Tatra 603

Saturday 15 July 2017

This is the police version of the vehicle described here.

Technical data:
- engine: V8
- capacity: 2545 cc
- horsepower: 105 HP
- gearbox: 4+1
- top speed: 167 km/h

Tatra 600

Friday 14 July 2017
No success finding any useful information about this car in the Internet. Please share any info you might have.

Technical data:
- engine: 6 cylinders
- capacity: 1952 cc
- horsepower: 52 HP
- gearbox: 4+1
- top speed: 130 km/h

Tatra 141

Thursday 30 July 2015
The Tatra 111 was a truck produced in Czechoslovakia by the Tatra company.
The T111 was developed and manufactured during World War II as a heavy truck for use by the Wehrmacht. Production started in 1942 and continued for twenty years, ending in 1962 when it was replaced by the Tatra 138. Despite being built for the Nazi war machine, the vehicle ultimately played an important role after the war ended. The Tatra 111 contributed significantly to the rebuilding effort during the postwar era, mainly in Eastern Europe and the USSR. To its chief designer, however, it brought charges of treason and collaboration with the Nazi regime after the communist takeover of Czechoslovakia and contributed to the imprisonment of Tatra's design guru Hans Ledwinka.
The design was based on the proven Tatra concept of a backbone tube chassis construction with swing half axles, a modular gearbox and differential assemblies. The main advantages of the central load carrying backbone tube are its high torsion and bend strength, which protects the truck body against load stresses. The secondary advantage is that it houses all important parts of the drivetrain. Due to its torsional stiffness and use of differentials locks the vehicle had exceptional offroad capabilities. Of note was the ability to use a cranking handle to start the engine.
Model V910 - the first Tatra air-cooled powerplant V12 75-degree V developed from Tatra V850 engine intended for use in Tatra 103 (Sd Kfz. 234 Puma). The engines had power output of 210 horsepower at 2250 RPM mainly for war use (An average life expectancy during combat for Wehrmacht was 6 hours.) which was later reduced to 180 hp at 1800 rpm to increase reliability. The engine has three camshafts and originally was cooled off by two covered chain-driven cooling fans and later was the belt drive being used (marked T111A).
The Tatra 111 was in production for 20 years, with a total of approximately 34,000 units made. The T111 engine was widely used in the variety of other vehicles such as a heavy tractor T141, a railway car M 131, airport tugs and pontoon bridges used by the army. The engine was also "halved" to create an inline 6-cylinder version for the Praga V3s 6x6 light utility military truck and civilian Praga S5T light truck. Based on the T111 V12 engine was created V8 version for the T128 4x4 truck for the Czech Army, designed mostly from the T111 parts. T111 main product range was in flatbed, tipper, tanker and crane configuration.

Technical data:
- engine: V12
- capacity: 14825 cc
- horsepower: 185 HP
- gearbox: 4+1
- top speed: 45 km/h

Tatra T600

Thursday 6 November 2014
The Tatra 600, named the Tatraplan, was a large car from the Czech manufacturer Tatra.
After World War II, Tatra continued its pre-war business of building passenger cars in addition to commercial (and military) vehicles. The factory was nationalised in 1946 two years before the Communist takeover. Although production of pre-war models continued, a new model, the Tatra 600 Tatraplan was designed in 1946-47 by Josef Chalupa, Vladimír Popelář, František Kardaus and Hans Ledwinka. The name of the car celebrated the new Communist planned economy but also referred to aeroplane inspiration ('éroplan' means aeroplane in colloquial Czech).
After two prototypes "Ambrož" (December 1946) and "Josef" (March 1947), the 600 went into mass production in 1948. 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 six-seater saloon body with a drag coefficient (Cd) of just 0.32. It was powered by an air-cooled flat-4-cylinder 1,952 cc rear-mounted engine. 6,342 were made, 2,100 of them in Mladá Boleslav. In 2010, in the UK, Tatraplan had been selected by public vote in the 'Classic Car of the Year' competition as the winner of the 1940s category.

