Comments by "Lynott Parris" (@DenUitvreter) on "I Saw My First TATRA! u0026 So many Classic European Cars" video.

The Citroen DS, the single greatest step forward in automotive innovation since the invention of the wheel. I like this museum, this collection is obviously a tribute to all the designers and engineers that rethought the car, that thought outside the box and therefore sometimes came up with a tear drop, or with a box.
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It's branded as a Volvo here, a later one therefore. The dark green one. It had the first CVT, very smart and simple system. It also ended up in a race car and was about to enter Formula 1, but it was outlawed because it would be much faster than the others. They could have tuned the engine for one specific rev number since the CVT would do the rest, and that's too much to work with for an F1 engineer. The same speed in reverse was just the outcome of the system used. Because it was so easy to use in the days of double clutching in small cars, and quick of the line, the engines were kept small and it was very popular among not to keen drivers, women and the elderly. This ruined the image of the car after a few decades. It was called "old tart shaker with suspender belt drive". DAF came up with the Marathon coupe, a sporty and quick version that did well in rallies, but it was too late.
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My grandfather was manager director of a cooperative too, in the capitalist West. Basically the farmers were the owners who brought in their milk, and employed him to run the factory. He drove a few American V8's, as one the few in the village to own a car.
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@gergelystechnicmodels8565 Or Top Gear with James May on it in the greatest car of all time. I don't even think it's pretty, especially not with the old head lights. I love the SM much more. But it's such a charismatic car, it's always eye catching, you can park an old rusty one among very expensive cars and will catch everybody's attention.
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@floatingfInishtech It was actually a well build car, not the flimsy French style of later Citroens, but a problem with the hydropneumatics often meant an overhaul of the whole system, taking much of the car apart. Luckily the engine and gearbox were solid, simple, reliable and easy to work on. Not much of a challenge. Citroen fixed that by putting a Maserati V6 in the SM. The garage owner is right in the sense that both are specialist jobs. But if you know Citroens, it's really not that bad.
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The BX was also a lovely car. Extremely light for it's comfort and space. The XM and C6 were quirky enough and the Xantia Activa was special in the corners.
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@SanderVandeWiel C6 was the last Citroen. The XM was still a bit different, the BX was not as quirky and original, but was a great car. The magic carpet ride in a 1000kg car, 1.9 litres, magnificent brakes, 5 Dutch guys over 6ft 3000km's to Portugal no problem, no tiring, no back pain, no exhaust dragging on the road. Good memories.
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Not all of them. Tatra's were relatively good cars. Skoda's were allright with a sand bag in front on windy days. The Lada Niva is a legend.
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1938 Tatra, the "Nazi Killer". After the occupation of the Czecheslowakia the Germans commandeered these Tatra's but kept getting caught out by the oversteer because it was fast like the front engined cars they were used to but handled very differently. It was very original stubborn engineering. Magnesium alloy lightweight air cooled V8 behind the rear axle and luggage space in front of it for maximum comfort. And streamlined of course. In the late 80's you could actually have a proper vacation in communist Hungary and those 70's Tatra's were driving around at lot, but you know it was someone high up in the communist party. There was the ZIL enourmous limousine for the Soviet boss, and the Tatra's were for the layer right under it in Eastern Europe. The 90's Tatra was an attempt to sell it to Western Europe. It was quite a good car that wasn't out of touch completely with German, French or British cars of that time in terms of performance and comfort. But the handling was tricky and it was too expensive. The great thing about the Czecheslowakian automotive industry is that even during communism they kept making innovative and beautifully styled cars. They even copied the fins from the USA as you see. Not just Tatra, they made some pretty little Skoda's too.
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That's also to the credit of the museum, it clearly has a preference for those who rethink the car, start from scratch again and come up with something completely different.
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@automation7295 No, it's the mainly the marketeers and the bean counters. Regulations don't help but there is also little uncharted territory left. We know a V8 behind the rear axle has handling issues now, the car is nearing perfection so they start to look more alike. Perfection is boring of course.
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Wait till he hears about the Panda 4x4.
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Isn't that Lancia the one with the first V6 engine.
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@dacartrainguy I read it's the Aurelia and this is not an Aurelia.
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I saw them in Hungary in the late 80's, high communist party officials being transported.
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@mirkozlikovski9553 I recognize it as brilliant, also concerning looks. But it's an opinion divider, that often comes with brilliance. I also understand why many people don't believe the Lamborghini Espada is very pretty. There is lots of great desing and very poor design and I could go on for hours about both, but when it comes to the great desigins, there still also personal taste. I wanted to find it gorgeous, but it didn't happen.
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@426baron Yes, but the BX was a light weight car, they took 200 kg off relative to it's size. In the 60's Citroen entertained the concept of the disposable car, with all of it's parts worn out at the same time. That idea was thrown out but my suspicion is that some bean counters in the company never managed to part with that thought and that flimsy parts kept being cheered on. The BX had some initial problems but became a quickly worn out bust still reliable and relatively durable car. The XM was notoriously expensive in maintenance and repair, but that was mainly because it was so much work to do relatively little things.
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@426baron Is does bother me though. The BX would have been so much nicer with just a bit heavier quality plastics, a lot nicer to the touch. I was in a C3 once and the interrior was nicely shaped, but there were these vents in flimsy plastic painted in aluminium colour. That just spoils it. Just spend an extra 100 euro on materials and it's worth a 1000 more to me.
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