Story and photos by Hugues Vanhoolandt
We begin with a wonderful story from the superb collection of Tatras at Retromobile.
In 1947, two young Czech adventurers, Jiri Hanzelka and Miroslav Zikmund, had a plan to see the world and report their findings to the world through films, radio, and books. They approached Tatra with the idea. Impressed by the plan and the opportunity to promote its vehicles, Tatra provided the team with the Tatra Type 87 seen above. They didn’t just hand over the keys however. Hanzelka and Zikmund had three months of experience with the car at the Tatra factory in Koprivnice before embarking upon a continuous three-and-a-half-year voyage through Africa and Latin America, covering 44 countries and 111,000 kilometers. Along the way, they made films, wrote articles, and they even had a broadcast on the Czech radios as they traveled by Tatra to see the world. Truly happy campers! But while they were away, the Communists, with the support of Stalin, took control of Czechoslovakia, beginning one of the bleakest eras of the country’s history. [Read more…] about Retromobile Tatra Exhibition
