A man walked into an auto salvage yard and asked, "Gas cap for a Trabant?" After mulling over the question, the yard owner replied, "Okay. That sounds like a fair trade."
Funny you mention that Trabants always look nice while there's no floor in the car. My neighbor finally trashed his last year, it wasn't a road legal car anymore but there is rarely any police to be seen in our rural area, so he didn't mind. He did a Fred Flintstone when doing an emergency break, kicking right through the floor when he missed the pedal. Broke his foot in a very delicate way. Great video, very informative.
What do you call a trabant with twin exaughsts ?...... A wheelbarrow ;) Why did they put , eventually, a rear heated screen on a trabant?......to keep your hands warm, when you were pushing it. What do you call a trabant with a sun roof.?......... A skip (dumpster)
What do you call a trabant with twin exaughsts ?...... A wheelbarrow ;) Why did they put , eventually, a rear heated screen on a trabant?......to keep your hands warm, when you were pushing it. What do you call a trabant with a sun roof.?......... A skip (dumpster)
@@TheCreedBratton I've never driven one myself, but was given a ride plenty of times. It's loud, smelly, uncomfortable and cold in winter, but it takes you where you need to get, unless it breaks down. AND it drives uphill with an entire family and their holiday gear even in snow.
In (fromer East) Germany a Trabant is/was often referred to by its ironic nickname "Rennpappe" (translates as "racing cardboard" or "cardboard (made) for racing"). In fact the East Germans were often well aware of their situation and came up with those ironic nicknames for all sorts of things.
It is too easy to gloat with Porsche, Ferrari, Humvee or any other expensive and fancy car, but to do same with Trabant or Lada demands huge amount of guts, daring and panache.
i spent about a year in dresden shortly after the wall came down. trabbies were everywhere. i noticed while i was there, that the toilet paper came in the same colors as a trabbie. it also had about the same structural characteristics as a trabant body. this led me to the theory of the 'trabant cycle' truly a marvel of recycling skill. here's how it works: toilet paper is produced from old clothing, dyed into fun pastel colors (plus orange and brown for later). the tp is utilized in the normal manner, then fished out of the system, and pressed into trabant bodies. when the trabant died (usually after attempting to cut off a street car), the remains were ground up, and turned back into toilet paper (this explains the consistency and color of both trabbies, and eastern german tp.
Fun fact: When a Trabant drives north or south, the metal sheet between the cylinders made for directing airflow over the engine is called the "Iron Curtain", because it separates the eastern from the western block.
I would love you to go to a Mustang dealer and ask for a trade in valuation for your Trabant. Your reason for being there is the Trabant has too much power and you need to downsize to the Mustang. Of course being a Trabant you also expect a fantastic change over figure, given you are trading the S model, with all its inclusive feature.
+Daniel D I had the same idea, but with a little difference. I was planning on acting like it's a completely normal car, and I'm just trading it in because it's "time for me to trade". Just treat it like a Corolla, and I'm totally ignorant
l actually attempted it at Mitzubishi. Two guys looked over the car for a while and l think because there is no Kelly Blue Book value, they said they didn't know what to do with it and couldn't offer a trade in.
+Cody Camorote Oh, I'm not good enough for you, eh? My upcoming series of comedic videos about this car just isn't as good as Mr Regular's take? I'm sorry I can't be as good as Mr Regular, you ungrateful viewer! That's a good idea. I'll contact Mr. Regular about filming ye olde Trabbi some time. I want to see his take too.
+Aging Wheels Hah! Yeah, I've been subbed for a while now because this content is trash and I never want to see it again! ...Wait, people on RUclips probably do that. Crap.
What do you call a trabant with twin exaughsts ?...... A wheelbarrow ;) Why did they put , eventually, a rear heated screen on a trabant?......to keep your hands warm, when you were pushing it. What do you call a trabant with a sun roof.?......... A skip (dumpster) How do you double the price of a trabant?...... Fill it full of petrol ;)
The Trabant 601 was produced till 1990s first half. I have one from 1990 March. From 1990 to 1991 they produced the four stroke 1.1 type. The reliability of each car depended on when and from what they were made. Also the engine wasn't always 26 HP. The p50 had 18 HP the 600 had ~20 HP 601/1 had 23 and 601/2 had 26 HP engine. The fuel tank became bigher over the time. It was just 24 liter originally. Also, the odometer was standard issue to all Trabants of P50, 600 and 601 type. Fuel gauge for the 601 was introduced after the 1.1s for enthusiasts. The 1.1 had a much more modern dashboard, whivh included speedometer, rev meter, fuel gauge and water temp gauge. before the 1.1 you had to measure fuel with the plastic stick.
I love the odd and unusual in automobiles. I have three oddballs in my car collection: 1954 Hudson Jetliner, 1948 Studebaker Champion Starlight Coupe, and a 1956 Packard Clipper. But I love your Trabant, especially the "institution green" paint job.
