Tatra 600 Tatraplan from 1949. 4 cylinders, 1.9 L, 71 HP, 130 km/h
The Tatra 600, named the Tatraplan, was a rear-engined large family car (D-segment in Europe) produced from 1948 to 1952 by the Czech manufacturer Tatra. The first prototype was finished in 1946.
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 ponton-styled 6-seat fastback saloon body with front suicide doors and 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, the Tatraplan won the ‘Classic Car of the Year’ competition in the 1940s category.
