Tatra
T77 / T77a

Why it matters

The T77 is generally regarded as the first aerodynamic car built in series for the road. Its public demonstrations pushed other manufacturers to accelerate their own streamlined designs, and its rear-engined backbone layout set the pattern Tatra followed for decades.

How rare is it?

Six separate kinds of rarity – never combined into one number.

Each kind of rarity is rated separately and never combined.

Production

Every figure says what it counts.

Independent counts (e.g. engine and colour) are never combined into a calculated figure. Surviving examples are never presented as original production.

History

The T77 grew out of the V570 prototype and Hans Ledwinka's backbone chassis, developed by Ledwinka with his son Erich and Erich Übelacker, while the streamlined body drew on Paul Jaray's wind-tunnel work. It was presented at the 1934 Prague Auto Salon with an air-cooled V8 mounted behind the rear axle. About 100 T77s were built before the T77A arrived with a 3.4-litre engine, a longer wheelbase and a three-headlamp nose; a further 154 T77As followed between 1936 and 1938. In all only 255 cars were made, and as few as twenty are thought to survive.

Technical specifications

Engine

Transmission & drivetrain

Chassis, body & dimensions

Performance

“Not yet verified” means no source has been checked for that value yet. Nothing is estimated to fill a gap.

Identification guide

How to tell an original from a replica or later conversion.

Genuine cars have the rear-mounted air-cooled V8, so there is no front radiator opening, plus a dorsal fin on the engine cover flanked by cooling slats, no running boards and rear wings integrated into the body. Early T77s have a split flat-panel windscreen and near-flush headlamps in the round nose; later cars have a three-piece windscreen, and the T77A has three headlamps, two in the front wings and one in the centre. Headlamp placement varied from car to car.

Sources

Each number links to the exact facts it supports.

1. 1
   The Revs Institute – Tatra T77: the brilliant and influential Czech wonder Level B

   • 255 T77 and T77a built in period (about 100 + 154)

   Accessed 2026-11-11
2. 2
   Tatra T77 - The brilliant and influential Czech wonder Level B Wouter Melissen · Revs Institute (Automedia)

   • as few as twenty of these pioneering machines have survived
   • air-cooled 90-degree V8 mounted behind the rear axle
   • overhead valves, hemispherical combustion chambers
   • 60 hp at 3,500 rpm (T77)
   • four-speed gearbox mounted in unit with engine and rear axle
   • four-speed gearbox
   • backbone chassis Ledwinka created in the early 1920s
   • hydraulic drum brakes on all four corners
   • could easily reach its claimed top speed of 140 km/h

   Accessed 2026-11-12
3. 3
   1947 Tatra T87 Aerodynamic Saloon Level B conceptcarz.com

   • T77 3.0-liter air-cooled V8; T77A 3.4-liter engine
   • extensive magnesium alloy kept weight down to 1,700kg

   Accessed 2026-11-12