It's not difficult to spot the close resemblance between the T97 and the Volkswagen Beetle. That's because their history and development have overlapped. For several years during the 1930s - whilst Tatra was working on the construction of the 1931 and 1933 rear-engined aerodynamic prototypes and Porsche was developing the Volkswagen (VW) KdF-Wagen - Hans Ledwinka and Ferdinand Porsche regulary met to discuss their automotive work and designs. As Porsche later admitted in his own words he occasionally 'looked over the shoulder' of his contemporary.
When the T97 was introduced in 1936 it was perhaps the most advanced small car in the world. But Porsche was still working on the development of the VW KdF-Wagen under an enourmous time pressure from Adolf Hitler, who wanted to use the car for his promotion purposes. Hitler however considered the T97 to be too similar to his KdF-Wagen which was to be produced at the new Volkswagen factory in Wolfsburg, Germany, even though the T97 was listed at more then five and a half times the KdF-Wagen's target selling price. In 1939 Hitler ordered to remove the T97 and the popular T57 from the Berlin Autosalon because of their close resemblance to the KdF-Wagen which was introduced at the 1939 Autosalon.
Porsche's Type 12 prototype for Zündapp (1932) >>>
KdF-Wagen VW 30 prototype (1937) >>>
In the late 1930s it became clear that VW had used several patents of the Tatra factory. It's likely Porsche used these patents because of the enourmous presure from Hitler to develop the KdF-Wagen in a short time and on a tight budget. Just before the outbrake of WWII Tatra had ten legal claims against VW for infringement of patents. Although Porsche was about to make a settlement with Tatra, Hitler stopped him and told Porsche he would "solve this problem". Shortly after he invaded Czechoslovakia and gained control over the Tatra factory. Hitler immediately stopped the production of the T97 after only 508 cars were built. The T97's big brother, the V8-powered T87, did remain in production during the first years of the war. The T87 was considered by German high command as the ultimate car for the new German Autobahns and was a real favourite amongst German officers.
After the war the KdF-Wagen went on to international stardom as the VW Beetle selling millions and millions of cars, while Tatra found itself stranded behind the iron curtain under a new Communist government who told Tatra what they could and couldn't produce and export. The lawsuit case of the patents was re-opened after the war and dragged on for years, ending in 1961 when VW eventually made a settlement paying Tatra a mere DM 3,000,000.-. Ledwinka never received any money himself and died in relative obscurity in 1967. Porsche later admitted that during the construction of the KdF-Wagen in the 1930s he "occasionally looked over the shoulder of Ledwinka".
More information on the Tatra-VW connection.
For a short time in 1946 there were plans at Tatra to re-introduce the T97. The new Communist Czech government did not approve of these plans however, as the T97 was a very expensive car to produce due to a lot of handcrafted parts. A second plan involved the development of a new luxury car based on the T97 and equipped with a 6-cylinder engine. Although this concept never got any further then a concept, a third plan did reach production. This was a completely new car using the same layout and basis as the T97, but with cheaper components more suited to mass-production: the 1947 T600 Tatraplan.
Air-cooled flat-four engine from the T97 (1936) >>>
Dashboard of the T97 (1936) >>>
