A Farewell To The King of Czech Design Vaclav Král, design

A Farewell To The King of Czech Design

Jan Čejchan/text i foto | 19.11.05 | Václav Král

On the 26th October the life of Vaclav Kral, industrial designer, artist, constructor and former motorcycle and car racer finished abruptly.

Vaclav Kral did not belong among those who actually can last until retirement - rest. His nature wouldn't let him take a rest, he kept on coming up with new ideas and a year before his 70th birthday there were many projects he had been working on. Till the very last days he not only was turning his own ideas into reality but also passing his vast knowledge over to the students of the Prague's CVUT with pleasure and for free. To his students he was more like a friend and patient counselor than a feared teacher.

Vaclav Kral always lived at present time but even more in the future. Those who, like him, created magnificent things tend to store their achievements in memory according to their relative importance. Vaclav Kral spoke about the projects that were swept off his table in time as if they were ancient history not worth remembering. However, about the direction of current design and needs of manufacturers of transport vehicles or cutting or even printing machines he had a clear view of the designer and artist.In spite of that Vaclav Kral having opened an album with his friend's photographs from his young age, he could describe in detail the technical specialties of cars and automobiles, even those concealed to the lens under bodywork. He remembered the names of perhaps all racers, because he knew most of them in person. There are some images of himself drafting an outline of some detail. His engineer thinking, imagination and precision have been known from a number of technical illustrations published for years namely in magazine Svet Motoru.Many years ago I asked Vaclav Kral why he named most of his vehicles Baghira. He replied that it was his scout's name in youth. When he later became a designer, constructor and in the era of socialism what he himself describes as a garage retail manufacturer of racing cars, he began using the name of beautiful black panther from the Kipling's fables quite naturally again.No sooner than before this moment I realized the sad connotation to be found in relation of the big cat and Vaclav Kral. It is said that a cat has seven lives and what Vaclav Kral managed to create surely wouldn't fit into a regular human life. When I talked to him once about his life through and through scented with petrol, I would have never guessed that the notes I obtained would be reaccessed at this unexpected and sad occasion. Vaclav Kral was a great fan of motor racing of perhaps all disciplines, a motorcycle and car constructor and racer, but also an artist and mainly industrial designer, who created so many advanced designs of racing cars and transport vehicles that his lecturing activities at the Engineering and Transport Department of CVUT in Prague were more that sufficiently justified.Vaclav Kral's father had already been a great admirer of motorcycles and as a cyclist, motorcyclist, motorcycle racer and an excellent craftsman at the same time he fostered his son's enthusiasm for machines, that allow you to travel fast both on and off the road, enthusiasm for their engineering perfection bringing yet more amazing performance, and also for their shapes which limit aerodynamic drag and please the eye.After the war, when production of goods for common people was stuck, many special vehicles emerged thanks to devotees and craftsmen, as it was virtually impossible to purchase any such a machine. Experience with those vehicles and their successes in racing deepened erudition of their constructors and new solutions appeared which were often more than equal to the famous manufacturers. Therefore young Vaclav Kral had the opportunity to learn many technical and technological rules involved in car production. Whoever wanted to ride must have spent a lot of time in the garage. As early as 16, with help of his father and brother, Vaclav began building up his first racing motorcycle using the CZ 125 engine with swinging fork in the front and rear, including home made spring elements. He then learned to control it off-road, getting ready for his first race. While he was studying he raced for the Mlada Boleslav Carclub, first with "springer", then with the first Jawa "swing". He rode a real sports tool Jawa 250 "laureate" during his military service. After he plunged into the construction of another machine, with a double frame and engines CZ 125 first, Jawa 175 later, and from 1959 he commenced his motocross career. It wasn't unusual at that time to stand at a vice with a piece of thick steel sheet in it, take a saw, some files and go on testing new gear setting the following day. Afterwards there came the time for family and Vaclav dropped the whole racing business, as he could not devote his time fully neither to the family, nor to the racing and doing things without full concentration was never his style.Life without roaring engines - unimaginable for some people. Particularly when Vaclav Kral enjoyed the company of people getting the same ideas, like Vladislav Buchar. He suggested the other day to spice up the journey on motorbikes to Prague by riding in ditches just to try who was going to get to the destination first.In 1969 Vaclav Kral began to design and manufacture autocross cars for Metalex, a company established by Karel Jilek and Vaclav Bervid. Given the socialism conditions, when the very existence of such an enterprise was a miracle on its own, it seems unbelievable that it managed to run for 30 years. The company made its money from coating metals and invested the profit to development and production of sports cars. A unique team of constructors, mechanics and drivers was established, working in spite of the surrounding world.Vaclav Kral assisted construction of the first car, which he also tested himself in a stone mine in Tiche valley near Roztoky. This first vehicle to bear the MTX mark was a huge step of the Czech school of design, as it wasn't a variation of an existing vehicle but an original design for off-road racing.Off-roads affected V. Kral so much that having finished the MTX vehicle and having gained first experience with driving off the road on four wheels he got