Tatra restoration update

In 2016 Shelly and I traveled overseas for six months so while I was away I decided to put the Tatra in the shop to address a couple of issues. The immediate issue was that the starter motor had failed and I had to hand crank her to get her started. Once I mastered the skill she started easy enough but it was a bit of a pain. The exhaust also needed replacing and there were a number of other, relatively minor mechanical issues to fix. I left the car with Classic Gasoline who had helped sort out the engine problems when I first bought the car.

The exhaust was replaced and the starter motor overhauled.

The engine out

A new clutch went in as the old one was virtually worn to the metal

The whole gearbox had to come out to fix the leaking boots. When I bought the car the gearbox did not leak as the oil in the gearbox had turned to sludge. Once the gearbox had been flushed and filled with fresh oil, it began to leak quite a bit. I was asked if I wanted the gearbox rebuilt. I said no as I was gearbox worked quite fine and I foresaw the risk that once the gearbox came apart it would be difficult to put back together.

Inevitably though, while the cats away the mice will play and once the gearbox was out, the guys did open her up and, as expected, problems were found. The gearbox had been restored using parts of dubious quality and it was probably the fact that the car had rarely been driven in the past 30 years that problems had not occurred. The guys sheepishly told me that they could not put it back together without replacing the worn parts. Now I had to find a donor gearbox. Great! Thank God for the internet and Tatra enthusiast forums. After putting the word out I obtained a replacement gearbox at great expense. Unfortunately, the donor gearbox had just as many problems as the original.  Some parts were okay but most were unusable.

Tatraplan gearboxes do not grow on trees. The company only built 3300 Tatraplans over four years. Due to wear and tear, gearboxes often require repair and replacement and stocks of NOS parts are no longer available. Wrecked gearboxes are pretty much all you can source these days and many have already been cannibalized for their most useful parts. In October 2016 I had put the word out again but had had no leads. After much cajoling I finally managed secure the missing parts from a source in Czechia.

By this stage Classic Gasoline had handed the gearbox rebuild over to a specialist gearbox rebuilder. It made sense as the job really needed specialist attention. However, none of the Tatra parts I was able to source met the company's high standards, which led to a lot of frustration on both sides. I couldn't make them understand that we simply had to make do with what we have.

The Body
With the car laid up it seemed a good time to send her in to the bodyshop. Although not really apparent in the photos I've posted, the paintwork was in pretty bad condition, especially on the car's left hand side where great cracks had opened up. I put the car in the hands of Karson Pasznicki of KPaz Panel and Paint.

The Tatra goes for a ride....

To KPaz

We were all pleasantly surprised to find that beneath the thick layers of bog the Tatra was in excellent shape. It appears that the car was involved in an accident on its left hand side and this had simply been bogged over. In some places the bog was a good inch and half thick. Beneath the bog was a resinous film from the decomposition of the old primer, but there was no real rust. This was really great news as I had expected the doors especially to be in very bad condition. The dents were beaten out and prepped with modern primer.

Taking a chisel to the cracked door panels

Despite the appearance of rust, this dark stain was resin from the original 1980s prep.

The steel beneath the resin was in pristine condition.

Signs of damage on the rear panel

Oddly enough the cake layering of bog was carried right under the car. This has all been take off now.

The roof is back to bare metal. Note the seam across the centreline. Tatra did not have presses big enough to stamp the roof as a single piece so the roof was built in two sections and then welded together by hand.

In primer



We decide to keep the Tatra silver because it's just such a traditional 'Tatra' colour, however, this isn't really correct. Tatra offered the Tatraplan in a wide variety of colour schemes include two tone. This came at extra cost of course and needed to be specially requested. The majority of Tatraplans left the factory in a standard gloss black. The trend towards silver as the standard is recent as restorers of T87s have adopted it to emphasize the aerodynamic appearance of their cars. Some people have even painted T603s in silver, a colour that that car never came in. When we peeled back the layers of paint we discovered that our car was originally dark green.

Final buffing

And rubbing down





The car looks fantastic now.

Back home temporarily

To the final chapter - http://heinkelscooter.blogspot.com.au/2017/12/tatra-restoration-update.html

For more of Tatra posts check out my dedicated Tatra blog: https://tatrat600.blogspot.com/

Tatra - The Legacy of Hans Ledwinka

By Ivan Margolius and John G Henry

An Updated and Enlarged Collector’s Edition of 1500 copies has now been published. The new edition contains new archival information and research gathered in the 25 years since the first version was published. The book is published by Veloce Published in a limited editon run of only 1500 copies. It can be purchased directly from Veloce http://www.veloce.co.uk/shop/products/productDetail.php?prod_id=V4799&prod_group=Cars%20Vans%20&%20Trucks& or from Amazon UK http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tatra-Legacy-Ledwinka-Collectors-copies/dp/1845847997/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1449758795&sr=1-1.

