1969 Tatra Other for sale $68,000

Tatra is the worldandrsquo;s third oldest existing car manufacturer and pioneer of the air-cooled rear-engined design. It even won a lawsuit against VW for patent infringement after World War 2 (WW2). With this legacy and its revolutionary pre-war streamliners, itandrsquo;s probably the most historically significant marque that most people never heard of!

In the post-war era, this innovative Czechoslovakian marque produced limousines exclusively for senior levels of the Eastern Blockandrsquo;s ruling apparatus. The Type 603 (T603) was built from 1957 to 1975. It was hand-made in low quantities using processes that would be cost-prohibitive for a free-market car manufacturer. Unlike regular East European peoples cars, the T603 was not sold to the public and the average person could not even get near one, never mind own one.

T603s were chauffeur-driven and provided only to high-ranking officials. The T603s embodied the word exclusive like no contemporary limousine in the West; you had to hold a high office to get a Tatra. As such, T603s are now difficult to find even in their home country. Tatras represent an era when Czechoslovakia was the worldandrsquo;s 7th or 8th strongest economy and one of the most industrialized countries overall on a per capita basis. The first Tatras were made when the Czech lands were the industrial heartland of a WW1 superpower andndash; Austria-Hungary. The T603 was the last of the original Tatra streamliners. They are now highly sought-after by wealthy domestic collectors. To them, a T603 is like every musclecar, andrsquo;57 Chevy, andrsquo;59 Eldorado, Corvette, etc.all rolled into one for the American car collector. Thatandrsquo;s why some recent Tatras sales even in North America led to their repatriation to their homeland.

For its time, the T603 was a very modern car. It won a design award at the 1959 Wiesbaden motor show and had 4-wheel power disk brakes by 1969. It was powered by a 2.5 L air-cooled hemi V8. The state-owned tire manufacturer (Barum) even produced a tire only for the T603. As such, it was the only car at the time to have a tire made specifically and only for it.

This Tatra is one of the best known and internationally displayed T603s. It represented the last T603 series at the 2014 Pebble Beach Concours dandrsquo;Elegance. It was the only Tatra at the 2015 Arizona Concours dandrsquo;Elegance. It then won exhibitorsandrsquo; Best of Show at the 2015 Concours-in-the-Hills in Fountain Hills, Arizona with over 400 elite collector cars present, including 40+ Porsches and 20+ Ferraris and notably a Bugatti Veyron, Ferrari Enzo and Porsche 918. It was imported by its current owner from Slovakia in 2006. In Slovakia, it appeared in a couple of period films and was on display in their capital cityandrsquo;s (Bratislava) Transportation Museum. There were additional appearances, media coverage and articles about this car under both current and previous ownership but the above are most notable.

It is essentially an unrestored survivor, although parts of the undercarriage and engine were repainted in recent years and there are new mechanical parts. The exterior paint retains great shine but shows some signs of its age and some spots were also retouched. The interior fabric and trim is in very good condition. There is some wear on the driverandrsquo;s seat. The seat material has not been available for years, so restored cars have substitute material. This is likely one of a very few cars