I Found This Beautiful, Bizarre Car In A German Design Museum — And Its Backstory Is Fascinating

I was in Munich for DLD, a conference, and I had a morning to kill.

So I joined a group tour of modern art museum Pinakothek der Moderne's design wing.

There was all kinds of impressive stuff – but I immediately gravitated to a crazy-looking, beautiful car.

You can see it on the bottom left of this photo.

Here it is. Just look at it.

It looks like a car from the distant past's lost vision of the distant future.

The placard said it's a Tatra 87 from 1937…

…designed by a man named Hans Ledwinka.

Our guide, chief curator Corinna Roesner, said the Tatra 87 was the first mass produced "streamlined" car – meaning it was designed in a wind tunnel.

But that's not true. The first mass-produced streamlined car was this one, the Tatra 77.

And Hans Ledwig didn't design the 87 or 77's body. This guy, Erich Übelacker, did.

And actually, Übelacker really got his design from this man, Paul Jaray

A pioneer of streamline design, Jaray made his name designing zeppelins like this LZ 127

Jaray designed the very first streamlined car (not mass-produced) in 1922, the Ley T6.

These are Jaray's sketches.

You can see the Ley T6 in the Tatra 87…

…particularly in that curving swoop of its back.

I love the car's little design details, like this air vent behind the rear windows…

…and these slits above the back bumper.

Here's a shot of the interior.

The streamlined looks aren't just for show, by the way.