A Tatra T77 whose $1 million restoration was done by an aeronautical engineer is up for sale at an auction in the US

Tatra T77 is an absolutely brilliant car of the former Czechoslovakia of the 30s. This car, launched almost 90 years ago, incorporated aerodynamic principles more than any other and influenced not only the further history of the Tatra brand, or of Czechoslovak cars, but the entire automotive world as we know it today. As influential as it was, however, few cars were produced, so the sale of any of them, nowadays, is an absolute rarity. The car we are talking about today, however, hides behind it a more special history than any other example, of an aeronautical engineer who wanted to restore it in order to offer the world engineering sketches and documentation, but also the opportunity to enjoy a made example to its authentic perfection.

This model was created after the brilliant engineer and designer from Tatra, Hans Ledwinka, managed to attract the aeronautical engineer Paul Jaray to the project, Jaray being the man who had built the Zeppelin airship and who was one of the famous promoters of the ideas of aerodynamics. The two, together with the Tatra team, created the car designed to be aerodynamic in the first place, and thanks to aerodynamics it would be fast and efficient. This car was the first in the world created in an aerodynamic tunnel, where the two perfected the shapes of the prototype depending on the air flow on the body. Form had to follow aerodynamic function.

Because the model had to be a luxurious one, it was equipped with a V8 engine, which was an air-cooled one, mounted at the rear, and the body shape was adapted for it, ensuring its cooling. The engine had been built from a special magnesium alloy, called elektron, being stiffer and lighter, a true miracle of those times. The engine was 3.0 liters and developed 60 hp, phenomenal power from a naturally aspirated engine of only 3.0 liters in those years. The gearbox was also designed by Tatra and had 4 gears, effectively being a transaxle, because it was matted to the engine and the two semi-axles to the rear wheels started from it.

In 1934, when Tatra invited journalists to the first meeting of this model, they were fascinated to discover that, with an engine of only 60 hp, the car could easily reach 145 km/h thanks to the aerodynamics and had impeccable maneuvrability thanks to the independent suspension. Waves of exceptionally good impressions from journalists followed, with many noting that it was the most impressive automobile they had ever driven. The car quickly gained fame, then a facelift version appeared, the T77a, with a 3.4 liter engine and 75 HP. Both versions, however, were produced in only 249 examples in total, plus 4 other pre-production cars. If we only talk about the T77, it was produced in only 106 copies, between 1934 and 1936! It is, therefore, an incredibly rare car. And according to information from auction houses and collectors, to this day, only 5 restored and mobile, drivable cars, have survived in the whole world! Only five! And the car we are talking about today is one of them!

It is not surprising, therefore, that the aeronautical engineer who ordered the restoration sacrificed so much money and so much effort for it. For him, it was not an investment or an economic calculation, but a life story. His name was Andy Simo and he was born in 1938 in Bratislava, in what was then Czechoslovakia. He lived his early childhood in the persecutions of the war, seeing everything with his own eyes, on his street, with his neighbors and in his own family. After the war, Andy drove a Tatra T77 for the first time and was deeply impressed when he deeply understood the meaning of the aerodynamics on it. So deeply, that that experience marked his whole life.

He and his family immigrated to the USA in 1948, and Andy became an aeronautical engineer. In his active life, Andy worked for Boeing, designing the 727, then the Lockheed C5A Galaxy, then he was on the team that developed the Saturn V rocket to the moon. So, that experience of driving a Tatra T77 in his youth, led him to have a career as an aeronautical engineer and to be one of those who designed famous airplanes and even space rockets!

Photo: Aeronautical engineer Andy Simo, the man who intitiated this Tatra's restoration

For some time, he had started looking for a Tatra T77 to restore, but he found out firsthand how difficult it is to find one. He later found this specimen in 2006, and in 2007 he imported it to the USA. This car was manufactured in 1934, being number 9 produced from the series. Its primary records show that it was then purchased by Count Jaromir Egon Czernin-Morzin and used for a tour of the Italian Alps in 1935. After that, during the war, its history became hazy, but it appears that it was driven as far as the 70s, after which it stayed for a long time in a barn in today's Slovakia, until it was found, revived and then bought by Andy Simo.

Photo: The same Tatra T77 copy, as it arrived at Andy Simo.

The first two years the car was disassembled and digital scans were made of its construction, in order to create precious documentation for future generations! Those 3D sketches were later also useful for the reconstruction of some impossible-to-find parts, in their original consistency.

Years and years of painstaking restoration followed, with learning and documentation along the way, because no US workshop had the experience to restore a Tatra T77. It was a titanic job, where there was never a notion of too much effort. And there was no notion of too much money either, as it was clear that the entire project would exceed the amount of 1 million dollars!

Sadly, Andy Symo passed away suddenly in 2017 before his Tatra was fully restored. His family, however, decided to continue the restoration to the standards he wanted. So it lasted another 5 years, until recently, in the fall of 2022. The volume of documentation, produced together with the restoration, is unique in the world and represents a real treasury of engineering and design!

Now, once this Tatra T77 is fully restored, but its aeronautical engineer owner is no longer alive and has no one to enjoy it, the family decided to offer the chance to a consummate enthusiast to own this car and provide the care that this Tatra specimen deserves. So this car, with such a remarkable history, will be auctioned in the USA.

We cannot know how much it will sell for, because there are too few cars left in the world for there to be a price pattern. But surely the selling price should be in the millions! However, in the world there is simply no other Tatra restored with such selflessness and with such effort to create technical documentation for future generations!