on Tatra cars, and Tatra was always very cool car with many inventions. Nevertheless the communist regime killed the Tatra passenger cars production :-( Nowadays Tatra does produce only the semi trucks, there is no passenger car production any more.
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IT IS NOT UGLY! And it's not a dead trap. In fact these cars were robust, had big and well-designed deformation zones and were one of the safest cars on the road. They were also extremely reliable. You can run over million kilometres on these engines - no problem. But it is coroding a lot.
The death trap refers to tatra 87, produced since 1938. It had a lot more power than anything else, reached 160km/h and had heavy engine in the back. It was safe and stable until you tried to turn. The car was also very heavy, and breaks were a bit weak. Germany had no equivalent of such vehicle, no wonder the officers died when showing off.
The body type T-613 was the work of the renowned Italian firm Carrozzeria Vignale.
A million? Just wishes...
one of the few cars that can run full throttle 24h with no problem at all. when it was fresh out of the factory.
Tatra is rarity car
WONDERFUL CAR. rESISTANCE, DURABILITY, HARD WORK. ONE OF THE BEST CAR EVER MADE IN WHOLE AUTOMOBILE HISTORY
It really is quite easy to find detailed and accurate information about the T613 series. The model is extremely impressive, especially to drive and certainly not a 'death-trap' in corners (the engine is aluminium and positioned above and slightly ahead of the rear axle). There are active, friendly and helpful Tatra clubs and parts are available. Of course, it is a relatively esoteric automobile so the owner has to be prepared for the 'challenge'.
The configuration is common for CZ cars, my father had a Skoda S100, it has the engine in the back too. Ac car made into the late 70s. The Skoda 742 was made until 1990, it still had the engine in the back.
It worked well with people´s cars, the engines were small and light. However once you have 160HP it needs to go to the front.
The italian carrozieri Vignale designed it. The first year with more cromes are beautiful
The TopGear car was 'the blue car', as we called it. I was part of the small team of British (and one Ozzy) who did the development work on the T613/5 which we considerably modified for the European market for Tatra (who were not able to do the task themselves yet, due to something of a technical gulf between Soviet and Western emissions and sociatal requirements). We added power steering, safer heating systems, fuel injection that was mostly bespoke beyond the injectors and pump, leather and walnut trim, and a whole raft of additional features that a top modern car of it's day would be expected to sell with. The engine was retuned to 200bhp continuous and 220 bhp for short bursts of acceleration. This was achieved by dropping out the cooling fan drive for a few seconds, releasing more power at high engine speeds. The cams were bespoke as was a full Euro emissions exhaust system and inlet tract (designed to cope with high air flow yet be as quiet as possible). The T613 was around 55/45 rear weight bias (exceptional for a car with that engine layout), and our mods brought the weight bias pretty much to 50/50. The car was very good on fuel, particularly once our novel ECU had 'learned' a driver's driving style, seeing around 40mpg regularly. The steering geometry was altered to improve reaction to steering input, which made driving the car like driving a giant go-kart. On a memorable trip to Tatra's Pribor factory, during cold weather testing, the ECU had a hissy fit in Slovakia. I had to be rescued by Tatra's rally-team outfit. This was a standard T613 with the rear seats removed and a partition behind the front seats, dragging a socking great trailer. It was bitterly cold, the roads were all hard packed snow, and I was given the rear of the tow-car to sit in, with the jacks and tool boxes. We had to take the back roads to avoid the worst of the customs check-points (Slovakia and CZ were on bad terms at the time). Being towed, sitting loosely in the back of a rally support vehicle while dragging another identical car on a massive trailer was an unforgettable experience. Both guys in the front were in the rally team and drove absolutely flat out on the ice and snow without a care in the world. Let me tell you that watching the trailer doing power drifts on those narrow roads was a sight for sore eyes! Ultimately Tatra did their own version, the T613/4, but it was our work under the skin. This later formed the underpinnings of the T700. Unfortunately Tatra had neither the cash, nor the expertise to get their product in front of a sufficiently wide audience to make the thing a profitable exercise. It could have worked, as Bristol Motors were doing pretty much the same thing back then, both business building hand-built, bespoke vehicles, but time tells a different story.
