Tatra 603 history
| After the nationalization of all Czech companies in 1948, only the three automobile manufacturers Praga, Skoda and Tatra remained. These three companies were under the directives of CZAL (United Czechoslovakian Automobile and Aircraft Industry) which in turn was controlled by the Ministry of Defence. At first Tatra was appointed to manufacture both trucks and passenger cars with an engine capacity of over 1500 cc. This ment production of the very popular Tatra T57B - with an engine capacity of 1256 cc - was stopped by order of CZAL in 1948. After production of the T87 had stopped in 1950, the only Tatra passenger car in production was the T600 Tatraplan. But in 1951 the CZAL decided Skoda would produce all passenger cars and Tatra would produce only heavy-duty all-terrain trucks. Tatra fought very hard to keep it's production line of the T600 Tatraplan, but by orders of the CZAL the entire production line of the T600 Tatraplan was moved from Koprivnice to the Skoda plant in Mladá Boleslav. Less than two years later, in 1952, - after 2100 Tatraplans had been built by Skoda - the production line was shut down completely. This ment there were no more Tatra passenger cars in production. A sad thought when you consider the thriving pre-WW II years with several models in a wide range of sizes and engine capacities. | |||||||||
| For a while it seemed as if passenger car production had finished for good in Koprivnice, but the Tatra employees were still hoping and trying to start the development of a new big luxurious passenger car in the near future. In 1954 they did build one prototype of a small 3,7 m long two-door car fitted with a 750 cc flat four-cylinder air-cooled engine in the rear. This car got the type designation T604, but was never developed beyond this one prototype. Neither the car or pictures of it have remained. Fortunately the Czech minister Vaclav Kopecky had a soft spot for Tatra cars and would try to use his influance in favour of the Tatra company. After some time he managed to pursuade the Czech Politburo to agree that Tatra would be allowed to build a limited number of big passenger cars for promotion purposes. The man responsible for the design of the car was Julius Mackerle, while Ir. Jiri Klos was responsible for the engine. Tatra chose to use the air-cooled V8 T603-engine that had already been developed a few years earlier and severely tested in the racing single seater Tatra T607 and T2-607, the test cars T601 (based on the T600 Tatraplan), the experimental test cars T87-T603 (based on the T87) and the sportscar Tatra T602 Tatraplan Sport. | |||||||||
The first small steps towards the body shape of the new T603 were already taken with the experimental T87-T603, built in very small numbers between 1950 and 1953. Apart from fitting the new T603 V8-engine, Tatra designers also made some changes to the body of the T87, on which the T87-T603 was based. The front was still unmistakenbly a T87 of the later bulbous post-war design with fully integrated headlights. Changes were mainly to the rear. There was now a large chrome stripe running from the end of the front fenders over the side of the car to the wrap-around rear bumper. The rear bonnet was fitted with rear windows of a larger design than those of the T600 Tatraplan. Underneath the rear windows - which were splitted by a tailfin of a slightly smaller design than that of the T87 - were some air louvres for the engine cooling. The rear bonnet was rounded off at the end, where as on the T87 it ends in a sharp V-shape. The rear license plate was fitted inside a chrome surround with the word TATRA in it. All these changes were later adapted on the design of the T603 prototypes and production car.
After the go-ahead from CZAL for the design of a new luxury passenger car for promotion purposes, design work started on a completely new body for the T603. The first design drawings date from 1954, in which radical streamlined shapes can be seen with fully closed wheel arches front and rear, large wrap-around bumpers and wrap-around front and rear windows. Some designs are not unlike the American Tucker and show influences of American car design from the late 1940s and early 1950s, although T603 styling was mostly of a more modest design.
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INTRODUCTION OF THE TATRA T603 (1956-1963)
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