In 1919 the company changed from the Nesselsdorfer marque to the Tatra badge, named after the nearby Tatra Mountains on the Czechoslovak-Polish border.

Tatra is a Czech vehicle manufacturer in Kopřivnice. It is owned by the Tatra Trucks company, based in Ostrava, and is the third oldest company in the world producing cars with an unbroken history, surpassed only by French automaker Peugeot.  The company was founded in 1850.  In 1897, Tatra produced the first motor car in central Europe, the Präsident automobile.  Production of passenger cars ceased in 1999.

 

Headquarters Kopřivnice, Moravia, Czech Republic

77  1934-1935

The Czech Tatra is by many considered to be the first serial-produced, truly aerodynamically-designed automobile. It was developed by Hans Ledwinka and Paul Jaray, the Zeppelin aerodynamic engineer. Launched in 1934, the Tatra 77 is a coach-built automobile, constructed on a platform chassis. 

It was powered by a 60 hp rear-mounted 2.97-litre air-cooled V8 engine.  The average drag coefficient of a 1:5 model of Tatra 77 was recorded as 0.2455. 

The Tatra 77 was a hand-built car with a leather interior. Some cars had a glass partition between the front and rear seats. A sliding roof was available.

In 1935 the T77 was updated and improved, which resulted in the T77a. The capacity of the V8 was increased to 3.4 L. The new motor increased output to 75 hp  and maximum speed to 150 km/h.

87  1936-1950

The Tatra 87 (T87) was a car built by Czechoslovak manufacturer Tatra. It was powered by a rear-mounted 2.9-litre air-cooled V8 engine that produced 85 horsepower and could drive the car at nearly 160 km/h. It is ranked among the fastest production cars of its time. After the war between 1950 and 1953, T87s were fitted with more-modern 2.5-litre V8 T603 engines.

 Its streamlined shape was designed by Hans Ledwinka and Erich Übelacker and was based on the Tatra 77, the first car designed with aerodynamics in mind. A fin in the sloping rear of the Tatra helps to divide the air pressure on both sides of the car, a technique used later in aircraft. 

Many design elements of the Tatra 87, V570 and the later T97, were copied by later car manufacturers. Ferdinand Porsche was heavily influenced by the Tatra 87 and T97 and the flat-four-cylinder engine in his design of the Volkswagen Beetle, and was subsequently sued by Tatra.

t600 tatraplan  1948-1952

The Tatra 600, named the Tatraplan, was a rear-engined large family car produced from 1948 to 1952. The name of the car celebrated the new Communist planned economy but also referred to aeroplane inspiration.

 In 1951, the state planning department decided that the Tatraplan should henceforth be built at the Skoda Auto plant in Mladá Boleslav, leaving Tatra to concentrate on truck assembly. This was quite unpopular with the workforce at both plants: as a result Skoda built Tatraplans for one year only before the model was discontinued in 1952.

The Tatraplan had a monocoque streamlined 6-seat fastback saloon body with front suicide doors and was powered by an air-cooled flat-4-cylinder 1,952 cc rear-mounted engine.  6,342 were made.

603/1  1956-1975

The Tatra 603 is a large rear-engined luxury car which was produced by Tatra from 1956 to 1975. It was a continuation of the series of Tatra streamlined sedans which began with the Tatra 77. In Socialist Czechoslovakia, only high-ranking party officials and heads of factories were driven in 603s. 

About a third of T603 production was exported to most of the central and eastern European countries allied to Czechoslovakia at the time, as well as to Cuba and China. Sales to private individuals were not normally possible.

The T603s took part in 79 races (24 international) in years 1957 to 1967, resulting in a total 60 first, 56 second and 49 third positions.  Three versions of the model T603 were manufactured successively between 1956 and 1975. These cars are designated T603, T 2-603 and T 3-603, though the 3- was not an official designation used by Tatra. The T603-1 is easily distinguished by its three headlamps enclosed beneath a clear glass cover. The side ones were fixed, the middle one rotated together with the front axle. In 1962 the 2-603 was launched. Four headlamps were mounted within a long oval grille and the dashboard was changed. The unofficial -3 (or Tatra 2-603 II) omits the grille and places the headlamps flush with the car's front fascia.

613  1975-1980

The Tatra 613 was a large luxury rear wheel driven car with rear mounted air-cooled engine manufactured from the 1970s to the 1990s, as a replacement for the Tatra 603 series.

It featured an all-new body styled by Vignale of Italy back in 1968 and used an air-cooled 3.5 litre V8 engine with 168 PS.  Later injection versions reached 200 PS, with a maximum speed of 230 km/h. The design was updated a further five times until being replaced by the Tatra 700 in 1996, itself a restyled T613-5.

The Tatra 613 vehicles were mostly used by government officials, industry executives and in limited numbers were also used as police cars and as the rapid response fire fighting and rescue vehicles during motorsport events.

  • 1975 - 1980 Tatra 613 - 4581 vehicles produced
  • 1980 - 1984 Tatra 613-2 -1045 vehicles produced
  • 1985 - 1991 Tatra 613-3 (1st facelift by V.Výborný) - 903 vehicles produced
  • 1991 - 1993 Tatra 613 RTP and RZP (ambulance)
  • 1991 - 1996 Tatra 613-4 and Tatra 613-4 Long (2nd facelift, first injection version) - 191 vehicles produced
  • 1993 - 1994 Tatra 613-5 - only four prototypes were ever made, a fuel-injected 'westernised' car having been contracted out to ex-Jaguar development engineer Tim Bishop from England.
  • 1993 - 1996 Tatra 613-4 Mi and Tatra 613-4 Mi Long (luxury version) - 109 vehicles produced + several dozens of long versions
  • 1995 - 1996 Tatra 613-4 Mi Long MODEL 95 (3rd facelift) - several dozens produced

1897-1920

1920-1936

1936-1950

1950-1989

1989-1999

1999-