What an amazing story. Thanks for sharing.
The weight distribution is 45 front and 55% back, the engine is mounted before the rear axle, please check firmly before outcast
It’s not ugly, on the contrary, it’s a beautiful car, extremely reliable and well engineered, Tatra is for connaisseurs
As an American thats a big Corvair fan, I want one so bad
Looks like a VW 411 drawn with a ruler. Wuld I buy it? Hell yes, but I also own a ro80 so I guess I’m a special kind of stupid anyway
I'd buy it in a heartbeat. BY the way, there's actually a government interest in restricting exports of Tatras. But on this one, where's the air cleaner system?
Wow, I was a bit worried there Stu!
I’m sure that someone will love it. Really doesn’t seem much of a drivers car though- I wonder if owners must declare that they drive one to their life insurance policy? ;)
As a driver's car I was trying to imagine just how bad it would be with a couple of oversized VIPS in the back and a tiny chauffeur on a greasy roundabout. In a moment of common sense I baulked at the prospect of having to source or manufacture anything that broke. Back to the 928 project!
I think you're actually wrong about this not being a driver's car 😊. I watched recently some documentary about testing driving performance and it was actually very impressive in good hands - an oversized rally car if you pushed it. Absolutely unexpected, kind of opposite of what you'd expect. Unlike older pre/war time Tatras mentioned, that were killing nazis, this car had 55:45 weight distribution, that helped to achieve query good handling. Apparently drivers loved the car too, at least this is the impression from some documentaries I've seen. I've seen some of them personally during meetings of old-timers. I think in the context of their time they were beautiful cars.
Yes indeed it was Tatra that invented tailfins.
They are surprisingly decent. I gather that they are or can be an issue in wet weather as far as handling goes. But at least it should be relatively easy to maintain
One of those retro sedans that'd look cool in yellow. Dare I say very cool.
No these Tatra's have a history that goes back to the 1930's.
In fact this Hans Ledwinka design was copied by one of his pupils Ferdinand Porsche.
The Tatra's from that era were streamlined, had a fin on the back and during WW2 many German officers loved the Tatra.
During the communist era, Moscow initially forbid Tatra to make their luxury cars but they soon foubd out that their ZIL was crap compared to the Tatra's just like the Autobianchi Primula, the Tatra's are the misjudged talents of the car industry!
Quite beautiful
Tatras and Galenderwagens are not ugly. They are both fascinating and highly individual vehicles.
Used to wait in the front even it out like I used to do my old
Great Car.
....do you know there were a few convertibles based on this Tatra for government parades? Tatra keeps them in their musem.
Where this guy gets his value estimate from....in fantasy land, another typical auctioneer
If I remember properly, it was actually designed by Giugiaro... Was it?
no
Vignale
Those German soldiers were getting killed in tatras because they were hot dogging in them ,it was a beast and it could plow through snow and mud so well that it would cause over confidence in inexperienced drivers, way too much power for 20-year-old Boys full of testosterone basically, that's what was killing them not anything bad about the car
1985 and i got my licence 1350 in cash and off i went to a local caryard to find myself a good car ,i walked into a Bayswater caryard vowing not to buy the 1st car i see , a salesman greeted me i instantly told him ive never owned a car i just got my licence and ive got 1350 in cash to spend 28 minutes i drove out with a v8 powered on the colum manual 1958 Simca vedette four door ,hmmmmm
Tatra never got compensation from VW/Skoda for the Beetle, nor from Tata for fiddling with their name
What does Skoda have to do with it?
It's cool,like a giant vw type 4 4door ,the tatra is like limo ugly sister,shame its sold not in UK
In czech its uncommon, well not that uncommon they produce about 4145 units and few hundreds of them were modified and upgraded or turned into a saloon limo or a kabriolet
In the USSR of 1980s this car was used by KGB.
Never heard about it. Could you give some details?
@@Morgenstern1914 KGB used TATRAs 613, mostly in Moscow and Moscow Region. Black TATRA 613 was common in Moscow of 1980-s. Can be seen in some movies of late 1980-s early 1990s as a KGB car, for example in the movie Corruption (Коррупция,1990) ruclips.net/video/iCUObPiHOlc/видео.html
@@Morgenstern1914 ruclips.net/video/iCUObPiHOlc/видео.html
Ugly as a Ford Taurus?
