A Real War Hero

Today is Remembrance Day, when we honour the sacrifices made by the millions of brave folks who gave their lives fighting wars to preserve the freedoms we enjoy.

While Remembrance Day usually references WWI, I want to write about a WWII hero:

The Tatra 87, a Czechoslovakian-made car that could reach speeds of 160 km/h (pretty fast back then). It was touted by Hitler as the Nazi car of the future, designed perfectly for the Autobahn. Also, Jay Leno has one.

The T87 was produced from 1936 to 1950 (except '43-44), sold for ~$163,000 (in 2020 CAD), and inspired the Volkswagen Beetle and Porsche. It also couldn't turn for shit, and could often be found wrapped around a heavily impacted tree. Eventually an official order banned Nazi officers from driving them because of how many were killed.

Almost every source I've checked says that the T87 became affectionately known as the Allies' secret weapon and killed more Nazi officers than armed combat did. Unfortunately, this seems like a (heavily echoed) urban legend. Given that only ~3000 of these death machines were produced, it seems true that it killed a lot of Nazi officers as far as cars go, but probably not more than armed combat during WWII.

Overall, not a bad run for an accidental war hero.