1957 Tatra T603

Description:

The Tatra 603 is a large rear-engined luxury car which was produced by the Czechoslovak company Tatra from 1956 to 1975. After production of the T600 ended in 1952, COMECON decided that Tatra would manufacture only trucks, while luxury cars would be imported into Czechoslovakia from the USSR.The enthusiastic Tatra designers, however, continued their work on a new car in secret. In 1952 a group of designers led by František Kardaus and Vladimír Popelář started secret development of a new car called Valuta, while officially devoting their time to development of a new three-axle bus T400. In 1953 the communist government got fed up with delays in delivery of Soviet cars as well as with their poor quality[1] and they ordered development of a new luxury Tatra, thus giving legitimacy to the team's previous work. The new car was to have a 3.5-litre air-cooled eight-cylinder engine, and it was to be ready for production by the end of 1954.