Tatra 77

The Tatra 77 is a large luxury saloon built by the Czechoslovak firm Tatra at Koprřivnice from 1934 to 1938, and is regarded as one of the first serially produced cars to be designed around aerodynamics from the outset. Hans Ledwinka developed it with Paul Jaray, the engineer who had worked on Zeppelin airships. It sat on a platform chassis with a pressed steel backbone rather than Tatra's usual tubular frame and carried a rear-mounted, air-cooled V8 of 2.97 litres and 60 horsepower, later enlarged to 3.4 litres and 75 horsepower. Overhead valves, hemispherical combustion chambers, a dry sump, independent suspension, rear swing axles and widespread magnesium alloy parts made it technically advanced. The 1935 T77a was credited with a top speed above 150 km/h and a very low drag coefficient measured on a scale model. The 77 began the line of streamlined Tatra saloons that led to the 87 and 97.