An interview with author, Ivan Margolius


Book Synopsis

The story of the Tatra company, which originates in the Central European country of Czechoslovakia, is one of great innovation and avant-garde design in automobile engineering. It is also the story of one man – Hans Ledwinka – and his visionary concepts which have become highly influential, although often undervalued contributions, in the development of car technology.

Until now, Hans Ledwinka's talent has hardly been recognizsed; in retrospect, he can be judged equal to car designers such as Benz, Daimler and Porsche, whose endeavours have been fully recorded many times over. With his revolutionary Tatra cars Ledwinka consistently pushed back the frontiers of automobile construction, and it’s certain that without his inspiration, the Volkswagen in its air-cooled rear-engined form would perhaps never have been conceived. This book suggests that Ledwinka played a greater part in this development than has previously been appreciated.

The authors have covered the full history of the Tatra company, which is one of the oldest factories in continuous automobile manufacture, dating back to the 19th century. By doing this, they have placed both Ledwinka and the Czechoslovak Tatra company back in their rightful places in the history of car design, and provided a fully comprehensive assessment of the influence of Tatra car designs and their inspired creator.

The text of this larger format 2nd edition has been fully revised and updated since the 1990 edition. This new edition also contains many additional illustrations.



When Hans Lenwinka passed away in Munich in 1965, his personal Tatra T87 was donated to the Munich Technical Museum, where it can be still be seen today. The Munich Technical Museum has an outstanding collection of vehicles and is well worth a visit.


For more of Tatra posts check out my dedicated Tatra blog: https://tatrat600.blogspot.com/

English Tatraplan prospectus

For more of Tatra posts check out my dedicated Tatra blog: https://tatrat600.blogspot.com/

Tatra - The Epitome of Rear Engine Cool

The West Australian 26th September 2015
By Andrew Forrest

As you will recall, the legendary motoring scribe L.J.K Setright once pondered how good the Porsche 911 could have been if decades of development had been put into a car with its engine in the right spot.

Despite the location of its engine, the Porsche 911 is a brilliantly capable car anyway and one whose dramatically different design has ensured its status as one of the world’s most uniquely involving and seductive sports cars.

Given rear-engine design is relatively unusual compared with front-engine cars, the disproportionate success of cars such as the 911 and Volkswagen Beetle and its relatives is all the more impressive.

Despite their familiarity, the 911 and the Beetle are nonetheless the same as most other cars with motive junk in trunk: a little odd.

They are also very cool and the epitome of that esoteric rear-engine coolness is this 1952 Tatra T600 Tatraplan.

Having spent 30 years in the York Motor Museum, the Tatra was purchased a year ago by Perth enthusiast Paul Markham.

Recently, the Tatra emerged from the Perth workshop Classic Gasolene after receiving an extensive mechanical refurbishment, most of which was required due to its long period of inactivity. After being asked what work was required on the car, Mr Markham laughed heartily for what seemed like 25 minutes.

Finally, he said: “A lot.”

Broadly speaking, the car received new tyres, refurbished brakes and carburettors and a rebuilt ignition system.

“Tatras were a magnificent example of that cutting-edge automotive styling from the late 1930s,” Mr Markham said.

“It was that whole streamlining era and I never expected to be able to find a Tatra in Australia,” he said.

Mr Markham’s Tatra will be one of the star cars at the Rear Engine Car Show, an event he has organised specifically for cars with their power packed in the back.

Fellow organiser Paul Blank said approximately 50 cars were expected at the event, with other brands including NSU, Alpine, Messerschmitt and Amphicar also due to be shown.

September 28 - Rear Engine Car Day. Kings Square, Fremantle. 10am-3pm. All rear-engine cars welcome. Email paulyshell@hotmail.com.

For more of Tatra posts check out my dedicated Tatra blog: https://tatrat600.blogspot.com/

Across Australia by Tatra

The Baum Expedition 1935

In late 1934 Dr Jiri Baum and his wife Ruzena Baum set off on an epic round the world adventure in their specially converted Tatra T72 that took them across Australia, Japan and North America.

Several years earlier Dr Baum, a zoologist and assistant curator at the Prague Museum and his friend František Foit, a photographer had driven from Egypt to South Africa and back in a Tatra T12 sedan. Dr Baum had purchased the car in Prague because Tatra had a good reputation for building tough, reliable cars. The car needed to be tough as their journey took them across trackless wilderness and there would be no spare parts or registered repairers on hand. Nevertheless, even though the car was not specially fitted out for a cross continental journey, it performed outstandingly well. The pair and their Tatra made it from Cairo to Cape Town and back in one piece.