About the car staying basically the same for 2 decades, it's because the government forbid Trabant from making it better, as it would slow down production. I kinda like to call the Trabi "The t-34 of the car world"
I've seen your engine rebuild video and one thing I've got to give the Trabant credit for is the simplicity. There didn't look like there was a lot to break.
That is a really interesting car and historical too. I can tell you have fun owning that. Lots of guys have mustangs and camaros but I have never seen a Trabant in real life.
::)) well,trabant was our family first car..a used one,of course...in my country, new ones can only be received if iou had some locomotory handicap,becose those cars where imported only via ministery of helth... anyway, besides his obvious flauds,trabant had one major advantage in a time whend gasoline vas restricted at only 40 liters for month: it can run even on lowest quality petrol...or even on some other oil derivative ,as toluen...so,it was keep moving in a time whend others more performant cars stud on garages becose of lack of fuel...we had some marvelous times on board of that little car...of cours,we allsio had allot of frustration moments...one joke about it,was : iou should never dress a white short whend driving a trabant,becose it will inevoidable turning dirty...becose iou werry aften need to repaire the thing in the middle of the road...we could take a part and reasembe trabant engine and geer box in under 2 hours ,on the side of the road..::)) and none of us was auto mecanic...my father vas a army oficer,and i was high scool student by than...
If you thought this car was bad enough, the Ford model T from the 1910s designed to be affordable to most people, had 2hp more than the Trabant did when it came out in the late 1950s (18HP vs 20HP).
They introduced a fuel gage as an improvement in later models and made a tv thing about it to mark the occasion, the video is probably on RUclips. They also praise the new steering wheel and something I forgot in that video that was also totally minor, I think it had to with the lights. Edit: ruclips.net/video/5ynxQF3pd-I/видео.html
There was an attempt to make it more competitive in the late 80s by fitting it with a VW engine, but the wall came down like a year later. The engineers als developed several replacements for this thing that all got nixed by their bosses because it would have meant interrupting production.
This reminds me of a Trabant joke from my childhood in (the People's Republic of) Bulgaria. A wealthy American car collector keeps hearing about the East German car that people are signing up on 10+ year waiting lists to get, and becomes so curious that he finally gets in touch with the East German embassy and offers them a generous amount of US$ to buy one. The comrades at the embassy duly inform East Berlin, and the People's Kommissar of Industry personally directs the factory to forgo the usual waiting lists and background checks, and to ship a Trabant to the rich capitalist in the US, pronto. Not long after, at a social event hosted by the American, the Trabant comes up in conversation and he remarks, "You know, their customer service is surprisingly good: they do have a 10+ year backlog, but when you place your order, at least they send you this lovely little cardboard mockup to look at!"
Doug who doesn't know cars and takes sides by including politics in his scrutiny? I don't care about him, because he's just too ignorant and biased enough to drive a Trabat in bad shape and say it's generally bad.
Ich bin kein Deutscher, aber es stört mich, dass diese Autos verleumdet werden, nur weil sie in einem kommunistischen Land produziert wurden. Es sei denn, er erwähnt die Übel des Faschismus in einer Käfer-Rezension. Auch in Trabants Analyse ist kein Platz für Politik.
Ambonec My great uncle built Wartburgs and he said already st GDR times that the cars could be easily improved but it would have meant missing the quotas for a year and that wasn’t doable. It wasnt idiots (The Trabi was not a bad cheap car when kt came out. Some people in western Germany still drove stuff like the Isetta at the time) but it was an idiotic system that defeated itself
Even if your father is an engineer, he probably doesn't know what a new invention means in his absence. I'm not an engineer, but I definitely know more about Trabant than your father. It means that your father is an engineer with the means. New inventions in the impossible are real engineering.Also, those who say that idiots made this car. They can't even do the same. Real engineers made this car.
The Trabant was a really modern car and at least on par with western cars in its class when it came on the market. The whole production line was state of the art back then. The problem was lack of innovation because of stupid policies and lack of resources.
I was still a kid when the Iron Courtain fell, but all I can recall it was thought as a crappy car even then. Also noticed the Hungarian license plate, and I'm from Hungary! :)
They actually imported a load of Mk1 Golfs (literally a load, one train full). When the realized those were better made, they banned Volkswagen spares so the cars eventually had to be retired.
With all your engineering prowess, I bet you could figure out a way to get yourself a fuel gauge. That'd probably be the only mod I'd suggest other than just making it run better. Gotta love that smooth jazz.
Your feature showcase reminds me of the Russian UAZ Auto website back around the year 2000. It advertised such luxury features as "seatbelts" or the very fancy "padded seats". In the year 2000.
I read an East German said, "too bad they didn't make it a dual exhaust. Otherwise it would make a fine wheelbarrow." I met another former East German who living there got on a waiting list for a Trabant. He expected to get it in about six years but the Berlin Wall fell. Eventually he moved to USA and bought a Prius.
It's quite amazing that the Trabant isn't an ugly car... I mean it's a piece, but its design is quite ok and it even cites some American design features of the day.
