From Road Carts to Tank Engines
Tatra Kopřivnice is
the third oldest existing car manufacturer in the world with production that has never been interrupted. The Company dates back to 1850 when Ignác Šustala founded a small family-owned business that made carriages and carts. The business grew and later on started to focus on new means of transport: in 1882, they produced the first
15 railway carriages; two years later, it was
one of the first passenger cars in Central Europe (the Präsident automobile) and the first truck was released from the Kopřivnice production line. In 1919, the name TATRA appeared on the vehicles for the first time. Between WWI and WWII, the production was expanded by
railway motor cars, and even
airplanes. During WWII, the Company delivered trucks and engines for German tanks.
Only One Car in the World Has a Memorial
The Company was nationalized after WWII and “Tatra národní podnik” (a state-owned company) concentrated on the
production of motor vehicles, engines and additional equipment. The flagship product of that period was the legendary
TATRA 111 truck, which was produced until 1962. The truck literally hauled the material for all major construction work when the new society was being built, and not only in Czechoslovakia. It was, no doubt, a very popular truck and as such it is the only truck in the world that has its own memorial. In the years that followed, the heavy TATRA trucks also achieved success beyond the borders of Czechoslovakia –
they were exported into 53 countries on five continents. Visit the Museum
The Tatra cars were also made famous thanks to sporting achievements and mainly by travellers, the best known being
Jiří Hanzelka and Miroslav Zikmund, who travelled with the Tatra 87 and Tatra 805. The trucks were made popular thanks to their success in rallies, namely the most difficult one –
Rally Dakar.
Karel Loprais, the legendary driver, won six times out of the 19 competitions he participated in (1986–2006)! If you find the story of the Tatra company interesting, you should visit the
Tatra Technical Museum in Kopřivnice in
North Moravia. There are 60 automobiles on display at the Museum and many models, engines and unique specimens. There are seven multilingual video boxes in the exposition where you can learn everything about Tatra and its history.
