Editing Tatra 600 (section)

==History==

After [[World War II]], [[Tatra (company)|Tatra]] continued its pre-war business of building passenger cars in addition to [[commercial vehicle]]s and [[military vehicle]]s. The factory was nationalised in 1946 two years before the [[Communist]] takeover. Although production of pre-war models continued, a new model, the Tatra 600 Tatraplan was designed in 1946-47 by Josef Chalupa, Vladimír Popelář, [[František Kardaus]] and [[Hans Ledwinka]]. The name of the car celebrated the new Communist [[planned economy]] but also referred to aeroplane inspiration ('éroplan' means aeroplane in colloquial Czech).

Originally the 600 was known as the '''Tatra 107''', continuing from Tatra's previous aerodynamic cars- the 77, 87, and 97- as it was intended as a newer, smaller, and cheaper version to replace the outdated [[Tatra 57]]. Tatra switched to a new numbering system after WWII, with all car model codes began with 600; as a result, the Tatra 107 became the Tatra 600.

After two prototypes "Ambrož" (December 1946) and "Josef" (March 1947), the 600 went into mass production in 1948. In 1951, the state planning department decided that the Tatraplan should henceforth be built at the [[Skoda Auto]] plant in [[Mladá Boleslav]], leaving Tatra to concentrate on truck assembly. This was quite unpopular with the workforce at both plants: as a result Skoda built Tatraplans for one year only before the model was discontinued in 1952.<ref name="tatraplan.co.uk">{{Cite web|url=http://www.tatraplan.co.uk/|title=Tatra T600 Tatraplan|website=Tatra T600 Tatraplan}}</ref>

The Tatraplan had a [[monocoque]] streamlined [[Ponton (car)|ponton-styled]] 6-seat [[fastback]] [[sedan (car)|saloon]] body with front [[suicide door]]s and a [[Automobile drag coefficients|drag coefficient]] (Cd) of just 0.32.<ref name="tatraplan.co.uk"/><ref>{{citation | first = Karel | last = Rosenkranz | title = Tatra, Autoalbum | date = 2002 | page = 107 | publisher = MS Press | location = Brno | language = cs | isbn = 978-80-900915-9-7 }}</ref><ref>{{citation | first = Martin | last = Janik | title = Tatra | language = cs | publisher = Computer Press | location = Brno | date = 2004 | page = 76 | isbn = 80-7226-573-3 }}</ref> It was powered by an [[air-cooled]] flat-four cylinder, 1,952&nbsp;cc rear-mounted engine. 6,342 were made, 2,100 of them in Mladá Boleslav. In 2010, in the [[United Kingdom|UK]], the Tatraplan won the '[[Classic Car]] of the Year' competition in the 1940s category.