The
Präsident was an automobile manufactured by
Nesselsdorfer Wagenbau-Fabriks-Gesellschaft A.G. (
NW, now known as
Tatra) in 1897. It was the first actually drivable factory made petrol-engined automobile produced in
Austria-Hungary as well as in
Central and Eastern Europe (save the attempt of
Siegfried Marcus of Vienna to build a self-propelled car in 1875). It was constructed by Leopold Sviták and
Hans Ledwinka. The automobile was more of a carriage without horses than a car in modern sense. The car is steered via handlebars (while most of the cars of the era had a clique). The wooden bodywork is placed on an iron frame. It has four seats and a convertible top that would cover only the rear seats. Both axles have suspension of semi-elliptical leaf springs. The wheels were similar to the ones of a horse carriage, but had rubber tyres. The car had a two cylinder spark ignition Benz engine placed by the rear axle.