1947 Tatra T87 is a photograph by M G Whittingham which was uploaded on October 24th, 2015.
Title
1947 Tatra T87
Artist
M G Whittingham
Medium
Photograph - Fine Art Photography
Description
1947 Tatra T87 by Miles Whittingham
Tatra is a Czechoslovakian car company. Started in 1897, it is the third oldest car company in the world (they still build heavy trucks). This is an example of the rare 1947 Tatra T87.
Tatra pioneered the concept of the aerodynamic car. In its day, this vehicle was considered to be one of the the world's most technologically advanced automobiles.
Ferdinand Porsche based the design of some early Porsche cars and the Volkswagen Beetle on this vehicle. If you look at the front of this car and ignore the middle headlight, it looks just like a Volkswagen Beetle (Tatra was successful in suing Volkswagen after World War II for patent infringement).
An American car, the Tucker Torpedo was also inspired by this vehicle.
Famous owners of the Tatra T87 included German Field Marshall Erwin Rommel and American writer John Steinbeck.
It is rare to see a Tatra in such beautiful shape as the vehicle in this photograph. Part of the reason is that few of these old vehicles exist in their native Czech Republic. During the Communist era, the police would routinely tow away old vehicles and have them melted down for scrap. It was part of the Communist government's deliberate policy of trying to look like an advanced country by removing old vehicles from the road.
Uploaded
October 24th, 2015
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