Maybe. I sense a contest starting here ...
Ugly on a different way. Definitely better looking than a 2004 SsangYong Stavic!
@@inCARnationAustralia better looking than a 928....
@@Robt772000 Oh ouch! You might be in the minority on that one. Shots fired!
@@inCARnationAustralia joking
lot of fake news
Looks like the FSO Polonez
Yes some similarities. Although the Polonez is a Giugiaro design so it's less likely to frighten little children.
Pity it couldn't start for the video. These things would make an air-cooled 911 sound weedy.
There are some videos on RUclips of these things running. I think it's probably got to do with the firing order and exhaust manifolding, but they don't sound particularly inspiring to me.
We had the older version of 613 when I was a kid. I still remember the sound of the engine and the speeds it could reach on highways. The highest we tried was 200km/h.
Tak to teda lítalo, jsem nikdy nevěděl 😅
Not just for Communist officials - they were frequently used as tax cabs (as was the previous 603 generation). The 613s were designed by Italian Vignale. You can look up the final T700 design which definitely shows its Italian design language. The limited GT version of the T700 had a 4.4L engine and a very high top speed. Never drove one, but rode in them during my visit to Prague in '91. Also raced one through the streets of Prague. I had an '84 Audi 100 Avant with the 5 cylinder - despite my lighter weight and fuel injection advantage, I couldn't pass the 613. Nothing else like them on the road in the West.
I love these cars, especially the earlier ones with the chrome bumpers and trim.
There was another one produced up to 1996: tatra 631-4. This had a new multiple point injection (by Bosh if I remember correctly)
YES. 613-4 was final version with injection and 200+ HP and reasonable consumption around 10-12l/100km.
Previous 3 generations had carburetors, separate for each bank of cylinders. If not synced properly (very common), consumption was 18+l/100km.
But this was common practice for drivers, they could prove that consumption was really up to 20l/100km, then fix the carbs and keep all the 5-6l/100km of petrol for many years.
I wouldn't count T700 as new version, it was more like new trim level with western gadgets.
Fun fact: There is no corrosion protection on the car, the service manual states, that the whole car body must be replaced every 6 years regardless of the mileage.
Hilarious!
Common in european cars. Simca, Fiat and Matra also had no rust protection. This contrasts with Volvo, mbenz and some russian cars that most of them had rust protection.
I am late with this comment, but there's this promo video for Tatra 603 which is the best car promo I've ever seen. Just write "Stastnou cestu Tatra 603" and you'll find it. It's over 12 minutes long, but it's really worth watching from start to finish. Too bad the Tatras were just for communist officials in higher positions and not for common czech folk.
Good news, I am enjoying this channel. You driving that Tatra too fast or too often might have put an end to drives for a while, if not forever! They seem to have borrowed the flying buttress style from Jaguar which unsurprisingly didnt improve the looks. 👍
I did once see one of these on the road in the UK in the early 90s. Red, I think. It may have been the one reviewed on 'Top Gear' at about that time. I remember watching impressive acceleration up the motorway slip road. I owned several quite reliable rear-engined Skoda 120Ls at about that time; unlike Tatras they were certainly not powerful, with uneven handling especially in crosswinds (bags of sand in the 'frunk' helped) but I recall they were actually pretty good on ice and snow if driven with due care.
