Tatra. Air Cooled Rear Engine Cars
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Newsletter of the Lehigh Valley Corvair Club (LVCC) the fifth wheel SEPTEMBER 2014 HTTP://WWW.CORVAIR.ORG/CHAPTERS/LVCC ESTABLISHED 1976 Inside this issue Protovair! Rear Engine 1 Tatra Cars Precede VW Dick Lehman. Founding 4 Member of LVCC Remembering 4 Dick Lehman NECC at Thunderbolt 6 Track Day Report LVCC Gang Goes to De- 8 troit Area Homecoming LVCC Meeting Notes 10 July 2014 LVCC Calendar of Local 11 Events LVCC Classified Ads 12 LVCC Officer 12 Contact Info Next Meeting: 12 Wednesday, Sept. 24! Mail Dues to 12 This Address PROTOVAIR! The great-grand daddy of the Corvair was this Tatra V570 prototype econo-car! With an air-cooled boxer engine mounted in the rear, this unique little Czechoslovakian prototype preceded the Volkswagen Beetle by several years. If it can be said that the Corvair was the American Volkswagen, then certainly the Beetle was the German Tatra. Although largely unknown in the United States, Tatra was one of the very first automo- bile manufacturers in the world, and its engineering staff, headed by the father-and-son The Fifth Wheel is published monthly by the Lehigh Valley Corvair Club (LVCC), Inc. We accept articles of interest to Corvair owners for publication. Classified advertising of interest to Corvair owners is available free of charge to all persons. Commer- cial advertising is also available on a fee basis. Please contact our newsletter editor, Allan Lacki for details. LVCC is one of the many regional chapters of the Corvair Society of America (CORSA), a non-profit organization that was in- corporated to satisfy the common needs of individuals interested in the preservation, restoration, and operation of the Chevrolet Corvair. LVCC caters to Corvair people who live in and around the Lehigh Valley Region of eastern Pennsylvania. This is a very special car club! LVCC dues are $10 a year for CORSA members or $15 a year for non-CORSA members. PAGE 2 THEFIFTHWHEEL SEPTEMBER 2014 team of Hans and Erich Ledwinka, was believed air-cooling would be simpler market, the front-engine Type 57. And one of the most innovative. During the and more effective at coping with tem- so, Tatra suspended development of the 1920s, Tatra was already manufactur- perature extremes; a logical assump- V570. Only two Tatra V570s were ing cars with four wheel independent tion in the days before glycol-based ever produced. suspension, backbone frames, and air antifreeze became available. On the cooled engines. All of these features down side, positioning an air-cooled were pioneered by Hans Ledwinka, engine at the rear of a car made it diffi- The Streamliners. who was Tatra’s chief engineer from cult to route sufficient air flow through 1921 to 1937. the engine compartment. Tatra was But this was just the beginning of Ta- awarded several patents for improve- tra’s affair with rear-engine cars. The In the early 1930s, the Ledwinkas, ac- ments in this area. Ledwinka engineering team went up- companied by a German engineer scale, applying the lessons learned on named Erich Übelacker, laid out plans The Tatra V570, as it finally evolved, the V570 to the large and luxurious for a small people’s car that took these was a four-seat vehicle. Its engine was Type 77 Tatra automobile. With an concepts to a new height by mounting a tiny854 cc two cylinder air cooled advanced air-cooled V8 engine located the engine in the rear, believing that a boxer with a power rating of 18 HP at in its tail and bodywork designed by the rear-engine car would bring several ad- 3500 RPM. The engine, gear-box and famous Zeppelin aerodynamicist Paul vantages that are familiar to Corvair differential were of unitary construc- Jaray, the Type 77 represented the pin- enthusiasts today. By eliminating the tion, much like the Volkswagen Beetle nacle of automotive technology when it drive shaft, it would be possible to in- and Corvair. Although it had a small was introduced in 1934. Its engineer- crease mechanical efficiency, reduce engine, it could reach speeds of 80 kilo- ing features included overhead valves, vibration, make the car lower, and im- meters per hour, (50 mph), about the hemispherical combustion chambers, prove interior space. Moving the en- same as an American Model A Ford. dry sump lubrication, fully independent gine to the rear would also make the suspension, rear swing axles and exten- interior quieter and shorten the front Tatra had been in the car manufacturing sive use of lightweight magnesium- part of the body to make a longer tail business since 1897 and when the V570 alloy for the engine, transmission, sus- possible for improved aerodynamics. prototype was completed, Tatra already pension and body. The drag coeffi- The Ledwinka