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SI - Site Forums : Silicon Investor - Legacy Interface Discussion (2004-2011) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: SI Bob who wrote (2656)	11/24/2004 1:54:21 PM
From: Done, gone.	Respond to of 6035

Lotta wind hitting that tailgate. Yeah, some doods figured that out and capitalized on it; don't think it's been beat since, no matter how refined it has become... tatra.demon.nl tatra.demon.nl tatra.demon.nl tatra.demon.nl P.S. Note this, from the last of the above URLs: "It's not difficult to spot the close resemblance between the T97 and the Volkswagen Beetle. For several years during the 1930s, since the construction of the 1933 Tatra V570 prototype, Hans Ledwinka and Ferdinand Porsche regulary met to discuss their automotive work and designs (see picture from 25 August 1935 at Masaryk race- from left to right: Porsche, the famous 1930s Czech Bugatti racing driver Elisabeth Junek & Ledwinka). When the T97 was launched in 1936 Porsche was working on the KdF-Wagen - the later VW Beetle - for Adolf Hitler's 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. 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 V9-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"." P.P.S. As a kid I had many a ride in one of these -- never forget it: tatra.demon.nl By then, the Czech Secret Police and government doods used to use these: tatra.demon.nl