The TopGear car was 'the blue car', as we called it. I was part of the small team of British (and one Ozzy) who did the development work on the T613/5 which we considerably modified for the European market for Tatra (who were not able to do the task themselves yet, due to something of a technical gulf between Soviet and Western emissions and sociatal requirements). We added power steering, safer heating systems, fuel injection that was mostly bespoke beyond the injectors and pump, leather and walnut trim, and a whole raft of additional features that a top modern car of it's day would be expected to sell with. The engine was retuned to 200bhp continuous and 220 bhp for short bursts of acceleration. This was achieved by dropping out the cooling fan drive for a few seconds, releasing more power at high engine speeds. The cams were bespoke as was a full Euro emissions exhaust system and inlet tract (designed to cope with high air flow yet be as quiet as possible). The T613 was around 55/45 rear weight bias (exceptional for a car with that engine layout), and our mods brought the weight bias pretty much to 50/50. The car was very good on fuel, particularly once our novel ECU had 'learned' a driver's driving style, seeing around 40mpg regularly. The steering geometry was altered to improve reaction to steering input, which made driving the car like driving a giant go-kart. On a memorable trip to Tatra's Pribor factory, during cold weather testing, the ECU had a hissy fit in Slovakia. I had to be rescued by Tatra's rally-team outfit. This was a standard T613 with the rear seats removed and a partition behind the front seats, dragging a socking great trailer. It was bitterly cold, the roads were all hard packed snow, and I was given the rear of the tow-car to sit in, with the jacks and tool boxes. We had to take the back roads to avoid the worst of the customs check-points (Slovakia and CZ were on bad terms at the time). Being towed, sitting loosely in the back of a rally support vehicle while dragging another identical car on a massive trailer was an unforgettable experience. Both guys in the front were in the rally team and drove absolutely flat out on the ice and snow without a care in the world. Let me tell you that watching the trailer doing power drifts on those narrow roads was a sight for sore eyes! Ultimately Tatra did their own version, the T613/4, but it was our work under the skin. This later formed the underpinnings of the T700. Unfortunately Tatra had neither the cash, nor the expertise to get their product in front of a sufficiently wide audience to make the thing a profitable exercise. It could have worked, as Bristol Motors were doing pretty much the same thing back then, both business building hand-built, bespoke vehicles, but time tells a different story.
"still trying to figure out which is the front and which is the back" hahahaha as a Czech you got me idk why
it looks like VW variant of 70's that was made in BRAZIL
Tatra 613 production started in 1973 and in that time it was quite a powerful car, and I think also kind of nice looking car. It is definitely a safe car with a good handling thanks to the engine over the rear axle, actually the rear axle goes through the crankshaft box, so it might be considered as a mid engine car. This car was also used as a pace car in couple of F1 races.
See the original design in this video, also wait to the end to hear the wonderful V8 2xOHC air cooled engine sound:
ruclips.net/video/pqDkXSJrWEE/видео.html
Unfortunately the communist state forced Tatra company to build a big amount of Tatra semi trucks for the USSR, and the passenger car production did not have any money for a new car development, so the T613 car stayed in the production for two decades without any major change. The small changes in the 80es did not help the car, and the design got a bit cheap and old look when the chrome parts changed to the plastic - as shown on this example.
After the fall of communism it was too late to safe this car. Tatra company made a big upgrade of the T613, that was called Tatra 700. Unfortunately the T700 was too expensive and the Tatra name was already forgotten in the world , so there were not many buyers who would buy this not known expensive car. Also the strengthen of emission rules killed the wonderful engine, there was no way to pass the emissions with an air cooled engine in the 90es. Tatra company did not have enough money in that time to develop a new water cooled engine.
Tatra is one of the oldest car producer in the world, they were one of the first building the aerodynamic cars, VW build up its success on Tatra cars, and Tatra was always very cool car with many inventions. Nevertheless the communist regime killed the Tatra passenger cars production :-(
Nowadays Tatra does produce only the semi trucks, there is no passenger car production any more.
...even Jay Lenno has Tatra in his collection....
Against the fiat multipla it's a really beauty
I bet it's very difficult to find parts for it.
I very love car TATRA 613 and 700!!!
Cold War eclectic rear engine motoring
7:20 4wd? Are you shure?
❤❤❤
Interesting how the proportions and aesthetics of the Tatra design have become weirder from the older models onwards...
If it breaks you can just pop down to your local Tatra dealer for parts...
As someone who visited the Soviet Union a lot it is hard to imagine a comfortable Soviet seat. Even overstuffed chairs were torture.
this is not from soviet union
It would want to be very cheap, free delivery and storage. Unless it sounds like the F1 car…… Wait quad cam V8😯
I would have liked to hear the engine running. Short exhaust, small mufflers.