Slovakia’s Czech-ered Automotive History

Slovakia’s Museum of Transport is appropriately located in Bratislava’s old steam railway station, and celebrates planes, trains and automobiles—quite a few of the latter, actually.

Visitors can go back to a period between the world wars when three Czech manufacturers, Tatra, Praga, and Škoda, all making small and affordable cars, were battling it out in the marketplace. (What was a united Czechoslovakia became the Czech Republic and Slovakia in 1992.)

A pretty little “American style” 1932 Praga Piccolo in two-tone gray and black was one of the most popular cars between the wars, and with 22 horsepower from a 1.5-liter four was capable of a heady 85 kilometers per hour.

Next to it was a wild and even more economical car, a flimsy looking Velorex 16/350 three-wheeler (two in front) with leatherette bodywork. The original market was disabled persons. Power came from a Jawa motorcycle engine of 16 horsepower. It could reach the same speed as the Piccolo, but any such attempt would be foolhardy.

How did that 1913 Buick get into the hall? Apparently, they were popular back then, and available in the right-hand drive that Czechoslovakia used at the time. The Buick was more or less contemporary with an ornate horse-drawn funeral carriage—in use until the 1970s.

The dramatic Tatras we know, with their rear-mounted V8s and streamlined styling, were preceded by more utilitarian vehicles such as the 1932 T57 Sport and 1929 12 taxi. The 57s came with water-cooled four-cylinder boxer engines and sported a backbone chassis and a driveshaft running in a central structural tube, an innovation that influenced other makers.

Just as cute as a bug was a bright red Aero 662 roadster with rumble seat. Squint, and it could be an MG-TD. It looked racy, but the engine was a two-cylinder, two-stroke water-cooled unit of just 662-cc and 18 horsepower. Getting to 50 miles per hour took 25 seconds. Sixty was probably not attainable.

Cars of the modern era included a green 1946 Škoda Tudor, the model that replaced the pre-war Popular—and was not a dramatic departure from it. These were sold in 70 countries between 1946 and 1952, and 66,000 were produced.

A 1969 Škoda 1000 MB was something else again, with modern boxy styling and a rear-mounted 44-horsepower engine of 988-cc driving the back wheels. These cars had some international impact, including selling well in Britain (where they were considered bargains) and were on the market from 1964 to 1969.

Of course, there was a plastic-bodied East German-made Trabant, in this case a 601 Kombi wagon. With heavily polluting two-cylinder, two-stroke engines they had all of 25 horsepower and were a symbol of mediocrity all across the communist bloc.

Zero to 62 took 21 seconds, so it was faster than an Aero 662. Trabants are virtually gone from Slovakian roads now. And just try to find the Soviet-era Lada 1200, a Fiat 124 knockoff made at Tagliotti in Russia.

Parked across from these reminders of the grim past, however, was more of a status symbol, a two-door Saab 90 coupe produced at Valmet in Finland and never imported into the U.S.

The example in the museum was bare-bones, fueled by a single carburetor, and semi-derelict. The styling combines the 99 and 900 models. If you want a 90, the one to get is known is the special edition “White Weasel,” with many luxury appointments—though no more power.