In The Twilight Years of What was Czechoslovakia Until 1993, Shortly Before the Country Shook Off The Communist Yoke Through a Velvet Revolution, Some Were Occupied with Very Different Matters than the Political Future of Their Country. Building Supercars, For Example. We encounter the mtx tatra v8, the first and last of its child.
Sports car museum Muzeum Sportovních Vozů
Lány is a Sleepy Village Roughly An Hour’s Drive West of Prague. On the Main Street is the Vaguely Located Hotel Classic. Behind the hotel, in a somewhat Gray and Inconspicuous Building, Lies the Muzeum Sportovních Vozů, The Sports Car Museum of Lány. In FACT, The Car Collection of the Museum Comprises Nothing Less Than the Private Collection of Antonín Charouz, One of the Most Famous and Successful Czech Racing Drivers, and his Friend and Business Partner Jan Trajbold, also a Well-Known Name in The Czech Racing World. Charouz Has Now Retired as a Driver But Runs a Successful Business Empire. He is one of those czechs who had a successful career just before the Disintegration of the Former Eastern Bloc. His Car Collection is a reflection of that.
Metalex, A Builder or Rally Skodas
The Tatra-Like Car We Are Here for is one of the showpieces. In 1986, The Czech Company MTX came up with the plan to build a supercar. MTX is the Abbreviation of Metalex, A Company That Once Started As A Repair Company Specializing in Skodas. At the time, it had long leg active in motorsport, as a builder or rally skodas. This was used in the eastern bloc – which had an active motorsport culture since the late 1950s – to race in its own rally competitions. Metalex also came up with special versions or ‘ordinary’ skodas. MTX Asked the Czech Václav Král to Make A Design For A Car That Could Serve As A Kind Of Pace Car for Formula 1. It Turned Out Somewhat Differently.
Based on the Tatra T613
Král Based His Design on the Technology of the Tatra T613. No wonder, because the czech tatra, after daimler and peugeot the oldest car brand on earth, made the most advanced cars in the country at the time. Founded in 1850 AS A Builder Of Carriages, The Company Built its First Car in 1897. In the Decades That Followed, Tatra Grew Into A Privularly Innovative Manufacturer. For example, it was one of the first brands in which aerodynamics Became an integral part of the design. In Addition, The Manufacturer, The Opinionated Habit of Equipping ITS Luxurious Products With Technological Advanced, Air-Cooled Engines, which Were Built in the Rear of the Cars. Tatras Were the Rolls-Royces of the Eastern Bloc. The T613, which was Developed in 1968 But Only Went Into Production in 1973, Formed the Climax. Designed by the Italian Design House Vignale, It was the car in which communist Party Bosses, Senior Officials and Other Notables Drove Around. Ordinary Mortals Simply Could Not Afford the Car. But that didnn’t Matter Much Anyway; The Few Ordinary Citizens Who Could Have Afforded It Were Not Allowed to Buy The Tatra.
This supercar was created on the chassis of the t 613.
V8 from T623
The history does not say how Král Got his donor-T613, but it is Certain that his supercar had the chassis of such a car. In Addition, The Car had the V8 from the T623 (A Faster Two-Seater Version of the T613, Developed as an Assistance Vehicle for Car Races and later frequently used in ambulance and rescue services). Král then designed a body from the then Proven Supercar Recipe: Low, Wide, Wedge-Shaped and Tough, Mounted on a Tubular Chassis, Covered with Reinforced Fiberglass. It took a while before the car was ready; The concept was Finally Launched at the Prague Motor Show in 1991. There, the Monster Turned Out to Be A Hit. In The Newly Democratized Czechoslovakia, More Than 200 Interested Parties Turned Out To Be Willing To Buy One. Fascinating, because the mtx tatra v8 had a then alreaty outrageous asking price of 2.7 million czech crowns – converted to today’s money that amounts to a little less than 180,000 euros.