After trips to Spain and Morocco, Dr Baum and his wife Ruzena decided to embark on a much grander tour. Setting off from Prague they would drive south through Italy, catch a ship from Genoa through the Suez Canal to Fremantle, Western Australia. After exploring Western Australia they would drive across the Nullarbor to Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and up the east coast of Australia to northern Queensland before catching ship to Japan, drive across the country, then sail to the US west coast, drive across country to the east coast and then back to Europe. The purpose of the expedition was to collect reptile, insect and spider specimens for the Prague Natural History Museum. Although the trip was officially in the name of the Prague Museum, the Baum’s funded the trip themselves.


For this journey they chose a Tatra T72 light truck. The T72 was a six wheeled vehicle, powered by a four cylinder 1911cc air-cooled engine, driving the four independently sprung rear wheels. The truck was fitted with a custom body that included a darkroom, laboratory as well as living and sleeping quarters. The Tatra’s unorthodox design was of particular interest in Australia.

The lessons learned from their African expedition were applied to the design of the T72 caravan.

View of the cab

Radio and sofa/bed

Folding kitchen table

“The caravan is mounted on a Tatra 6-wheel chassis, the motor of which deviates considerably from the standard practice to which we are accustomed turned. A four-cylinder air cooled engine, the cylinders being- horizontally opposed, two on each side of lie crankcase, provide the power which is transmitted through a gear box giving eight forward and two reverse gearings. The drive from there goes to the two rear axles both of which are fitted with differential action. A locking device enables both axles to drive solid thus obviating any difficulty in sand or mud.”

'Interesting Visitor for South-West.', Toodyay Herald (WA : 1912 - 1954), 15 March 1935, p. 4. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article148826036

The Baum's set off in late 1934 and disembarked at Fremantle in early 1935. Their visit attracted the attention of the local media who marveled at the two naturalists charm and their confidence setting off in setting off into the harsh Western Australian desert without any prior experience. People die out there!

Loading and unloading the Tatra is clearly a high risk and labour intensive exercise.

With its wheels safely on the ground a crowd immediately gathers to inspect the unusual vehicle.

Wherever the Tatra went it drew no end of comment; not only about its strange air-cooled engine and four wheel drive, but also its fully self-contained 'caravan' body.

“The whole caravan is a model of self-contained efficiency. It is built on a Tatra 2-ton chassis, with six 7.50-15 tyres, and the caravan body and special fittings were built by Ublik of Prague. Total weight is 4 tons. Inside the caravan, in addition to the accommodation for 'live stock' are bunks, a cooking stove, a dark room with running water for developing photographs, and every conceivable convenience that Dr. and Mrs. Baum and the designers of the fittings could think of to ensure comfort and efficiency in the work of the expedition. That all the contingencies of this expedition were carefully thought out in advance is proved by the fact that so far (7600 miles) there has been no accident and only four punctures since the tyres were fitted in Prague.”
‘TRUCKLOAD" OF TARANTULAS.', Mirror (Perth, WA : 1921 - 1956), 29 June 1935, p. 16. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article75630698

The Sydney Mail, Wednesday 12 June 1935, pg 44 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-page17074935

Their first expedition out of Perth took them north through the Murchison region. Unfortunately it was high summer and native wildlife was sparse in the dry and sandy heathlands of central Western Australia. Nevertheless they returned with a small collection of live reptiles and spiders which they sent home to Prague by air mail. The fact that all the animals survived the journey was itself the subject of many newspaper articles.







The monastery at New Norica north of Perth

They next headed 'down south' through WA's pleasant South West, before returning to Perth to stock up on supplies before heading east.

The Tatra draws a crowd at the Perth town hall. Wherever the Tatra went it drew interested crowds.

'Zoologist on Tour.'
“Apart from many interesting specimens which they had collected on their Northern tour, Dr. Baum and his wife had recorded two vivid impressions of that part of Australia. The first was of the flies, and Madame Baum raised her hands in dismay as she recalled the plague of thousands of insects which made life almost intolerable for them in the Cue district. The second impression was of the heat, and she contrasted it gratefully with the extremely pleasant conditions in the South West, and particularly at Albany. En route to this district, they travelled via Yallingup (inspecting the caves), Bridgetown, Manjimup and Nornalup, and spoke in terms of the highest praise of the scenery along that route. Dr. Baum was especially delighted with the Nornalup and Walpole districts, and the magnificence of the karri forests. They made a detour into the Valley of the Giants and took many photographs, including some cinema pictures, of the enormous trees there. Dr. Baum has travelled very extensively, but he confessed that he had seen very little to compare with our karri forests.”

