<![CDATA[Jalopnik: Czech Republic]]> http://cache.jalopnik.com/assets/base/img/thumbs140x140/jalopnik.com.png <![CDATA[Jalopnik: Czech Republic]]> http://jalopnik.com/tag/czech republic http://jalopnik.com/tag/czech republic <![CDATA[From Brno With Love: Drunken Czech Tractor Drifting]]> No farm equipment company ever designed a tractor for drifting, but with a drunk hoon at the wheel, this Czech-built Zetor 25K handles the job fairly well. More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5873081&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Road Rage... With Swords!]]> The adrenaline-fueled anger of road rage seems almost quaint in a country like the Czech Republic where gun ownership is low. Sure, you can beat a cab with your sword but everyone still goes home alive. More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5654951&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Black Primer, 283 Small-Block: Chevelle's European Cousin Speaks German With a Detroit Accent]]> The Opel Admiral A and the Chevrolet Chevelle aren't close relatives, but our Czech friend and Tatra reviewer BobAsh drives one that wouldn't look (or sound) out of place doing gnarly burnouts in the Dairy Queen parking lot. More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5497893&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Calais To Prague In £150 Cars: The Czech Wrecks Rally]]> Driving $500 cars from New York to New Orleans sounds like fun, but those BABE Rally guys must be made of money! How about 1,500 miles in cars that cost £150 (about $247)? More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5343367&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Tatra 603, Ford Galaxie 500 Down On The Czech Street]]> This is Down On The Street Bonus Edition, where we check out interesting street-parked cars in places other than the Island That Rust Forgot. Czech automotive journalist and Imperial importer BobAsh is on the job! More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5318057&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Nice Price Or Crack Pipe: The $5000 Skoda Octavia Wagon?]]> What's a reasonable price for a cool old car? Our readers are cold-eyed realists, or maybe you're all just plain cheapskates, and the last Nice Price vehicle was the 1979 Dodge Shag Van. More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5124183&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Crazy Czechs Build Tatra V8-Powered Trabant Drift Car, Will Sell It To You!]]> Since I've been helping BobAsh obtain American cars to ship to the Czech Republic, he's helping me find a nice Hell Project I can bring over here. Here's a car I seriously considered buying- it's priced at the equivalent of $1,500- but then I realized that the California DMV would most likely have me clapped in irons the moment I attempted to register a Trabant with a backyard-built chassis, Tatra V8, and what appears to be five foot pedals. Still, imagine having this thing as your track car! Make the jump for all the photos and more Tatrabant madness. More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5095430&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[1971 Imperial Sets Sail For Europe, Joins Mercedes-Benz 600 Traveling Companion]]> Last time we saw the '71 Imperial Le Baron that I was helping BobAsh get to the Czech Republic, it was parked down on the Alameda street. Now it's on a boat to Bremerhaven, along with an expat German heading back home after many decades in Nordamerika. More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5079200&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[1937 Tatra T77]]> The Tatra T77, with its air-cooled V8 and slippery-even-by-2008-standards drag coefficient of 0.212, made just about everything else on the road in the mid-1930s seem like a wooden-wheeled goat cart by comparison. This brochure for the '37 model, aimed at German buyers, was perhaps too effective, with the Germans taking not only the Tatras but the entire country of Czechoslovakia the following year (and then ripping off crucial design elements for the Beetle soon after that). Thanks to Teargas for the scans! More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=379294&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Tatra CEO Plans To Make Retro-Styled Machines]]> We all thought the Tatra-based Faurecio design study was pretty cool, but what about the real thing? Tatra is still in business, but these days they make only big trucks. However, our Corvette-importin', Tatra 603 road-testin' friend in the Czech Republic, BobAsh, informs us that car freaks in the CR are in a frenzy over a recent announcement by Tatra's CEO that they plan to start building a few historic Tatra models on modern drivetrains. Make the jump to get BobAsh's take on the whole business. More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=375469&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Malaise Era Corvette Begins Long Journey To Czech Republic]]> In a vivid demonstration of how this here internet thing has made the world shrink, BobAsh (our Czech Tatra 603 road-testin' friend) has arranged with me and Señor Loverman to inspect, buy, and deliver an East Bay 1981 Corvette to a shipping container bound from the Port of Los Angeles for the Land of Kafka. The Loverman's role was to handle the "buy and deliver" part, an adventure he covered in his usual style at his current place of employment. But before that Late Malaise machine could head south, it had to be inspected by yours truly; make the jump for the story and more photos. More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=367274&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[LA Auto Show: A French Tatra called Faurecia]]> Cars like this make me stop and think. I mean, either Jalopnik is sending out strange vibrations, or there are other people in the world who think the only thing better than a Czech-built Tatra is a French-built one. Well, here's the rub — it's not actually a production vehicle. The Faurecia is a design study. And here's the odd part, and it's going to upset you, but only at first. The engine ain't in the trunk no more. I know, I know, sacrilege. However, there is method to this seeming madness. The rear seats fold down and the trunk extends out. Super Franco-Czech storage possibilities! More later on the tres-nifty interior, but this blasphemous sucker is one of the very best looking cars at the show. OK, we're off to cover the new FWD Ferrari minivan. Au revoir! More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=322890&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Engine Swap of the Day: Tatra and Audi V8s In Škoda Felicia]]> I've been making inquiries of our Czech friend BobAsh about the possibility of obtaining a Tatra V8 and