engineering team also had a successful economy car on the cient of its streamlined body was re- puted to be only 0.2455; more slippery than most of today’s cars. Between 1934 and 1939, the T77 was refined and replaced by models known as the T77A and T87, all of which were equipped with air-cooled V8 engines located behind the rear axle. Tatra Takes Volkswagen to Court. In 1936, Tatra also introduced a smaller car, the T97 and it was this Tatra that the Beetle resembled the most. Like its big brothers, it had a backbone chassis, four wheel independent suspension, and an air cooled rear engine. But the en- gine was a boxer four cylinder. The T97’s engine displaced 1.8 liters and produced 39 horsepower, good for 81 mph on the highway. 1938 Tatra T97. Little brother to the V8 Tatra streamliners, it featured a As Porsche’s design for the Beetle was backbone chassis, swing axle suspension and rear mounted air cooled 4- revealed, its resemblance to the T97 cylinder boxer engine. Introduced in 1936, it was a production car that could not be denied, and Tatra sued preceded the Volkswagen Beetle by several years. Photographed at the Volkswagen for patent infringement. Indeed, Dr. Porsche had often conferred Tampa Bay Automobile Museum by Douglas Wilkinson. SEPTEMBER 2014 THEFIFTHWHEEL PAGE 3 TATRA. AIR COOLED REAR ENGINE CARS. 1937 Tatra T37A. Air-cooled rear-engine supercar. 1936 Tatra T77 Aerodynamic Limousine. Photo by Photo by David Van Mill. John Wiley. 1946 Tatra T87. Photo by Zack S. Classic Cars. 1946 Tatra T87. Photo by LVCC Member Ron Peles. Cyclops headlight predates Tucker Torpedo. Taken at “The Elegance” show at Hershey. Early 1950s Tatra T600 Tatraplan. Photo by Thomas Air-cooled Tatra V8 engine compartment. Photo by T. “The Adventurous Eye.” LVCC Member Ron Peles. PAGE 4 THEFIFTHWHEEL SEPTEMBER 2014 with the Ledwinkas and admitted that tion of the T603 continued into the know of anyone who is interested in he “looked over Hans Ledwinka’s 1960s, and it was not until 1973 when it making a donation, the address is Tra- shoulder occasionally”. was replaced by the much more modern ditions of Hanover, Attn. Cathy Model T613, styled by the Vignale stu- Heimsroth, 5300 Northgate Dr., Bethle- Hitler, of course, was not pleased, and dio in Italy. hem, PA 18017. not long after the Nazis marched into Czechoslovakia, the court proceedings The T613 was updated from time to You can also reach Dick’s daughter were terminated. Production of the T97 time, but the basic body shell remained Kathy bywriting to her at the following was brought to a halt to ensure that it the same until 1999 when Tatra exited address: would not usurp the KdF Wagen the car business for good. With the fall (Beetle) as the automotive engineering of communism and the return of free Kathy M Blanar triumph of the age. markets in Czechoslovakia, the T613 2291 Carousel Ct was eclipsed by Mercedes, BMW and Marietta, GA 30066 After the war, the KdF-Wagen went on other luxury cars from the West. to international stardom. Volkswagen sold millions of Beetles. Meanwhile, Since then, Tatra has concentrated on REMEMBERING Tatra faded into obscurity behind the the manufacture and sale of ultra-heavy DICK LEHMAN Iron Curtain. duty trucks where its offerings remain by Dick Weidner. competitive. The Tatra company re- With the Nazis gone from power, Tatra mains in business to this day. Our Secretary-Treasurer, Dick reopened the lawsuit. The case dragged Weidner, examined LVCC club records on for years, but in 1961, the parties and found the following information arrived at a settlement. Volkswagen Vindication of the V570. about the early days of the club. Dick paid Tatra 3,000,000 Deutschemarks, a Lehman was indeed one of LVCC’s small amount considering the fact that It is interesting to note that one of the first leaders and was instrumental in Volkswagen’s success was built upon two Tatra V570 prototypes was sold to bringing Corvair enthusiasts together in Ledwinka’s engineering innovations. a private individual who drove it for the Lehigh Valley section of Pennsyl- thirty years. It remains intact and re- vania. Here are facts from the record Hans Ledwinka never received any of sides in the Tatra factory museum. books; the proceeds of the settlement. He died relative obscurity in 1967. First meeting of the club occurred on DICK LEHMAN. FOUND- September 15, 1976 at 327 Montgom- ING MEMBER OF LVCC ery St Allentown, PA. Dick Lehman, The Communist Era. Larry Yoder and Joseph Robinson were Richard J. Lehman, 85, of Bethlehem, present. After World War II, Tatra introduced a passed away Friday, August 15, 2014. successor to the T97. It was named the He was the husband of Virginia Second meeting also occurred on Mont- T600 “Tatraplan” in a nod to the (Grello) Lehman.