Not all streamlined rear-engined sedans are called Tatra
At first glance, car connoisseurs think they can identify a Tatra in the picture above, because the rear-engined streamlined saloons from the Czech manufacturer looked almost exactly like this.
But in this case they are wrong, or less so. The car pictured is a Skoda 935, but the similarity is no coincidence, as the vehicles were based on similar ideas, although the Skoda differed significantly from the Tatra in the details: water cooling instead of air cooling, mid-engine instead of rear-engine.
Like the Tatra vehicles, the Skoda 935, which began production in 1935, had the engine behind the passengers. The four-cylinder engine with a displacement of around two liters produced 55 hp and was water-cooled. The lines to the radiator at the front were routed parallel to the central pipe, which formed part of the chassis structure and housed the fuel tank.
Gears were shifted electrically via a Cotal gearbox. The streamlined body was made of sheet aluminum, but still weighed around 1100 kg with the chassis. The Skoda 935 ran at top speeds of over 130 km/h, not least thanks to its streamlined shape.
However, the design was not pursued further by Skoda, but rear-engined saloons were still produced by Tatra for a long time.
Probably the only example of the Skoda 935 is currently being restored for Skoda and could be inspected in detail in the condition shown at the Rétromobile. The technology can probably never be made more beautiful than it is now.
This is what the friendly Skoda employee at the stand in Paris told me. We have already published a comprehensive report on the Rétromobile .
