Tatra builds a sports car

“I’ve always admired Czechoslovakian mechanics. After the war my family had a rear-engined Tatra and from that came my love for mid-engined sports cars like the Miura,” Nuccio Bertone said. It is therefore quite suitable that Tatra is the first East European manufacturer to become involved in the construction of a supercar. The former executive saloon manufacturer has teamed up with Prague racing car constructor and tuner Metalex to develop a car which is designed to be suitable for both road and track. After the local acclamation of a model which has recently been unveiled in Czechoslovakia, a
fuII-size version of the Tatra-MTX 4RS is now under construction ready for its public launch in the summer.

Both cars will use an air-cooled overhead cam normally aspirated V8 engine of up to 4.0-litres mated to a 5-speed gearbox. Where the production car will utilise a Bosch ignition and fuel injection system, said to develop 260 bhp, it is planned that the racing version will develop 300 bhp, the extra horsepower being found by using the Kugelfischer injection system allied to a twin spark plug arrangement.

The two-seater streamlined plastic body is 448 cms long, 200 cms wide and 117 cms high and mounted on a tubular spaceframe chassis. Pirelli P Zero 245/40 ZR 17s on the front and 335/35 ZR 17s on the rear, the same as fitted to the Ferrari F40, are the rubber on specially designed five-spoke light alloy wheels brought in from Italy.

The first vehicle is scheduled to be ready in the summer of 1991 when it will make its public debut in France as a pacecar at a new circuit near Paris. A road-going version of the Czechoslovakina supercar will be launched at the Frankfurt Show in September 1991.