transaxle from his homeland, thinking it might be fun to do a Tatra-engined VW Squareback as my personal Hell Project. He suggested I check out what some Czech madman did with a late-50s Škoda Felicia: first, a DOHC Tatra 613 V8 in the rear (and this was originally a front-engined car)... but that just wasn't insane enough. Now it's packing an Audi 4.2 with what appears to be eight Mikuni carbs. The article is in Czech, but you get the idea. [FeliciaCentrum.cz] More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=321430&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[BobAsh Road Tests the 1965 Tatra 603]]> Apparently, it wasn't enough for our Coronet 440-drivin' Czech friend BobAsh to tip us off about some vintage Tatra hoonage or help us out with a Czech Project Car Hell. Now he's gone and found a beautifully restored, Communist-bureaucrat-spec '65 Tatra 603 sedan, shot a ton of quality photographs, and then road-tested it for us. Make the jump to get the whole story in BobAsh's own words. More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=316038&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Down On The Czech Street: Skoda Spartak!]]> Once again, our Czech tipster BobAsh has come through with the Skoda goods for us, this time in the form of a bunch of shots of a Skoda 440 (also known as the Spartak) from the mid-to-late 50s. Since BobAsh was kind enough to write a lot of description, thus sparing my lazy ass from having to, you know, do work, we'll hear the rest in his own words: More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=310061&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Tatra-Land USA!]]> Since several of Los Jalopniks are now frantically scouring all potential North American Tatra sources in hopes of obtaining a fixer-upper example of our favorite air-cooled V8 Czech car, it was inevitable that we'd stumble across Dr. Nick's "Tatraplan" site. Sadly, all it has accomplished is to make us realize that the only way to get an affordable Tatra is to go east. Way east. I tell you what, the ones with the dorsal fins are the best! [Cement Horizon] More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=306439&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Forget the VW Transporter: Hippie Barkas!]]> After helping us do an All-Czech Project Car Hell last week, our Czech Connection, bobash, now sends us some shots of a hippified Barkas B1000. See, an East German van is far more suitable for patchouli-scented adventures than its West German counterpart. We're starting to think it's time for a visit to the Czech Republic... [Picasaweb] More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=305466&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Skrew The Sales: Skoda Posts Record Profits For 2006, Too!]]> V-Dub's highly precise Czech automaker released 2006 financial numbers today that broke the record books for the Republic's largest vehicle exporter. We already told you that sales rose 11.7% to 549,667 vehicles, with production up 12% to 556,347 vehicles. But now, on the P&L side, they also showed sharp improvements with operational profits leaping 34.5% to $677.2 million. Great news, yes, but the best news is the line from the Reuters report on the press release:
"Skoda Auto, once the butt of auto industry jokes for its reputation for producing low-quality cars during the Communist era, now has Volkswagen laughing all the way to the bank."
May we please offer up a new slogan? How about:
"Skoda: From Butt To Bank"
I kind of like that. What do you think — catchy? – Ray Wert More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=238828&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[The Production of Laughter and Forgetting: Record Skoda Numbers!]]> In 2006, Skoda's Czech plants turned out a record 556,443 cars, a 12.5% jump over last year. Somewhere in Paris, Milan Kundera is dreaming up a story of two forlorn, lovelorn Beethoven-consumed factory workers who respectively install valvestems on Fabias and steering-column stalks on Octavias, obsessing over Stalin and feminine scents while dreaming of a Black Sea road-trip vacation in a Felicia Fun with only a pirated cassingle of the Shins' "Phantom Limb" stuck in the tape deck and a Vaclav Havel anthology to keep them company. We shit you not. – Davey G. Johnson More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=229530&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Yes! The Official Tatra Website!]]> We're not exactly why we're so stoked that we found this. But we're happy as clams to have found it. It being the official homepage of Czech truck manufacturer Tatra. Of course, Tatra used to make totally rad, weird cars that were favored by Nazis during the Second World War. They also used to die in them fairly often, due to the cars' tricky handling. Now they've limted themselves to medium and heavy trucks for military and civilian use, are American-owned, and if they know what's good for them, should build a damn El Camino and sell it over here. More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=215482&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Chiang Kai-Czech? Skoda to Sell Cars in Taiwan]]> Volkswagen division Skoda has put their collective Vaclav Havel (kind of the Czech version of one's John Hancock, but with better taste in music) on a deal that'll get their cars into Taiwan via Formosa Automobile, itself a unit of Formosa Plastics Group, the island nation's largest private company. FPG VP Seiko Chen figures the company will be able to sell 2,000 cars in Taiwan next year, with annual increases of ten to twenty percent in following 365-day cycles. Interesting tidbit we gleaned from the source article: the Taiwanese, much like Americans, prefer automatic transmissions. That's because they're not freakin' commies like the Red Chinese, the Cubans, the Floridians and the French. After all, operating a manual transmission dilutes the purity of one's precious bodily fluids, much like fluoride. Or Florida. Whichever. More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=131947&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Czech This Out: New Skoda Octavia RS]]> VW's koda Auto, this week, released photos of its updated, rally-bred Octavia RS ahead of its debut at September's Frankfurt motor show. Long a favorite among European petrolheads for its performance value, the new model picks up the new, 197hp 2.0 FSI direct injection engine (with BorgWarner turbo) found in the VW GTI and Passat and Audis A3 and A4 (leaving Audi's erstwhile 180hp 1.8-liter turbo four to the ghosts of rpms past). The new powerplant improves acceleration (62 mph in 7.3 seconds, compared to 7.9 on the previous sedan) and top speed (149 mph vs. 146mph). More »
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