Date: Sat, 3 May 2003 13:56:53 -0500
Reply-To: Stan Wilder <wilden1@JUNO.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Stan Wilder <wilden1@JUNO.COM>
Subject: Re: Mandatory VW Reading / A Fairy Tale?
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
http://www.tatra.demon.nl/cars-T97.htm
Never mind I found it.
Stan
TATRA T97 (1936-1939)
In 1936 Tatra built a prototype of a small mid-sized aerodynamic car with
an air-cooled engine in the rear. This car was a sort of a small version
of the bigger T87, incorporating aerodynamic design with an air-cooled
rear-mounted V8. The T97 however had a flat four-cylinder engine with a
capacity of 1761 cc in it's tail. The body was smaller then that of the
T87, recognisable by two side screens, rear windows, a flat single-piece
windscreen and just two headlamps (instead of the T77a's and T87's
three). The T97's 1761 cc engine was the world's first air-cooled flat
four-cylinder engine with a chain-driven single overhead camshaft per
cylinder bank. With a bore x stroke of 75 x 99 mm and a compression ratio
of 5,9:1 it developed 29,4 kW (40 HP).
The T97 was the work of Hans Ledwinka's son Erich, who had followed up
Übelacker as chief Tatra car designer in 1936. Erich Ledwinka had already
worked on the T87's engine design before starting work on the T97.
It's not difficult to spot the close resemblance between the T97 and the
Volkswagen Beetle. For several years during the 1930s, since the
construction of the 1933 Tatra V570 prototype, Hans Ledwinka and
Ferdinand Porsche regulary met to discuss their automotive work and
designs (see picture from 25 August 1935 at Masaryk race- from left to
right: Porsche, the famous 1930s Czech Bugatti racing driver Elisabeth
Junek & Ledwinka).
When the T97 was launched in 1936 Porsche was working on the KdF-Wagen -
the later VW Beetle - for Adolf Hitler's promotion purposes. Hitler
however considered the T97 to be too similar to his KdF-Wagen which was
to be produced at the new Volkswagen factory in Wolfsburg, Germany, even
though the T97 was listed at more then five and a half times the
KdF-Wagen's target selling price. In 1939 Hitler ordered to remove the
T97 and the popular T57 from the Berlin Autosalon because of their close
resemblance to the KdF-Wagen which was introduced at the 1939 Autosalon.
In the late 1930s it became clear that VW had used several patents of the
Tatra factory. It's likely Porsche used these patents because of the
enourmous presure from Hitler to develop the KdF-Wagen in a short time
and on a tight budget. Just before the outbrake of WWII Tatra had ten
legal claims against VW for infringement of patents. Although Porsche was
about to make a settlement with Tatra, Hitler stopped him and told
Porsche he would "solve this problem". Shortly after he invaded
Czechoslovakia and gained control over the Tatra factory. Hitler
immediately stopped the production of the T97 after only 508 cars were
built. The T97's big brother, the V9-powered T87, did remain in
production during the first years of the war. The T87 was considered by
German high command as the ultimate car for the new German Autobahns and
was a real favourite amongst German officers.
After the war the KdF-Wagen went on to international stardom as the VW
Beetle selling millions and millions of cars, while Tatra found itself
stranded behind the iron curtain under a new Communist government who
told Tatra what they could and couldn't produce and export. The lawsuit
case of the patents was re-opened after the war and dragged on for years,
ending in 1961 when VW eventually made a settlement paying Tatra a mere
DM 3,000,000.-. Porsche later admitted that during the construction of
the KdF-Wagen in the 1930s he "occasionally looked over the shoulder of
Ledwinka".
For a short time in 1946 there were plans at Tatra to re-introduce the
T97. The new Communist Czech government did not approve of these plans
however, as the T97 was a very expensive car to produce due to a lot of
handcrafted parts. A second plan involved the development of a new luxury
car based on the T97 and equipped with a 6-cylinder engine. Although this
concept never got any further then a concept, a third plan did reach
production. This was a completely new car using the same layout and basis
as the T97, but with cheaper components more suited to mass-production:
the 1947 T600 'Tatraplan'.
On Sat, 3 May 2003 13:35:36 -0500 Stan Wilder <wilden1@juno.com> writes:
> Porsche's
> only dirty little idea was to steal from the genius Hans Ledwinka
> especially in the form of the Tatra T97.
> ----------------------- Clip -----------------------------
> Where can we read about this to dispel the propaganda published in
> Small Wonder?
>
> Stan Wilder
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