The Tatra 603: Wacky Commie Hot Rod | Hacker News Reader

The Tatra 603: Wacky Commie Hot Rod

scottlocklin.wordpress.com

74 pointsakkartik25 comments

I should thank Mr. Locklin for bringing this little known car some attention. But I must also say that I am incredibly annoyed by the nasty chauvinistic "top gear" style of his writing. I have liked cars since I was a kid but now I am turned away from a lot of car related journalism because of that same "top gear" style.

I do not know what the author thinks communism is, but he seems to be using it as some kind of semi-racist semi-nationalist all encompassing pejorative, which was commonly used during the cold war.

It is funny when towards the end of the article he suggests (incorrectly) that this car is ok because it was really "a capitalist design" that was only "made by commies". First he is very much incorrect about that assertion. The Tatra 603 was ordered, designed and produced in Czechoslovakia, when that country was ruled by the communist party and was in the soviet block. But nobody in then Czechoslovakia would have referred to it as a "communist" country, not even the top communist brass.

But there is something here that will completely blow Mr. Locklin's mind away. If the car had been designed and produced under capitalism few years before the dates in which it was actually designed and manufactured, it would have likely been designed by the mostly the same group of engineers, and manufactured by the same workers that made the later "communist" car. You see there were a bunch of engineers working in a car factory, and then a bunch wars happened, and then all of a sudden they all become a bunch of "commies" and everything they made was "made by commies".

I don't know a lot of the history of the Czech Republic and Czechoslavakia but this makes a whole lot of sense. I think people make this way to black and white. Governments don't really represent people. I love music and would try to make music regardless of who is in charge of the government. Car people are going to try and make cool cars regardless of their budget

I remember talking to a coworker my age (about 20 years ago). He was born in the early 60's in Britain and his family was middle class. I was born in California and my family was middle class. When he was a small child in England his dad bought the first family car. Like ever. In my case my great grand fathers all bought cars before 1920.

I just seemed to me that Britain, Europe, and especially eastern Europe after two world wars was a big mess. The US came out of it producing 50% of the world GDP, not including, Britain, Canada, France, etc.

And cool filmmakers will make cool films. That's what I love about the 1962 ad embedded in the article. You've got the beatnik whistling and polishing the car, you've got cool jazz, crazy car stunts, and can the Tatra outrun the police?

Not much about that shouts "communist" to me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxMluSU6Frw

Cannot agree more.

It's incredible how mis-informed the author is regarding life behind the iron curtain and the whole 'commie' saturation this article suffers from makes it both painful to read and historically inaccurate. Imagine an article about let's say the Ford Edsel where every reference to designers or manufacturers would be prefixed with 'cappie'.

And the author is even strangely confused about the cars themselves:

"The vague resemblance to the VW bug is no coincidence."

Come now. Not the VW "bug", it doesn't look much like that. Has the writer never heard of the VW Type 3? That's the one that looks like the Tatra 603:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0a/VW_Typ_3...

Of course there is vague resemblance to VW "bug", because bug’s design was heavily influenced by Tatra V570. So heavily that court ordered VW to pay 1 000 000 Deutsche Mark to Tatra in 1965.

> communism was never sold as a fun ideology

Well, then what's about Vladimir Mayakovsky's

Другим странам - по сто, История - пастью гроба, А моя страна - подросток: Твори, выдумывай, пробуй!

(Other countries are hundred years old, Their future is just coffins and cemetery, And my country is a teenager Create, invent, try!)

It's not quite correct that communism wasn't ever advertised as fun.

Woah, I never thought I'd see the day when Mayakovsky is quoted on HN. Thank you, good sir.

Didn't Mayakovsky kill himself?

As to the rest of you butthurt over my use of the word "commie" -lighten up; it is a humorous foray, not a dreary research paper. The commercial and automobile are unusual by any measure, and as far as I know unique for "behind the iron curtain."

Many people at Tatra would get upset for calling them 'the communists'. If anything Communism killed this car (no exports). Latter it practically killed the company by merging them with less advanced Skoda.

The Tatra 603 ad midway down the page is really fun! It's 12 minutes long, but worth taking the time to watch. Great soundtrack too.

Cool car, but the title is a little off considering...

>>The communists had only been running the country for a few years when this thing came out in 1956, so it’s really an old capitalist/Paul Jaray design that ended up being made by commies, but it’s pretty damn cool that they kept it going until 1976.

The "commie" talk in the article is right out of the 60s and is a little off-putting for a piece about a car. I'd say this sounds like Jeremy Clarkson but I couldn't see him using the phrase "..grim and serious ideology covered in human blood" with a strait face.

I guess unless what he says is true and the car was only available to high officials in the communist party.

"... unlike the Trabant or Lada, or even a Skoda, the Tatra is pretty"

Weird - I think Lada and Trabant are genuinely smart wee cars if they're in good nick. Volgas too.

This also looks pretty similar to the pre-war Tatras — which I believe influenced the VW — and the communists didn't seize power in Czechoslovakia until their coup in 1948.

The Trabant is a very smart little car but it does have some major issues, for one the resin that it is made out of makes the car a death trap in case of any kind of fire and for another it is a really dangerous car in case of an accident.

The Lada's that you're probably most familiar with are actually somewhat improved Fiat 124's.

Oh don't get me wrong - safety wise they're a total liability I am sure. But 1. That's the case with all old cars, and 2. The main thing I was saying was that IMO they're kinda pretty

And this Tatra looks extremely ugly in comparison. Each their own, I guess.

TFL Car bought one and drove it from Prague to California.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiE8ZvqLoik

There's a lot of innovative thinking there. And also since then -- Tatra heavy duty trucks are interesting (a T815 was used in Mad Max Fury Road)

"Tatra" or "Panhard", that was the question in 1960. I remember it well.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f5/Panhard_...

Forget the Tatra, I want the little station wagon that the police had.

Get this - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%A0koda_Felicia_%281959%E2%... instead ;)

The red ones were most beautiful.

Love it, but... it has to transport a double bass. ;-)

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