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I should thank Mr. Locklin for bringing this little known car some attention. But I must also say that I am incredibly annoyed by the nasty chauvinistic "top ge
by hristov 11y ago
I should thank Mr. Locklin for bringing this little known car some attention. But I must also say that I am incredibly annoyed by the nasty chauvinistic "top gear" style of his writing. I have liked cars since I was a kid but now I am turned away from a lot of car related journalism because of that same "top gear" style.
I do not know what the author thinks communism is, but he seems to be using it as some kind of semi-racist semi-nationalist all encompassing pejorative, which was commonly used during the cold war.
It is funny when towards the end of the article he suggests (incorrectly) that this car is ok because it was really "a capitalist design" that was only "made by commies". First he is very much incorrect about that assertion. The Tatra 603 was ordered, designed and produced in Czechoslovakia, when that country was ruled by the communist party and was in the soviet block. But nobody in then Czechoslovakia would have referred to it as a "communist" country, not even the top communist brass.
But there is something here that will completely blow Mr. Locklin's mind away. If the car had been designed and produced under capitalism few years before the dates in which it was actually designed and manufactured, it would have likely been designed by the mostly the same group of engineers, and manufactured by the same workers that made the later "communist" car. You see there were a bunch of engineers working in a car factory, and then a bunch wars happened, and then all of a sudden they all become a bunch of "commies" and everything they made was "made by commies".
- S_A_P 11y agoI don't know a lot of the history of the Czech Republic and Czechoslavakia but this makes a whole lot of sense. I think people make this way to black and white. Governments don't really represent people. I love music and would try to make music regardless of who is in charge of the government. Car people are going to try and make cool cars regardless of their budget
- Gibbon1 11y agoI remember talking to a coworker my age (about 20 years ago). He was born in the early 60's in Britain and his family was middle class. I was born in California and my family was middle class. When he was a small child in England his dad bought the first family car. Like ever. In my case my great grand fathers all bought cars before 1920. I just seemed to me that Britain, Europe, and especially eastern Europe after two world wars was a big mess. The US came out of it producing 50% of the world GDP, not including, Britain, Canada, France, etc.
- Stratoscope 11y agoAnd cool filmmakers will make cool films. That's what I love about the 1962 ad embedded in the article. You've got the beatnik whistling and polishing the car, you've got cool jazz, crazy car stunts, and can the Tatra outrun the police? Not much about that shouts "communist" to me. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxMluSU6Frw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxMluSU6Frw
- adam_klein 11y agoCannot agree more.