Tatra 12

Hans Ledwinka, Tatra's designer, came up with the revolutionary idea of a backbone tube chassis, which he introduced on the Tatra 11. The Tatra 12 followed the same principles, which had the differential and final drive with swing half-axles mounted at the rear of the backbone tube. The gearbox has 4 forward gears and 1 reverse gear. The engine is mounted on top of the gearbox, and the two are then mounted on the front of the backbone tube. The engine is a petrol flat two cylinder which is, notably, air-cooled. Thanks to this the expensive and heavy radiators could be avoided. This was an excellent idea at the time, when antifreeze was rather problematic. The front axle has transverse leaf spring suspension. While the Tatra 11 had drum brakes only on the rear wheels, the Tatra 12 has drum brakes all around. The two-door four seat saloon had nickel-plated (later chrome-plated) cantilever tubular steel front seats, with folding backrests installed. These inspired Mart Stam to design his own cantilever chair. == Versions ==

The chassis itself weighs around . There were many different bodies built on it. The chassis itself was also sold to other manufacturers to build their own car bodies on it. Normandie The Normandie car bodies were modelled after the popular French cars of the time. The cheaper version was often used as a utility car. Other versions There were many other versions built both by Tatra itself, or other manufacturers who were building their own car bodies on top of the Tatra 12 chassis. ==References==