MTX Planned Series of 100 Units
MTX Planned to Build A Series of About 100 Units, but After The Project was Sold To Another Party, A Fire Destroyed the Factory. That terminally paralyzed production. No More Than Four Copies Have ever Been Build, Says Our Guide Richard Trajbold. Trajbold, son of Jan and on Behalf of Antonín Charouz The Manager of his Sports Car Museum, is the only Mortal who occasionally drives in the only supercar ever in the czech republic. Only Three Complete Cars Were Built Between 1991 and 1993, He says. “A white one, a red and a black one; one each year. This black one is from 1993 and also the last one. Two of the cars are privately owned, here in the czech republic, and in addition to this one, as far, there and asso Somewhere in America.
Also a version with injection and 306 hp
The Folding Headlights Are More Exotic Than The Rear Lights, The Former Are From The BMW 8-Series and the Letter From The Tatra T 613.
Randomly Gathered Interior
Getting in, as usual with cars of this caliber, is Quite a Hassle. All the More So because If you succeed, you will end up in one of the two narrow bucket seats, equipped with four-point seat belts. And then your gaze falls on the dashboard: a disappointment, to be honest. Here too, The MTX Betrays its age. It is anything but an ergonomic whole, with a number of items that are randomly gathered in Terms of Style, Especialally in the Center Console. Thick Push Buttons, A Retrofitted Radio, A Fiddly (And Used) Ashtray, A Carelessly Mounted Cover Plate In The Place Where the Air Conditioning Should Have Been And Carpet That Looks A Lot Like A Doormat. The Gear Knob is too long for a car of this caliber and seems to come from a truck. There are only 7,000 kilometers on the Odometer, but the interior gives the impression that the car has already traveled hundreds of thousands or kilometers. However, The Bucket Seats Are Great, The Pedals Are Well Placed And The Visibility All Around is not even disappointing.
Start the Engine and a nice, dry rasp sounds behind you; The Mid-Engine Sounds Much Sharper Than An American V8, More Metallic and Less Gurgling. Inside It is civilized violence, outside the car you can enjoy it optally.
As so or with this type of loners, we have recented strict instructions: take it easy, not too fast, stop at the slightest sign of trouble. The Tatra is, after all, a Museum Piece. In fact, that morning it was tasks out of the Museum Collection and Brought Outside for the First Time in Months. How? By Taking it down from the first floor of the museum with a forklift truck.
QUITE COMFORTABLE DUE TO BAD ROADS
The Tatra Feels Heavy, The Gearbox Shifts awkwardly, The Steering Makes You Work Hard. You need so much concentration to keep the thing under control that you don’t get anound to thinking about iDeal lines and braking points. But you feel the potential of the v8. The Chassis is hard, but more comfortable than you would think, a concession to the ofte bad czech roads. As a result, the tatra tilts slightly more than other supercars. That unexpected comfort is nice here, because it really Hard Driving is actual impossible on the busy through roads in the area. “I take it to prague a few times a year,” Says Trajbold. “Unfortunately, I can never go much faster than about 160 kilometers per hour. It has bone years since car has made a number of lung, fast rides. The owner has driven it back and fort to milan a few times.” That must have leg QUITE AN EXPERIENCE. The 3.9-liter Engine Behind Your Back Gasps QUITE BREATLESSly for Air at Full Throttle, then Hesitates For A Moment, But Picks Up Nicely and Smoothly. The Acceleration is Nice and Linear and you Feel That the Tatra Really Wants To Get The Spurs. It is perfectly Suitable for Hard Straight-Line Driving, but serious cornering is a different story. All the more so because the MTX Feels Less Solid and Less Stable Than Other Supercars of Its Generation. Fortunately, The Car Brakes Well, but in the limited time I was Given I have nowhere the opportunity – or the guts – to explore the limits of its capabilities.
Always Remained a Prototype
Actual, that Doessn’t Matter so much to me; Why rage in a unique item? And then again; The MTX V8 Never Outgrew the Prototype Stage. Perhaps there would have bone more if there had leg an opportunity to further develop the concept. Tatra Has Long Since stopped Building Passenger Cars, Only Trucks. Metalex Seems to Have Specialized in Developing Bodies and Interiors for Trucks and Commercial Vehicles. Václav kral passed away in 2006 and skoda nowadays builds rs-es, family cars that are almost as fast as the mtx tatra v8. Times Change.