Rotary swap would be awesome on that thing. small engine and lightweight. you might just want to keep it stock though. I have driven a blue one once. it's really loud but it was a fun experience
Engine mounting bracket (the so-called "swan's neck") was a very failure-prone part of the Trabi, so any kind of engine swap would be a major overhaul, costing many times the asking price of the original car. Also, I can't imagine a rotary of any kind would play nice with the factory transmission, so that would need to be a custom job as well. If one would build a Commie sleeper, the Wartburg is a far better jumping off point.
One thing I don't want U to do with/to Ur fine Trabi is to customize it. That would be untrue to it. Keep it working, spend the time it needs on the lift, and be good to her. I think U have the right spirit, man. Keep it rolling...
You got my Trabi! I left the communist Hungary with exactly the same if not the same Trabant. I sold it in, at the time West Germany, for 800 German Mark to a guy there in Osnabruck. I kind of remember that I had the same seat cover because the springs were braking trough the original canvas ha ha. I absolutely loved my Trabi! Yes it was a terrible car, but never ever quit on me. Regarding the plastic siding; that was the best part. Once a guy ran into me and destroyed the left front panel ( I think) I find the screws with a magnet, scraped out the putty, removed the panel and replaced with a new one from the Trabant store. I painted it with Neolux spray (same color) cans if I remember the name well, and voila nobody would tell that I had an accident. I want one, where did you get it?
I drove an electric converted Trabant on the Trabi Safari in Berlin in 2016. It's, driveable for those who can't or can't be stuffed driving the manual version. 2 modes, forward and reverse.
To be fair - after nearly 4 years of this video. Trabants were bad... but they had one thing going for them, and it was it's simplicity. If you looked after it well, it would go to the end of the universe and back (leaving a serious smoke trail for sure but still). Because the engine was so darn simple there were literally no parts to be worried about. other than the actual moving parts. (like sensors, ecu, cooling system, aircon, pumps, valves (various)... it had it two pistons, some pipes feeding the fuel in... and that's all (almost). My dad had one and he was looking after it well (i mean the engine) ... and it never failed him. Sure headlights went wrong, indicator gave up, windscreen wipers got stuck... but the little engine was going and going and going... like a determined little creature. did i hate it? oh yes.. from the bottom of my hearth. did i trust it that it will go where we wanted to go? yes truly. part of the reason the did not alter the car during its production, because it would make it "difficult" for people maintaining them at home. With the same parts available for 30+ years it made it sure that parts (aftermarket parts included) are available always... even today. you need a new "xxxxx" - you can just get it - and there is no risk that it is made for a different itteration. i am not saying it is a good decision, but it has it's reasons - apart from the fact that you had to meet quota (production) and stopping for testing / updating would result in missing those numbers. What i like about this little car (now) - is that its like an old 8bit computer. You can understand and rebuild the whole thing from start to finish. knowing every single wire's desitnation, task and duty. (not like with new cars where there is about a thousand miles of wire in there and you have no idea what does what even if you trace them) Like my "radio" in the car has 20+ connections. (12v, ground, speakers, can bus, camera lines... etc) and that's just a radio. Again: i am happy with my new car, happy that it goes on and on and on... and i don't have to rebuild it every weekend (like my father did) - but i adore that you could have a car and if you decide you could rewire it and even... heck... modify it. Like add new instruments with ease. or alter switches, behavior - mold a new case around it. Sure you cant make it safer (that much) or transform it into something "modern" (though 3d printers are there) - but the enginbay is massive for such a little two stroke two cilinder engine - so... swap it out ... i digress.. so... is it a good car? nope but it servers you until it literally falls apart... if you give it the care it needs. it's like a dog in some sense... if you treat it well, it will be your friend, goes with you everywhere and makes a whole place a little bit more smelly... but you will have a lots of fun with it.
We sold these cars in the seventies in Belgium, together with Gaz Volga and Moskvitch, the Russian cars where reliable, where the Trabant was more for running around church like we say overhere.
It wasn't just Wartburgs and Trabants, you would see Soviet cars on East German roads as well, due the the Soviet Army's presence in the DDR. Lots of AvtoVAZ Ladas, the occasional GAZ Volga, maybe a KAMAZ truck or one of those UAZ 4x4 vans.
First off I've had a Trabant so no comment there but have to compliment you on your reports. Very informative and no idle uming and awing just constant dialogue with the odd humour thrown in, keep up the good work. look forward to a good shake down and complete description of a 2CV design features !
You could easily have a Wartburg, Lada, Dacia, Skoda, Moskvich or whatever. Obviously there was a used car market. And wartburgs weren't THAT rare or exclusive. And at least the (old) 311 and 312 looked quite nice. And were quite a bit faster than any Trabant. So while Trabants were dominant, they were by no means the only cars on the roads even for "normal" people. The most common single type of car by far, but not even the majority on the road i'd guess. Steel: everything you need to produce steel... was dismantled by the russians and shipped to russia. There was about a decade after the war before east Germany had facilities again to produce steel. And even after that apart from the lack of ressources, a lot of East Germanies industry output was also grabbed by the russians. While the US spent billions to get West Germany back on it''s feet. Including rushing to start steel production. That the east paid the war reparations to russsia alone, is conveniently overlooked when people in the west complain about the cost of the reunification since 1990. PS: socialist (if that) not comunist. PPS: Of course all Cars availabe were shit by todays standards. And back then western standards. But from the ground level there was a MASSIVE difference in quaulity, performance, space AND standing between a Trabant and a Wartburg. Lada bordered on luxury. It's all relative.
