Tatra 603, “Happy Journey”
After the Second World War the design work done by Hans Ledwinka survived him and was developed by the Czech company Tatra that he had spent many years working for. The Tatra 603 was in production…
Tatra 613, There Aren’t Enough Eccentrics
If I asked you to name the only semi-mid engine production car in the world would you be able to guess what it was? Of course you would, it’s the car we’re featuring in this post….
1964 Porsche 356C Outlaw
Ferry Porsche, Dr. Ferdinand Porsche’s eldest son, did the design work for the Porsche 356 whilst his father was being held without trial in a French prison in the aftermath of World War II. When his…
Serengeti Aviator Sunglasses
It took me a while back in my dim distant younger days to discover that sunglasses ain’t sunglasses. I was doing a fairly long 1400km road trip in the summer up in the north of Australia…
1971 Citroën DS
The Citroën DS first appeared in 1955 and remained in production until 1975. Some people, me included, think they should still be making them. When we look at the cars that were being made in 1955,…
The Volkswagen, Part 5
How do you sell a car that is smaller and less powerful than pretty much all of its competitors? How do you sell a car that always looks the same? How do you sell a car…
The Volkswagen, Part 4
I wonder how it would be for someone in North Korea to openly refuse to do what the “Dear Leader” Kim Jong Un wanted them to do? When we live in a reasonably free country we…
The Volkswagen, Part 3
The curious thing about the creation of the Volkswagen is that it was not just the brainchild of one man. Most creations are not the result of one person having a “eureka” moment. Typically they are…
The Volkswagen, Part 2
Dr. Ferdinand Porsche’s design for the Volkswagen, Hitler’s “People’s Car” was imaginative, in fact it was brilliant. He incorporated what he knew about creating a performance car into designing a car that was intended to be…
The Volkswagen, Part 1
The Volkswagen was not created simply as a commercial product. It was created for consumers, but it was created because of a political and social vision, not just a commercial one, and its that political and…