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Restored 1948 Tatra T87 Heads to Sale in Slovakia
A 1948 Tatra T87, one of roughly 3,050 built between 1936 and 1950, is offered for sale in Košice, Slovakia, after an eight-year refurbishment completed in 2018.
By Eleanor Ellington · 4 min read
A 1948 Tatra T87, one of approximately 3,050 examples built between 1936 and 1950, is being offered for sale in Košice, Slovakia, on behalf of its owner. The car was acquired in a state of disrepair from a Slovak collection in 2010 and has since undergone a multiyear refurbishment completed in 2018.
The T87 is the definitive expression of Tatra's pre-war aerodynamic programme, developed under chief engineer Hans Ledwinka with input from engineer Erich Übelacker and aerodynamics consultant Paul Jaray, a former dirigible designer. The project produced the T77 in 1934, succeeded in 1936 by the lighter, more compact T87. Its unibody construction, with a central beam that bifurcates at the rear, and its streamlined bodywork reportedly achieved a drag coefficient of 0.36 — a figure that placed it among the most aerodynamically efficient production cars of its era.
Production was interrupted during the Second World War and resumed after the nationalisation of the Tatra factory, continuing until 1950. The car's styling remains its most distinctive feature: an enveloped front end with triple headlights, a three-piece windshield, centrally hinged doors with recessed handles, a sliding sunroof, trafficators, rear wheel spats, and a tapered engine cover with a central fin flanked by louvers and air scoops.
This example was stripped to bare metal before welding repairs and a repaint in metallic blue, carried out by the current owner's restoration shop between 2010 and 2018. Body-colour wheels wear bright hubcaps and are wrapped in 6.50-16 Firestone Deluxe Champion tyres, with a matching spare housed in the front compartment. Stopping is handled by hydraulic drum brakes at all four corners.
The cabin was re-trimmed during the refurbishment in tan leatherette and Alcantara over seating for five, extending to the door panels. Additional features include colour-matched carpeting, roll-up windows, an ivory-colour shift knob, storage pockets on the front doors and seatbacks, B-pillar coat hooks, a fold-down rear armrest, a cut-glass rear dome light, and a rear storage shelf that can be isolated from the cabin by an upholstered lift-up panel. An ivory-colour banjo-spoke steering wheel sits ahead of a body-colour dashboard housing a glovebox, an ashtray, and instrumentation including a 180 km/h speedometer, a clock, and gauges monitoring fuel level and oil temperature. The five-digit odometer shows approximately 6,000 kilometres, said to reflect mileage driven since the refurbishment was completed; total mileage is unknown.
Power comes from a rear-mounted 2,969cc air-cooled V8 with a cast magnesium alloy crankcase, a 90-degree angle between cylinder banks, separate finned cylinders, a single overhead camshaft on each bank, hemispherical combustion chambers, and a dual-throat downdraft carburetor. An oil cooler is situated in the front compartment. The engine is said to have been overhauled during the refurbishment, and an oil change was performed in the first quarter of 2026. Drive is sent to the rear wheels through a four-speed manual transaxle, also overhauled during the project, with synchromesh on its top two gears. Suspension incorporates dual transverse leaf springs with tubular shock absorbers up front and a rear swing axle with oblique semi-elliptical leaf springs.
The car is offered with photographs from before and during the refurbishment process and is being sold on its Slovak registration, which serves as an ownership document within the European Union. For collectors of mid-century engineering, the T87 occupies a singular position: a luxury saloon whose influence reached well beyond its Czechoslovak origins, and one whose survival in restored condition has become increasingly rare.
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