Technical data:
- engine: 6 cylinders
- capacity: 1952 cc
- horsepower: 52 HP
- gearbox: 4+1
- top speed: 130 km/h

Tatra T148 S3

Monday 26 May 2014
The Tatra T148 was a truck produced in Czechoslovakia by the Tatra company.
In 1969 Tatra decided to modernize the existing T 138 model with a number of improvements and design changes. The new model series was designated T148. Designers were tasked with the requirements of increasing engine power, vehicle speed and reliability as well as meeting stricter noise and emission regulations.
Yet again design continued with the proven central backbone tube construction and power train integrated into the central backbone tube as a modular concept in 4x4 and 6x6 configuration. A new feature was the inter-axle differential. The main advantages of the central load carrying backbone tube are in its high torsion and bend strength, which protects the truck body against load stresses. The secondary advantage is that it houses all important parts of the drive train as well as it enables a concept of modular construction where designers and customers can specify 4 and 6 wheel drive, as well as various length wheelbase combinations.
The improved powerplant had its stroke lifted by 10 mm while the bore remained the same. The displacement was lifted to 12.6 litres which resulted in increased horsepower and torque. For military variants the engines were capable of running on alternative fuels (mixtures of diesel fuel, gasoline and or aviation kerosine fuel), albeit with a performance loss. The air cooling system was retained once again with the cooling fan driven via hydraulic clutch and engine oil temperature controlled. The fuel injection pumps featured different types variable or combination governors depending on the vehicle application.
The Tatra T148 featured an all-steel two door cabin with a fully suspended drivers seat and a bench seat for two occupants. Special military variants included a hatch opening on the roof. The vehicle featured an independent auxiliary cab heater and included cyclone pre-cleaners mounted on the front mudguards. The vehicle's top speed was approximately 80 km/h up to 26,000 kg (57,320 lb) GVM(T148 S3) or a total truck and trailer combination of up to 38,000 kg (83,776 lb) GCM(T148 S3).


Technical data:
- engine: V8
- capacity: 12667 cc
- horsepower: 180 HP
- gearbox: 5+1
- top speed: 80 km/h

Tatra 603-1

Tuesday 02 November 2010
Tatra was the traditional automaker of state-of-the-art luxurious automobiles in the Czechoslovakia. Austro-Hungarian emperor Charles I was using NW type T, the Czechoslovak president Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk was driving in the twelve-valve Tatra T80 while his successor Edvard Beneš was driving the streamlined Tatra T87. While T87 was manufactured from 1936 to 1950, the post-war T600 may be considered to be the first car for the new political establishment. The T600 was much smaller and using only four valve engine, being therefore descendant of T97, small pre-war Tatra, production of which was stopped by the Nazis in order to cover its resemblance to their KDF-Wagen (later VW bug). As the production of T600 ended in the 1952, the central planning commission decided, that Tatra shall manufacture only trucks, while luxury cars will be imported from USSR.
However the enthusiastic Tatra designers continued their work on a new car in secrecy. In 1952 a group of designers led by František Kardaus and Vladimír Popelář started secret development of a new car called Valuta; officially they were spending all time on development of a new three-axle bus T400. In 1953 the communist government got fed up with delays in delivery of Soviet cars as well as with their poor quality and they ordered development of a new luxury Tatra, thus giving legitimacy to the teams previous work. The new car was to have 3,5 litre air cooled eight valve engine and it was to be ready for production till the end of 1954. While the carrossery was almost ready due to the work on Valuta, the engine remained an issue. Even in their secret designs nobody was counting with such a large engine. Engineer Julius Mackerle proposed a "temporary" solution of using the already developed T603 engine of 2,5litres displacement in the new car (it was already successfully used in Tatra racecars and Tatra T87-603), while the larger one was supposed to be ready in next 4–5 years.
The first driveable T603 was finished in 1955. A number of carrosseries were tested in wind-tunnels, in the end the one proposed by František Kardas and fine-tuned by Vladimír Popelář and Josef Chalupa was chosen for production.
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.

Technical data:
- engine: V8
- capacity: 2545 cc
- horsepower: 105 HP
- gearbox: 4+1
- top speed: 175 km/h

Tatra 613

Monday 18 October 2010
The Tatra T613 was a large luxury car with rear mounted air-cooled engine manufactured by Czech manufacturer Tatra from the 1970s to the 1990s, as a replacement for the Tatra T603 series.
It featured an all new body styled by Vignale of Italy and used a dohc air-cooled V8 of 3.5 or 4.3 litres. The design was updated a further five times until being replaced by the Tatra T700 in 1996, itself a restyled T613-5.
The Tatra 613 vehicles were mostly used by the government officials, the 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.
A Tatra T613 was recently used in the film Hostel set in Slovakia.

Technical data:
- engine: V8
- capacity: 3495 cc
- horsepower: 170 HP
- gearbox: 5+1
- top speed: 190 km/h