Actually, there were more modern version of the Trabant. East German engineers were very skilled people, especially considering the lack of material they had to deal with. In this video (ruclips.net/video/emoF0EFxjjA/видео.html) at about 4:35 you can see prototypes of new versions, including versions with four-stroke engines. Sadly, they never went into production due to the incompetent leadership of East Germany.
People joke about fibreglass cars, cotton cars like the Trabant etc. but I've always wondered why we didn't take the tech seriously in the West. There's no real good reason to use steel as body material like we do is there? Especially in those days with the poor corrosion resistance of cars. In the current era we value composites like carbon fibre, even use them as stylistic embellishment when the strength isn't needed. I wonder if things would have been different if a respected Western car maker had tried something similar to the Trabant.
Ah, the Trabant... The East Germans could either order the Trabant and wait 10 years!!!! to get it, or, they could run to their Zaporozhets dealer and get a ZAZ-968 with no wait at all! Unfortunately, the rear-engined ZAZ had a gasoline powered heater that had a tendency to catch fire. Now you see why the Trabant was so popular?
But Ladas were "prestigious" cars driven by the Soviet nomenklatura. The ZAZ was the Russian equivalent of the Trabant meant for the poor slobs. I can't find any figures on the numbers of ZAZs sold but there were plenty! There are several German RUclipss about the ZAZ and one of them said the ZAZ could be had without any wait. They had no trunk to speak of (the engine was in the back) and the quality left a lot to be desired. And they caught fire, as I said.
Stuart M. Ok, I believe you but I still find that very strange. I hear only 1/10 families in Soviet union had a car so you would think many of them would take any car. Zaz was even quite "cheap" so really surprising if there was no line to get them. Maybe it was just in DDR? If there was no high demand like in the mainland USSR?
In a documentary they made about the Trabant production, they say it was an "inferior cotton from the Soviet Union", so I guess it was not recicled clothes? Idk. Maybe it was both.
Pre-mixed gasoline with oil (e.g. 1:33, 1 part oil for 33 parts gasoline) was available at gas stations when this car was in widespread use. Just a few months before end of production, a 4 stroke engine was introduced (a license from Volkswagen) and some more technical upgrades. The design was however kept as seen here. This had been the plan by the communist government (they had bought the engine license earlier) but since re-unification took place at the same time in 1990, there was no more demand for the car and production was stopped in 1991.
There is a thing that the Trabant has in common with the Model T Ford. Both have no gas gauge, and both use a dipstick to check how much gas is in the fuel tank.
I reckon you would love my first car a 1957 Standard. Not the Cadet. The indicator stalk would fall out everytime you went around the corner, there was no synchro going from 2nd to first but the best bit was it came with a crank handle (which I had to use every 3rd or 5th time I tried to start it).
Sharks are unchanged for millions of years, because the design works. The same with the Trabi. ;) To delvelop, design and build a car without any real ressources in such a small country under hard economic sanctions from the west is not far from a real miracle. Communism was only a little problem compared to the sanctions.
![Quando Rondo - Grow Up [Official Music Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/8zFnCg3BO4Q/mqdefault.jpg)
A Trabant is the longest car in the world, if you count in the smoke trail.
That's the first new Trabant joke I have heard in 30 years, I thought I knew them all. Danke!
@@JayfromTerra thanks to my friend from Bulgaria.
The Trabant. Because a decent car was a suggestion. A suggestion that would label you as a greedy capitalist. 🤣
thats what my dad(romanian) told me a few months ago, the joke has been running for a while
OMG, that sticker on the Trabant's back:D
"Ha megnövök Mercedes leszek" it means "If I grow up, I'll be a Mercedes" :DD
DrSim19 még a rendszám táblát is rajta hagyta 😂😂
Én is felfigyeltem rá :DD
vicces ;)
polish however, despite being a german car?
wait no it's hungarian
DrSim19 jé!
Old Romanian joke: Why does the Trabant have a rear window heater?
-So that your hands won’t freeze when you push it
A man walked into an auto salvage yard and asked, "Gas cap for a Trabant?" After mulling over the question, the yard owner replied, "Okay. That sounds like a fair trade."
Somewhere, a Yugo is crying.
Good one
How do you double the value of a Trabant? Fill the gas tank!
Jó kis auto❤❤❤
This is my favorite trabant joke
A guy sees two dudes pushing a Trabant. He says "What's wrong, doesn't it start?" They reply: "It does, but we want to get there faster".
Funny you mention that Trabants always look nice while there's no floor in the car. My neighbor finally trashed his last year, it wasn't a road legal car anymore but there is rarely any police to be seen in our rural area, so he didn't mind.
