CARS & HISTORY: START OF THE AERODYNAMIC ERA (1931-1933)

In the early 1930s Tatra engineers, under the direction of Hans Ledwinka's son Erich and design engineer Erich Übelacker, started work on the development of a small people's car with a rear-mounted engine in a backbone frame. Ledwinka was very consistent in his belief that an air-cooled rear-mounted engine would bring with it several big advantages, like reducing efficiency loss in the drive shaft and noise and vibration caused by the drive shaft. Elimination of the drive shaft also ment a more comfortable passenger compartment as there would be no central floor tunnel and the passengers would be able to sit fairly low and well forward of the rear axle. This ment a lower centre of gravity and a more favourable inter-axle weight distribution. Mounting the engine in the rear would mean shortening the front part of the body to make a longer tail possible, which was consistent with the laws of aerodynamics. Also the noise regenerated by the engine would not disturb the passengers and would not be heard when driving at a speed of over 50 km/h. Air-cooling would solve the problem of freezing radiators during the winter and boiling radiators during the summer due to the climate in Central-Europe.

TATRA V570 PROTOTYPE
The first car design resulting from this development was the V570 prototype from 1931. The V570 was equipped with a rear-mounted air-cooled two-cylinder engine with a cylinder capacity of 854 cc and a top speed of 75 km/h. The V570 concept was designed using patents of the scientifically established streamlining principles of the Hungarian engineer dr. Paul Jaray (1889-1974), who designed and tested streamlined automobiles in the wind tunnel of the German Zeppelin works in Friedrichshafen. Jaray's streamlining principles showed the benifits of a streamlined body shape with a rear-mounted (air-cooled) engine for both the aerodynamic effiency as well as the flow of cooling air around the engine. Although the V570 prototype didn't have a particulary aerodynamic body shape, it resulted into a second prototype which did.
<<< The first V570 prototype with a rear-mounted two-cylinder air-cooled engine (1931)
TATRA TYPE 57 JARAY
In 1932 Jaray himself designed an aerodynamic body for the Tatra T57 (1931-1935), a mid-range model with an air-cooled 4-cylinder engine in the front and a backbone chassis. However this streamlined design was not developed any further into a production car. Instead one year later, in 1933, a second prototype was constructed of the V570, equipped with a rear-mounted air-cooled flat 2-cylinder engine. The engine was similair to the 1931 prototype, but the car was now equipped with an aerodynamic, beetle-shaped body, fully employing Jaray's streamlining principles.
<<< The Tatra Type 57 with aerodynamic body by Paul Jaray (1932), reconstructed in 3D CAD by James & Patrick Granger (© 2004 Design James Granger) >>>>>>
After completion of the two V570 prototypes the Tatra management took the opinion that any new aerodynamic car would only be an additional model. This would mean a very limited production and therefore such a car should be aimed at the top of the automobile market. The Tatra management ordered Ledwinka's design team to stop any further development of the V570 prototype and concentrate on a larger, more luxurious car. Therefore the V570 prototype was only used by Tatra engineers as a study model for a new direction in automobile construction and styling. Tatra aimed at keeping up a level with the contemporary progress in the fields of new technology, architecture and the visual arts. The new luxury car should be established on a rear-engined air-cooled layout with an aerodynamically efficient body. The car required would have to be fast, silent, stable, economical and built to the most rigorous engineering standards and also reflect modern aerodynamic research.
<<< The second V570 prototype (1933)
 

