I own a Trabant

I wont have it for long, but yesterday I bought a 1982 Trabant 601 for $230. It's actually going to be for a buddy of mine in the end (after engine swap and some other cosmetic work) but for now I OWN A TRABANT!!!!! (you can skip the next paragraph if you're already familiar with the car)

This is a Trabant: The car has East-German origins and is cardboard (well, Duraplast...). It's a 2-cyl 2-stroke 600cc engine. The 0-60 time can be measured with a calendar. The gas tank is under the hood and you check the level with a stick. The brake pedal is solid. You pump the windshield wiper fluid by pushing and pulling a knob on the dash. The wipers don’t make complete contact with the windshield. The idling engine feels like you’re sitting on a dryer with a car battery in it. It’s a 4-speed column shift that will find “reverse” long before you ever find “first”. The synchros require a “2-minute warning” and sound like the Tardis. The 4th gear is “free spinning” when you let off the gas (to avoid engine damage from no lubrication while “dragging the gear”) which is a bit hard to remember. No worries though, because it will remind you when it re-engages by threatening to come out the side of the case. The blinker switch also operates the high-beams and the horn. So when you turn off your turn signal, you either honk or flash someone. The hot air for the heater is the same air that cooled the 2-stroke engine (I think you get the idea there). The headlights are so the other drivers can see you, not so you can see. The seat belts do not have a “recoil-y thingie” and are a bit weird to adjust. The steering wheel is more of a suggestion box. The seat-backs are so low that a Hans Device would be rendered completely ineffective in a collision. The gas pedal is a metal knob in the middle of the floor, and not really a pedal at all. Any button you push will also require you to pull it back out (think e-brake release, truck lid, etc). Roundabouts are near death experiences, and passing slower traffic (think tractors, horse drawn carriages) are impossible... Trust me, I tried...

My god, I love this car.

Here's some pictures from the ad I bought it from. I'll take better pictures later:

I'd just like to say again: I LOVE THIS CAR! Shoot, I love this car so much I may take some cans to recycle and buy another one for myself!

Wow. That thing is in GREAT condition. I'd love to have one.

So much want:-)

You just made me want to buy a Trabant. The description is going to keep me laughing all day.

what would have been a damning description when they were a new car, now sounds like a challenge!

I actually have a little die cast Trabant that I got from Germany in the late 80's.

As I recall, aren't some of the body panels made of some kind of pressed cardboard composite?

I had no idea that they were not metal. Since you are there, owning one and having the experience seems like the right thing to do!
More pictures please.
Yes, a good chuckle from the descriptions.

I bet swapped over so it is basically a trabant body over a new frame with all modern mechanicals would be a riot

Very well written description, why I love this board.

As I told you on the book of faces, you are my hero, Bill.

A few years back there was a guy in the Minneapolis area who was importing Trabants for resale, but I don't think he's in business any more (as far as I could tell no one was buying them.) I recall he had a Trabant station wagon he brought out to car shows that was intriguing.

What an awesome little death trap!

In reply to stuart in mn:

Something like this? http://baltimore.craigslist.org/cto/3494551201.html

In reply to Raze:

Yes, it was like that except it was painted the same beige color as the sedan in the original post above.

I'm still torn between regretting that I didn't rent a Trabant in Berlin, and understanding that driving a Trabant in an unfamiliar city with signs in a language I suck at and while badly jetlagged may have a recipe for damaged Duraplast (or worse).

Good facial expression on these things, they look so optimistic. "Good morning comrade, today will be fun yes?" Hahaha.

The description sounds almost as bad as a Daewoo Cielo I used to drive. It had a gas gauge, power wipers and an auto trans that would send half the already-meager engine power down a black hole, but it had every other problem. Including pulling the buttons back out, although it didn't leave the factory that way.

OMG I think that wagon needs to take up residence in my shop between the Wartburg and the Yugo to complete the cold war crap collection.

Nothing that a Civic engine transplant wouldn't fix....

JThw8 wrote: OMG I think that wagon needs to take up residence in my shop between the Wartburg and the Yugo to complete the cold war crap collection.

Yes, but then you'd have to put the engine from your Mercury in the back or somesuch nonsense.

Do eeet.

Sweet!

LOL yeah, I'll have to keep an eye out for one if them. Just so I can experience first hand that description. Awesome!

Makes my Yugo look like a Veyron.

Woody wrote: As I recall, aren't some of the body panels made of some kind of pressed cardboard composite?

From Wiki:

The Trabant was a steel monocoque design with roof, bootlid/trunklid, bonnet/hood, bumpers/fenders, and doors in Duroplast. Duroplast was a hard plastic (similar to Bakelite) made of recycled materials: cotton waste from the Soviet Union and phenol resins from the East German dye industry, making the Trabant the first car with a body made of recycled material.[6] The results of some crash tests showed it performed better than some contemporary Western hatchbacks.[9][10][11] The Trabant was the second car to use Duroplast, after the "pre-Trabant" P70 (Zwickau) model (1954–1959).

I kinda like trabbies for some strange reason...