Driving through the Valley of the Giants. Still an awe inspiring drive today.

Walpole inlet

“It was Dr. Baum’s intention to make a trip along the new road to Frenchman's Bay, partly to seek specimens and partly to secure photographs of the coastal scenery. He intended to leave during the weekend on his return for Perth, and there to prepare for the overland journey to Adelaide. He hopes to complete the trip across to South Australia before the winter," as he has been warned that difficulties might crop up "if he deferred the journey until the winter rains set in. He has had therefore to cut his stay in Western Australia somewhat shorter than he had intended.”
'Zoologist on Tour.', Albany Advertiser (WA : 1897 - 1950), 18 March 1935, p. 5, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article70239335

Perth is often described as the world's most isolated (state) capital city. Separated from the next major city, Adelaide in South Australia by 2700 kilometres of barren desert called the Nullabor Plain. The name Nullabor sounds Aboriginal but is in fact Latin and means literally 'no trees.' Now you can drive between Perth and Adelaide on National Highway 1 in a little under 30 hours, non-stop. In 1935 however, there was no highway, just a track through the desert. The first car crossed the continent in 1912 but even 25 years later drivers attempted it at their peril. The track was bad and there were few services available if you broke down or got into trouble. Nevertheless, the Baum’s and their trusty Tatra made the trip without problems, arriving in Adelaide in April.

One of the great engineering feats of the 1890s. The Kalgoorlie pipeline takes water from a dam in the Stirling Ranges outside Perth and carries it to the mining town of Kalgoorlie 600 kilometres to the east as Kalgoorlie had no natural water source. The project was controversial in its time with popular opinion that the pipeline project would fail. The criticism of chief engineer, C Y O'Connor, was so intense that O'Connor shot himself before the project went live. The pipeline is still in use today.

The Paddy Hannan statue commemorates the prospector who discovered gold in Kalgoorlie

Sand roads were the least of the Baum's problems.

Further east the roads become red gravel and much harder on the suspension.

Refueling the Tatra. As with most central European cars of the period the petrol tank was under the hood.

The Tatra crossing Madura Pass. The Baum's thought this the worst track on their journey.

Boab tree

The poverty of the desert communities was an eye opener

The Baum's did not linger long in Adelaide and pushed on towards Melbourne, Victoria, then in short order headed north to Sydney, New South Wales.

The war memorial, Melbourne

The landscape and climate in southern Victoria was a welcome contrast to the desert conditions in western and central Australia

On the way they visited the capital city Canberra which was still under construction.

The caravan parked in front of the new parliament house. Canberra was an artificial city, constructed almost equidistant between Melbourne and Sydney, as the nations capital in 1929. Construction wasn't finished until well after the Second World War.

On the border between Victoria and New South Wales

Mrs Baum is entertained by Sydney dignitaries.

View of the Blue Mountains

From Sydney they drove on up the east coast to Brisbane in Queensland, where they discovered to their disappointment that Brisbane was the last city with a suitable port to embark the Tatra, so they took a side trip to Cape York by train, leaving the Tatra in Brisbane.



Reservation life on Dunk Island in the far north of Queensland. The Baum's observed the deep unhappiness of Aboriginals all across Australia with their treatment at the hands of white authorities.

Native spear fishing

In June the Baum’s set sail from Brisbane to Kobe, Japan. They made a short journey north to Tokyo before taking ship to the US. They disembarked in Los Angeles, but due to the weather at that time of year curtailed their plan to drive across country to New York, visiting a number of Californian national parks before returning to Los Angeles and returning to Europe via the Panama Canal.

California dreaming


Tatra were keen to capitalise on the Baum's international exploits for promotion.


The Baum family back home in Prague

The Baum’s went of several more expeditions, such as a trip through Africa in their Tatra in 1938 but returned to Czechoslovakia two days before the Nazi occupation. Sadly Dr Baum, who was active in the resistance was arrested, imprisoned and killed in 1944. Mrs Baum survived the war and later migrated to Australia.


Completion of this article wouldn't have been possible without the publication of the Baum's photo archive at www.baum.com.au. A PDF book of their Australian expedition is also available online but only in Czech. All the photos are copywrite of the Baum family (even the photographs in the contemporary newspaper articles were the Baum's). I have edited a number of photos in order to better fit them to the article.

Rough route map of the Baum exhibition


Some links:
http://www.baum.com.au/Dr_J_Baum/
http://prostor-ad.cz/pruvodce/praha/sporilov/vedci/baum.htm
http://www.radio.cz/en/section/curraffrs/from-prague-to-cape-town-in-a-trabant

For more of Tatra posts check out my dedicated Tatra blog: https://tatrat600.blogspot.com/