He did a Fred Flintstone when doing an emergency break, kicking right through the floor when he missed the pedal. Broke his foot in a very delicate way.
Great video, very informative.
Youre kidding me
Did he scream "WILLLLMMAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!" ?
@@simonsays3391 ofc he is
Wa-ba De-ba DOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!! I know it should int be Funny, But it is.
Old polish joke about these - How to double the value of Trabant ? Fill it up with fuel.
How do you get a Trabant to go over 30 MPH? Drive it off a cliff!!
What do you call a trabant with twin exaughsts ?...... A wheelbarrow ;)
Why did they put , eventually, a rear heated screen on a trabant?......to keep your hands warm, when you were pushing it.
What do you call a trabant with a sun roof.?......... A skip (dumpster)
What do you call a trabant with twin exaughsts ?...... A wheelbarrow ;)
Why did they put , eventually, a rear heated screen on a trabant?......to keep your hands warm, when you were pushing it.
What do you call a trabant with a sun roof.?......... A skip (dumpster)
I've found all these jokes about the Zastava Yugo!
What's the thin line down the road behind a Trabant Deluxe?
The Ground for the radio.
To give you an idea of how "powerful" the engine was, we had to get out of the car and let my father drive it up a steep hill a couple of times.
That's not _too_ bad. I remember doing the same in a Renault 5 in the Lake District.
The bumper sticker, "Ha megnövök Mercédes leszek." is so ironic. It translates from Hungarian to "When I grow up, I'll be a Mercedes."
In Germany it is quite famous/infamous that you can fix the drive belt with a womans stocking as a replacement.
Max out passengers and attempt the steepest hill you can find. Thanks the for the history lesson. Very unique car.
+Josh Pinchuk Max passengers for this car on a hill is 1
No. You just have one of the passengers sit on the bonnet for improved traction, especially in snow. Works like a charm.
@@TomisaburoRMizugawa and make the other ones push
@@TheCreedBratton I've never driven one myself, but was given a ride plenty of times. It's loud, smelly, uncomfortable and cold in winter, but it takes you where you need to get, unless it breaks down. AND it drives uphill with an entire family and their holiday gear even in snow.
@@TomisaburoRMizugawa Can you purchase a maintenance plan? LOL
In (fromer East) Germany a Trabant is/was often referred to by its ironic nickname "Rennpappe" (translates as "racing cardboard" or "cardboard (made) for racing"). In fact the East Germans were often well aware of their situation and came up with those ironic nicknames for all sorts of things.
A Trabbi in the US of A? Subscribed! What you should do with it? Become a Uber driver and film the customers.
+Doktor Zappergeck If only I could. It's against Uber's policies. I've checked!
There should be an uber section for interesting/collector cars
@@agingwheels why tho
@@Mr_Fancypants bekuz Uber sux
@@Mr_Fancypants maybe because it's a 2 door, there is no rear seatbelts, the front seatbelts are useless,...
Volkswagen's slogan: "Fahrvergnugen"
Trabant's slogan: "Getautenpusch"
Huh?
MrRad RC dude “get out and push “ come on
@@randymarsh5088 well just because I didn't get a joke doesn't mean you gotta be rude.
@@randymarsh5088 I'm reporting you
@@silviamills5218 I told your mom on you.
It is too easy to gloat with Porsche, Ferrari, Humvee or any other expensive and fancy car, but to do same with Trabant or Lada demands huge amount of guts, daring and panache.
Porsche, Ferrari, Humvee give a small pp energy while Trabant gives giant schlong energy
i spent about a year in dresden shortly after the wall came down. trabbies were everywhere. i noticed while i was there, that the toilet paper came in the same colors as a trabbie. it also had about the same structural characteristics as a trabant body. this led me to the theory of the 'trabant cycle' truly a marvel of recycling skill. here's how it works: toilet paper is produced from old clothing, dyed into fun pastel colors (plus orange and brown for later). the tp is utilized in the normal manner, then fished out of the system, and pressed into trabant bodies. when the trabant died (usually after attempting to cut off a street car), the remains were ground up, and turned back into toilet paper (this explains the consistency and color of both trabbies, and eastern german tp.
Fun fact:
When a Trabant drives north or south, the metal sheet between the cylinders made for directing airflow over the engine is called the "Iron Curtain", because it separates the eastern from the western block.
I would love you to go to a Mustang dealer and ask for a trade in valuation for your Trabant. Your reason for being there is the Trabant has too much power and you need to downsize to the Mustang. Of course being a Trabant you also expect a fantastic change over figure, given you are trading the S model, with all its inclusive feature.
+Daniel D I had the same idea, but with a little difference. I was planning on acting like it's a completely normal car, and I'm just trading it in because it's "time for me to trade". Just treat it like a Corolla, and I'm totally ignorant
+Aging Wheels That would make for a good video!
l actually attempted it at Mitzubishi. Two guys looked over the car for a while and l think because there is no Kelly Blue Book value, they said they didn't know what to do with it and couldn't offer a trade in.
@@agingwheels NO!!! DON'T SELL THE TRABI!!!!!
