Tatra does not build many cars like the Tatra 700: a 2-door Coupe / Coupé sedan (car) / saloon / 4-door sedan (car) / saloon with 3.5 L V8 engine, built from 1996 to 1999 when airbags, anti-lock brakes and Japanese build quality became the world standard. Its designer of record is Geoff Wardle. Production ran to 72 cars.
How it came about
The Tatra 700 is a rear-engined luxury car released in 1996 by the Czech car maker Tatra. It was essentially a heavily restyled version of the Tatra 613 model it replaced. It is one of the last production cars with an air-cooled engine.
The T700 was offered as a 4-door saloon with a 3.5-litre 90° air-cooled V8 petrol engine. A later 700-2 version, consisting of the last 14 cars built, had a 4.3-litre engine, reaching 234 PS (172 kW), with a curb weight increased to 1,930 kg (4,255 lb). A 400 PS (294 kW) version called T700 GT was also listed, although this may have remained a one-off. This model also had a 4.4-litre V8 but has a shorter height and length and is 360 kg (794 lb) lighter, with a top speed of 316 km/h (196 mph). The model was not successful, nor produced in large numbers, and production was halted in July 1999. Only 75 of these cars were ever built. The Tatra 700 was the last passenger car made by Tatra, after which it concentrated on trucks.
The hardware
Under the skin sits 3.5 L V8 engine; other versions carried different engines, listed in the specification table below. Kerb weight is 1840 kg. The gearbox is a 5-speed manual. The layout matters: the engine hangs behind the rear axle, a layout that gives ferocious traction out of a corner and a reputation to match on the way in. The wheelbase is 3130 mm. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
Family and rivals
Where it sits in Tatra's history is not in doubt: the Tatra 613 came before it; it was built at Příbor, Moravia, Czech Republic. On a showroom list of its day it stood against the Alfa Romeo 156, the Lotus Elise, the Porsche Boxster. Its Tatra stablemates include the Tatra 10 and the Tatra 600 kabriolet.