Tatra 57B Sanitka Sodomka 1940

Tatra 57B Sanitka Sodomka 1940 by Autocult

It remained an Attempt

When the Tatra 57 B was unveiled in 1938, there was a desire to use this passenger car as an ambulance. The task of turning this into reality was given to the renowned coachbuilder Carrosserie Sodomka. The skilled model builders and mechanics in Vysoké Mýto tailored the new bodywork so that a patient could be transported lying down on a stretcher that could be moved on rollers. Due to the lack of length of the entire vehicle, the stretcher most likely took up the entire length from just behind the rear window to the windshield. The sparse interior was only accessible via a rear door hinged on the left side, as there was no room for anything else besides the stretcher. This was in line with the thinking at the time about patient transport, and two small, round signal lights with a red cross on the radiator grille and on the roof at the rear made the Tatra 57 B visually recognizable as an ambulance. The mandatory half-covered windows also indicated this intended use.Apart from the photos that have been handed down, nothing is known about the history of the vehicle, but it is certain that it remained a one-off and did not survive. It cannot be ruled out that political developments in this short pre-war period stood in the way of any planned series production.