You may know Tatra as a competent truck manufacturer that won the Dakar rally multiple times, but the Czech company started life as a carmaker in 1897, and actually built cars until 1999. One of their most iconic designs is the Tatra T87, a car that was produced between 1936 and 1950.
Powered by an air-cooled, rear-mounted 2.9-liter overhead cam V8 engine producing 85 horsepower, the T87 was one of the fastest production cars of its time, reaching a top speed of up to 160 km/h (nearly 100 mph).
Thanks to its aerodynamic shape which was very unusual when the car launched, the T87 averaged just 12.5 liters/100 km (18.8 mpg US), while models that could reach a similar top speed had a combined fuel consumption of 20 l/100 km (11.7 mpg US).
A little over 3,000 cars were produced by Tatra, and one of them somehow reached California, although Tatras were never officially imported to the U.S. Its owner, Mr. Paul Greenstein, tells the story of this impressive car in following video from Petrolicious.
By Dan Mihalascu
VIDEO