inspiration for a different chassis installation and began to work on his own car. As he claims himself he became a garage retail manufacturer of racing cars, his first car with an adjusted Skoda engine was named Baghira and since 1973 he became the national representative in a freshly new discipline - autocross. The following Baghira was already installed with 147 HP engine Tatra 603, tuned in Koprivnice. Vaclav Kral offered the design to other competitors and there were other 8 Baghira buggies produced before the end of the year. The second generation of Metalex buggy was constructed together with a racer Hosek and the produced cars were sold also to France. Later Vaclav Kral participated at the production of monoposts for Formula Skoda, one of which was offered to him in 1975 for hill climbing and circuit races. There followed two more seasons also with a more powerful Formula Easter. During his racing years he won five wreaths in autocross in Stikovska abyss near Nova Paka and cherished the ninth place at Ecce Homo in 1976. There was a heavy competition, the race went together with Formula 3 and even some of these faster cars were left behind him. From that times Vaclav Kral became much more famous for his design skill than racing, particularly for industrial design, especially as an author of designs of many beautiful cars, some of which were turned into models, prototypes or limited editions. His patented KIN - project seems to be quite famous. It is a wing-car, using the ejectors of exhaust gas to gain down pressure. The idea reached as far as Formula 1, unfortunately FIA restricted all similar solutions bringing aerodynamic advantage. The car was actually manufactured in Metalex and Karel Jilek drove the MTX 1-04 in Formula Easter. Vaclav Kral enjoyed his experience with both construction and racing the formula cars sharing his knowledge at the highly professional web pages constr_4.com.His construction and design ideas were not limited only to racing cars. In 1986 he commenced works on a two door coupe in American style and two years later he finished a project of a big sports coupe Supertatra based on chassis and engine of Tatra 613. Metalex manufactured five of them bearing the mark Tatra MTX V8 and anyone interested might find them in the museum in Lany.In 1990 he developed a daring, but well thought project of saving the company and maintaining the car production facilities in Koprivnice. The plan suggested almost total usage of existing components of Tatra 613/Tatra 700. So that the current machinery might be used he wanted to install American air-cooled V8 Cadillac engines, which would also allow the car to be redesigned for front-wheels drive. For existing air-cooled V8 Tatra engines he designed a small and relatively easy to manufacture off-road with possible passenger, utility or army modifications, while the existing machinery would be suitable for its production. Both of these projects existed in design, ready for the details to be specified. In 1990 he also created the first drawings of Tatra President. One such car was really manufactured in 1994 and you could find it in the Tatra Museum in Koprivnice. In 1994 Vaclav Kral told me that concerning those projects, it is actually more difficult to produce a new car in CR than it would be to cross a kangaroo with a dolphin.Other Vaclav Kral's well known projects include the bodywork designs of racing trucks Praga, Sisu and Tatra. In recent years he had been working for the team of Martin Koloc, who quit the truck racing, so that he could become a full-time team manager quite comparable to a Formula 1 team in its complexity. For Vaclav Kral a racing truck should be a beauty and a beast. The Buggyra truck design inspired by this idea definitely became a notion on the racing courses.Let us go back to Vaclav Kral's motorcycles. In 1990 his collaboration with Jawa commenced, they were running tests of a new four-stroke single cylinder engine Jawa 420 OHC (823 model), which was being developed for both racing and mass production of road motorbikes and Jawa needed a design of modern civilian chassis. Vaclav Kral received a request for a roadster followed by a first draft of a bike with full bodywork. However the company management soon realized it would not be possible to back up the mass production by sufficient finances. Therefore the already existing, water-cooled Jawa 250 engine, type 593, was just adjusted to bodywork version. Vaclav Kral reviewed the early drafts, named the project Jawa - Athena and within the limited conditions of that time took the project to the stage of 1:1 size model. The model was presented by Jawa with the intention to start its production. Of course, further works would have been needed before the serial production. The project was unique and provided the production had started it might have been a commercial success, especially if the production was started early. However, there were a lot of such "ifs" in his life...It is an enormous pity both for Vaclav Kral and for our society that the incredible creative potential could not have been fully exploited in his fruitful life. His ideas, unfortunately, often finished on the paper. Only in some cases they made it to the form of models and exceptionally to working a specimen - a car prototype. Amongst the motorbikes only Jawa 650 OHC with a Rotax engine was regularly produced, although its development that began in 2002 was marked by financial difficulties of the manufacturer. The strict quota of given parts that must have been used totally distorted the designer's otherwise poetic style. Perhaps the biggest satisfaction was thus the Buggyra racing team with its excellent results in the international truck competitions.When Vaclav Kral left, the Czech construction and design school lost a man of unbelievably wide scope of interests, sense for the tiniest details and deep knowledge, as well as hands on experience with construction of motor vehicles, and even his own experience of their performance under the extreme race conditions.This text only contains a fraction of all sport success and construction, design and arts work of Vaclav Kral. It is just a reminder that a unique personality, ever friendly and patient teacher and unsubstitutable specialist passed away.Based on interviews with Vaclav Kral and archive materials written by Honza Cejchan.