You meant Mit *s* ubishi?
"What country is this car from?"
"It... no longer exists."
now *THAT'S* what I call an Orphan Make!
Put it in H!
@@nubreed13 It gets 50 hectares on a single tank of kerosene!
Zagreb Ebnom Zlotdik Diev
@@Rod54Am I agree.
Perfection needs no change.
Regular Car Reviews needs to review this car. It just has to happen.
+Cody Camorote Oh, I'm not good enough for you, eh? My upcoming series of comedic videos about this car just isn't as good as Mr Regular's take? I'm sorry I can't be as good as Mr Regular, you ungrateful viewer!
That's a good idea. I'll contact Mr. Regular about filming ye olde Trabbi some time. I want to see his take too.
+Aging Wheels Hah! Yeah, I've been subbed for a while now because this content is trash and I never want to see it again! ...Wait, people on RUclips probably do that. Crap.
+Cody Camorote There are undoubtedly people that do that. They are most likely below the age of 17 as well.
I've always wanted to see him review this a VW beetle and a Lada. He's already done a model T
I wanna see Mr. Regular review the Trabbi, the Wheego, or the other odd city car you have, the Life. He just did a Nano, so who knows!
What do you call a trabant with twin exaughsts ?...... A wheelbarrow ;)
Why did they put , eventually, a rear heated screen on a trabant?......to keep your hands warm, when you were pushing it.
What do you call a trabant with a sun roof.?......... A skip (dumpster)
How do you double the price of a trabant?...... Fill it full of petrol ;)
Why is trabant doing circles in the meadow ? Because grass is stuck in the doors..
You need a bumper sticker for the Trabi that says "My other car is a Yugo!"
now its real
The Trabant 601 was produced till 1990s first half. I have one from 1990 March. From 1990 to 1991 they produced the four stroke 1.1 type. The reliability of each car depended on when and from what they were made. Also the engine wasn't always 26 HP. The p50 had 18 HP the 600 had ~20 HP 601/1 had 23 and 601/2 had 26 HP engine. The fuel tank became bigher over the time. It was just 24 liter originally.
Also, the odometer was standard issue to all Trabants of P50, 600 and 601 type. Fuel gauge for the 601 was introduced after the 1.1s for enthusiasts. The 1.1 had a much more modern dashboard, whivh included speedometer, rev meter, fuel gauge and water temp gauge. before the 1.1 you had to measure fuel with the plastic stick.
I love the odd and unusual in automobiles. I have three oddballs in my car collection: 1954 Hudson Jetliner, 1948 Studebaker Champion Starlight Coupe, and a 1956 Packard Clipper. But I love your Trabant, especially the "institution green" paint job.
About the car staying basically the same for 2 decades, it's because the government forbid Trabant from making it better, as it would slow down production. I kinda like to call the Trabi "The t-34 of the car world"
The T-34 got massive upgrades inside 4 years
"Lieber schlecht gefahren, als gut gelaufen. " - "Better driven bad, than walked well."
I've seen your engine rebuild video and one thing I've got to give the Trabant credit for is the simplicity. There didn't look like there was a lot to break.
I love how throughout the movie Black Cat, White Cat there are just shots of a hog chewing on the trabant and by the end it's nearly done with it ))
The sticker at 0:50 says : "When I grow up I'm gonna be a Mercedes"
De cuki ez egy magyar Trabant
Lénárd Borbély vajon ki vitte ki?
Lmao trabant is east german
@@kanazamkniety7705 Yes but he was spoken about the H license plate
The side doors are bent into perfect shape to use as a snow shovel :). At least in Hungary we used to do it :).
That is a really interesting car and historical too. I can tell you have fun owning that. Lots of guys have mustangs and camaros but I have never seen a Trabant in real life.
Imagine retrofitting a trabant with the drivetrain, safety systems, and infotainment systems of a Tesla.
Trabant is called "Ford Karton" in Poland, which means "Cardboard Ford" XD
On the back of the car it says: "Ha megnövök Mercédes leszek" meaning: "If I grow up, I will be a Mercedes". That is just great!
::)) well,trabant was our family first car..a used one,of course...in my country, new ones can only be received if iou had some locomotory handicap,becose those cars where imported only via ministery of helth... anyway, besides his obvious flauds,trabant had one major advantage in a time whend gasoline vas restricted at only 40 liters for month: it can run even on lowest quality petrol...or even on some other oil derivative ,as toluen...so,it was keep moving in a time whend others more performant cars stud on garages becose of lack of fuel...we had some marvelous times on board of that little car...of cours,we allsio had allot of frustration moments...one joke about it,was : iou should never dress a white short whend driving a trabant,becose it will inevoidable turning dirty...becose iou werry aften need to repaire the thing in the middle of the road...we could take a part and reasembe trabant engine and geer box in under 2 hours ,on the side of the road..::)) and none of us was auto mecanic...my father vas a army oficer,and i was high scool student by than...
If you thought this car was bad enough, the Ford model T from the 1910s designed to be affordable to most people, had 2hp more than the Trabant did when it came out in the late 1950s (18HP vs 20HP).
