Paul Greenstein, who owns this 1941 Tatra T87 he found in upstate New York in 2001, happened upon an earlier post and photo here titled: A Tatra in New York City. He believes that there is a good possibility the car he and his girlfriend Dydia Delyser now own may in fact be the same car pictured in New York City at J.P. Inskip’s dealership on October 2, 1948. If any of our readers can help connect the dots between the car at Inskip’s in New York City and this car when it was traded in at Binghamton, New York, please do let us know. Paul relates the story of the unique story as follows:

“The car was purchased from the factory at the end of May, 1941 by a car dealer-auto shop owner by the name of Vaclav Konstantin in the Moravian town of Olomouc. He ordered several of the cars and picked them up on consecutive weeks, probably for his customers. The next known whereabouts of the car was in Binghamton, NY around 1950 when it threw a rod and was traded in at Molyneux Lincoln Mercury. It sat on the lot as a wild and wooly come on, until sometime in the mid-sixties, when it was purchased and the restoration was started. The engine was rebuilt and replaced, but none of the cosmetics had been done, when the car came up for sale again”.

“This time the car agency didn’t want it back, so the car dealers son, Greg Molyneux, bought it and put it in his garage where it stayed till sometime in the mid 1990’s. Aircraft restoration projects beckoned, and in 2001 Molyneux put the car up for sale on Ebay, which is when I bought it. I began restoration, and realizing the enormity of the project, I began fishing around in the Czech republic for a restoration house, finally settling on ECCORA outside the Tatra factory town of Koprivnice. They did the body, paint, upholstery, plating, and general mechanics, while I built the unobtainable missing parts like steering wheel, dash switches, gauges, etc”.

“The car was completed in 2008, and it came back to the US in 2009, where it now resides. I also own 2 Tatra T600’s, purchased in 1994, and 1 T 603, purchased in 1999. They are unrestored but running (usually). As if the Czech sickness wasn’t bad enough, I also have a 1957 Cezeta 501, a 1962 Cezeta 502, and 2 1936 CZ sport tourist 175’s”.

To learn a little more about the Tatra you can check in with the International Tatra Classic Vehicle News. We also have, for your enjoyment, a very entertaining 1962 video of a Tatra 2-603 featured in a demo film. It involves a police chase scene, with the vehicle driven right on the ragged edge by car and motorcycle racer Jaroslav Pavelka. Don’t miss it.