Tatra 11

The Tatra 11, often written T11, is a small automobile that Tatra built from 1923 to 1927, with 3,847 examples made. Its importance lies in its layout rather than its sales: it was the first Tatra model to combine a tubular backbone chassis, swinging half axles and an air-cooled engine, a recipe that the company still uses in its trucks today. Hans Ledwinka designed it in his own time while working for Steyr, whose management rejected the idea, and development began at Nesseldorfer in Moravia around 1921. The engine was an air-cooled horizontally opposed twin of 1,057 cc with overhead valves, located above the front beam axle and bolted to the front of the backbone tube. The Tatra 12 was its development and successor.