They introduced a fuel gage as an improvement in later models and made a tv thing about it to mark the occasion, the video is probably on RUclips. They also praise the new steering wheel and something I forgot in that video that was also totally minor, I think it had to with the lights.
Edit: ruclips.net/video/5ynxQF3pd-I/видео.html
Imagine a 3 cylinder G10 out of a Geo Metro in one, it would be plenty fast lol
There was an attempt to make it more competitive in the late 80s by fitting it with a VW engine, but the wall came down like a year later. The engineers als developed several replacements for this thing that all got nixed by their bosses because it would have meant interrupting production.
This reminds me of a Trabant joke from my childhood in (the People's Republic of) Bulgaria. A wealthy American car collector keeps hearing about the East German car that people are signing up on 10+ year waiting lists to get, and becomes so curious that he finally gets in touch with the East German embassy and offers them a generous amount of US$ to buy one. The comrades at the embassy duly inform East Berlin, and the People's Kommissar of Industry personally directs the factory to forgo the usual waiting lists and background checks, and to ship a Trabant to the rich capitalist in the US, pronto. Not long after, at a social event hosted by the American, the Trabant comes up in conversation and he remarks, "You know, their customer service is surprisingly good: they do have a 10+ year backlog, but when you place your order, at least they send you this lovely little cardboard mockup to look at!"
Doug Demuro brought me here, love your channel!
Doug who doesn't know cars and takes sides by including politics in his scrutiny? I don't care about him, because he's just too ignorant and biased enough to drive a Trabat in bad shape and say it's generally bad.
Super, I'm glad the US citizen also interested in the East German car Trabant VEB Sachenring Zwickau!
Greetings from Germany :) GooD Video^^
JUST PURCHASED ONE ! ... HAPPY
Ich bin kein Deutscher, aber es stört mich, dass diese Autos verleumdet werden, nur weil sie in einem kommunistischen Land produziert wurden. Es sei denn, er erwähnt die Übel des Faschismus in einer Käfer-Rezension. Auch in Trabants Analyse ist kein Platz für Politik.
Oh, the Trabant DOES perfectly reflect my personality
Old and left behind ? xD
1:30 "it was built by idiots", my Hungarian father (engineer) made remarks about it that match your quote
Ambonec My great uncle built Wartburgs and he said already st GDR times that the cars could be easily improved but it would have meant missing the quotas for a year and that wasn’t doable. It wasnt idiots (The Trabi was not a bad cheap car when kt came out. Some people in western Germany still drove stuff like the Isetta at the time) but it was an idiotic system that defeated itself
Even if your father is an engineer, he probably doesn't know what a new invention means in his absence. I'm not an engineer, but I definitely know more about Trabant than your father. It means that your father is an engineer with the means. New inventions in the impossible are real engineering.Also, those who say that idiots made this car. They can't even do the same. Real engineers made this car.
The Trabant was a really modern car and at least on par with western cars in its class when it came on the market.
The whole production line was state of the art back then.
The problem was lack of innovation because of stupid policies and lack of resources.
2:13 That "special resin" was more like Bakelite, which has been used in America at least since 1923
I was still a kid when the Iron Courtain fell, but all I can recall it was thought as a crappy car even then. Also noticed the Hungarian license plate, and I'm from Hungary! :)
Ha megnövök mercedes leszek.
Personally I'm not into cars that much, but whit this you just won yourself a new Hungarian sub.
GLORY BE THE TRABANT! XD
They haven’t change a thing in 2 decades. You don’t have to change what’s already... perfect!
They actually imported a load of Mk1 Golfs (literally a load, one train full).
When the realized those were better made, they banned Volkswagen spares so the cars eventually had to be retired.
>drive a Trabant 601
>need to go fast
>going top speed
>*GRABS PADDLE*
>*PADDLES WITH SPEED*
With all your engineering prowess, I bet you could figure out a way to get yourself a fuel gauge. That'd probably be the only mod I'd suggest other than just making it run better. Gotta love that smooth jazz.
+thebetatester800 I love the lack of a fuel gauge. I could easily give it one, but it's so ridiculous without one.
The trabant is like the mini coopers’ one cousin that lives in another country and only visits after a few months
Your feature showcase reminds me of the Russian UAZ Auto website back around the year 2000. It advertised such luxury features as "seatbelts" or the very fancy "padded seats". In the year 2000.
I always loved the trabant 👍 A very charming little car .
I read an East German said, "too bad they didn't make it a dual exhaust. Otherwise it would make a fine wheelbarrow." I met another former East German who living there got on a waiting list for a Trabant. He expected to get it in about six years but the Berlin Wall fell. Eventually he moved to USA and bought a Prius.
There's a guy in Germany who modified his to be watercooled.
Also, the last few cars had a VW-engine
He got a RUclips chanel?
I like the long unchanging production run
You need to get other people to drive it! Then record their reactions...
I agree on the coolness factor! Nice video, you always come up with the extra weird and forgotten cars. Great job, i love watching your videos
I can’t believe this video is six years old. Not that this video was in any way bad, but man you have come a long way and I am so happy for you!