With the results of the 1931 and 1933 Tatra prototypes work started at Tatra on an automobile design that would hit the motoring world like a bomb and established a layout on which decades of future Tatra cars were based. This car was first presented to the world in 1934 and was called the Tatra T77 >>>>>>
TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS
TYPE OF CAR TATRA V570 TATRA V570
Year of production 1931 1933
Number of cars build 2 (prototypes) 1 (prototype)
Type of engine 2-cylinder petrol engine 2-cylinder petrol engine
Engine cooling air-cooled air-cooled
Location of engine rear rear
Bore x stroke 80 x 85 mm 80 x 85 mm
Cylinder capacity 854 cc 854 cc Tatra design engineers working on aerodynamic body shapes for the new Tatra T77, producing 1:1 drawings and scale models (1933) >>>
Compression ratio 4,8:1 4,5:1
Maximal revolutions 3500 rpm 3500 rpm
Valve gear OHV OHV
Carburettor Zenith Zenith
Ignition battery ignition Bosch 6V battery ignition Bosch 6V
Firing order 1, 2 1, 2
Type of clutch dry one-plate clutch dry one-plate clutch
Gearbox mechanical 4-speed mechanical 4-speed
Number of gears 4 + reverse 4 + reverse
Synchronised gears 3, 4 3, 4
Front axle swinging parrallelogram swinging parrallelogram
Rear axle swinging axles Tatra swinging axles Tatra
Front suspension 2 transversal leafs 2 transversal leafs
Rear suspension transversal leaf transversal leaf
Rim size: F/R 16"/16" 16"/16"
Tire size: F/R 5,00 x 16" 5,00 x 16"
Petrol consumption 9l/100km 9 - 10l/100km The 1933 V570 prototype is on permanent display at the Technické Muzeum TATRA in Koprivnice >>>>>>
Petrol tank volume 32 l 35 l
Brakes mechanical brakes all round mechanical brakes all round
Maximum load rating 175 kg -
Front track 1120 mm 1120 mm
Rear track 1120 mm 1120 mm
Wheelbase 2320 mm 2320 mm
Overall width - 1400 mm
Overall length - 3800 mm
Overall heigth - 1440 mm
Road clearance 210 mm 220 mm
Maximum speed 75 km/h 75 - 80 km/h
Number of seats 4 4
Body type convertible two-door coupe
TATRA T75 FITZMAURICE 
Another streamlined Tatra design - although designed independently and outside the Tatra factory - was the T75 Fitzmaurice. This car was the work of the British Tatra-importer Captain D. Fitzmaurice. He took one of the two originally imported Tatra T75-based chassis fitted with a 1,48 litre engine and had a streamlined body designed for it by Thomas Harrington Ltd of Hove, Sussex. The engine used was an air-cooled 1,484 litre flat four-cylinder engine with a bore x stroke of 75 x 84 mm. The Fitzmaurice special as well as a polished Tatra T72 chassis was exhibited at the 1933 Olympia Motor Show in London. The car was also tested by a group of journalists of the magazine The Autocar who found the car most unusual and intriguing. It was offered at a selling price of £595, but there was not enough interest and no further cars were built.
WIKOV TYPE 35 PROTOTYPE
Tatra was not the only CzechoSlovakian - or indeed the only European - automobile company to experiment with aerodynamics. Other examples from the early 1930s can be found, such as the 1931 CzechoSlovakian Wikov type 35 prototype with an experimental aerodynamic body. The design does look quite interesting with a torpedo-styled nose and shark-like cooling slots in the side of the bonnet. The windscreen is V-shaped and intersected by a stabilizing fin which runs down the roof and ends in a tailfin at the lower rear of the car. The front and rear fenders are teardrop-shaped with half closed wheel arches at the rear. However futuristic this car may have looked - especially compared to the production version of the Wikov type 35 - it never made it into the production stage. As the reather heavy aerodynamic body was built upon a conventional Wikov type 35 chassis, the car had somewhat dissapointing driving characteristics, especially when you consider the production type 35 only had a top speed of 100 km/h with its 1743 cc 4-cylinder engine producing 35 hp. Also the targeted selling price was too high and the somewhat conventional car buyer wasn't ready for this sort of thing.
<<< Wikov type 35 prototype with an experimental aerodynamic body featuring a torpedo-style front and a stabilizing fin (left), standing in between two models of the production Wikov type 35 (above)  (1931)

SKODA 932 PROTOTYPE
Tatra had presented the first of the two V570 prototypes - equipped with a rear-mounted air-cooled flat two-cylinder engine - in 1931. The following year, in 1932, the rival CzechoSlovakian automobile manufacturer Skoda presented its own 'pre-Beetle' prototype. Just like Tatra's V570 prototypes, the Skoda 932 had some striking similarities to the Beetle-design. The 932 was equipped with an air-cooled four-cylinder engine mounted in the rear of the car on a backbone chassis. The engine had a cylinder capacity of 1498 cc and produced 30 hp. Just two cars were built and Skoda did not proceed with the project any further.
<<< The Skoda 932 prototype with a rear-mounted air-cooled 4-cylinder engine and Beetle-like features (1933)
<<<<<<

>>>>>>