Of all the interesting cars at the 2007 Steamworks Concours in Vancouver's Gastown, perhaps nothing stopped (and mystified) visitors more than this 1947 Tatra T-87. To begin, few North Americans are aware that Czechoslovakia has a long and honorable automaking history and today makes VW-based Skodas with their own style and engineering tweaks. Fewer still know that Tatra pioneered aerodynamic sedans with rear-mounted V-8 engines long before Preston Tucker announced his ill-fated Tucker sedan in the US. The streamlined Tatras first appeared in 1933, engineered by the famed Hans Ledwinka, with testing in the Zeppelin airship wind-tunnel by Zeppelin designer Paul Jaray. Among the famous Tatra owners were German Field Marshall Erwin Rommel and American writer John Steinbeck. Ferdinand Porsche used many of Ledwinka's design principles when creating the rear-engined, aircooled VW Beetle, leading to a post-war lawsuit that Tatra won.