Tatra 12

The Tatra 12 is a small automobile produced by the Czech maker Tatra between 1926 and 1933, and it was replaced by the Tatra 57. It was Tatra's answer to the early 1920s push to build cheaper cars for the middle class, and it succeeded the Tatra 11. Designer Hans Ledwinka kept the backbone tube chassis, with the differential and final drive on swing half axles at the rear, and mounted a petrol flat two cylinder air-cooled engine on top of the gearbox at the front. Air cooling spared the car an expensive, heavy radiator. It had a four speed gearbox, drum brakes on all wheels, and a two door, four seat saloon body whose tubular steel seats are said to have inspired Mart Stam. The bare chassis weighed about 500 kg, and it was also sold to other coachbuilders. A lightweight Targa Florio version took first and second in its class in Sicily in 1925.