My dad wanted to buy a trabant in 90’s so bad but my mom couldn’t stand it, I can’t blame her but this car brings me many memories growing in Europe
It has the same power to weight ratio as my first car had, a 53HP 2002 VW Polo!
"Little soviet car made out of old Soviet pants.." LOL
It's quite amazing that the Trabant isn't an ugly car... I mean it's a piece, but its design is quite ok and it even cites some American design features of the day.
I see now why you like this car so much. This whole video is awesome! I'm starting to love this little thing!
Rotary swap would be awesome on that thing. small engine and lightweight. you might just want to keep it stock though. I have driven a blue one once. it's really loud but it was a fun experience
Engine mounting bracket (the so-called "swan's neck") was a very failure-prone part of the Trabi, so any kind of engine swap would be a major overhaul, costing many times the asking price of the original car. Also, I can't imagine a rotary of any kind would play nice with the factory transmission, so that would need to be a custom job as well.
If one would build a Commie sleeper, the Wartburg is a far better jumping off point.
One thing I don't want U to do with/to Ur fine Trabi is to customize it. That would be untrue to it. Keep it working, spend the time it needs on the lift, and be good to her. I think U have the right spirit, man. Keep it rolling...
Made out of "Old Soviet Pants"! AHAHAHA!
What makes the Trabant a Sportscar?
Putt a pair Running Shoes in the Trunk….😂😂
This trabant has an old style license plate from hungary. Cars upto the late 80's had this, now it is xxx-124 format with the EU HU signs.
You got my Trabi! I left the communist Hungary with exactly the same if not the same Trabant. I sold it in, at the time West Germany, for 800 German Mark to a guy there in Osnabruck. I kind of remember that I had the same seat cover because the springs were braking trough the original canvas ha ha. I absolutely loved my Trabi! Yes it was a terrible car, but never ever quit on me. Regarding the plastic siding; that was the best part. Once a guy ran into me and destroyed the left front panel ( I think) I find the screws with a magnet, scraped out the putty, removed the panel and replaced with a new one from the Trabant store. I painted it with Neolux spray (same color) cans if I remember the name well, and voila nobody would tell that I had an accident. I want one, where did you get it?
I drove an electric converted Trabant on the Trabi Safari in Berlin in 2016. It's, driveable for those who can't or can't be stuffed driving the manual version. 2 modes, forward and reverse.
To be fair - after nearly 4 years of this video. Trabants were bad... but they had one thing going for them, and it was it's simplicity. If you looked after it well, it would go to the end of the universe and back (leaving a serious smoke trail for sure but still). Because the engine was so darn simple there were literally no parts to be worried about. other than the actual moving parts. (like sensors, ecu, cooling system, aircon, pumps, valves (various)... it had it two pistons, some pipes feeding the fuel in... and that's all (almost). My dad had one and he was looking after it well (i mean the engine) ... and it never failed him. Sure headlights went wrong, indicator gave up, windscreen wipers got stuck... but the little engine was going and going and going... like a determined little creature.
did i hate it? oh yes.. from the bottom of my hearth.
did i trust it that it will go where we wanted to go? yes truly.
part of the reason the did not alter the car during its production, because it would make it "difficult" for people maintaining them at home. With the same parts available for 30+ years it made it sure that parts (aftermarket parts included) are available always... even today. you need a new "xxxxx" - you can just get it - and there is no risk that it is made for a different itteration.
i am not saying it is a good decision, but it has it's reasons - apart from the fact that you had to meet quota (production) and stopping for testing / updating would result in missing those numbers.
What i like about this little car (now) - is that its like an old 8bit computer. You can understand and rebuild the whole thing from start to finish. knowing every single wire's desitnation, task and duty.
(not like with new cars where there is about a thousand miles of wire in there and you have no idea what does what even if you trace them)
Like my "radio" in the car has 20+ connections. (12v, ground, speakers, can bus, camera lines... etc) and that's just a radio.
Again: i am happy with my new car, happy that it goes on and on and on... and i don't have to rebuild it every weekend (like my father did) - but i adore that you could have a car and if you decide you could rewire it and even... heck... modify it. Like add new instruments with ease. or alter switches, behavior - mold a new case around it. Sure you cant make it safer (that much) or transform it into something "modern" (though 3d printers are there) - but the enginbay is massive for such a little two stroke two cilinder engine - so... swap it out ...
i digress..
so... is it a good car? nope
but it servers you until it literally falls apart... if you give it the care it needs. it's like a dog in some sense... if you treat it well, it will be your friend, goes with you everywhere and makes a whole place a little bit more smelly... but you will have a lots of fun with it.
We sold these cars in the seventies in Belgium, together with Gaz Volga and Moskvitch, the Russian cars where reliable, where the Trabant was more for running around church like we say overhere.
You know why they fitted a defrost?
Because people's hands kept freezing off when pushing.
The last versions of the trabi were fitted with a 54hp vw-polo engine. So there was kind of a progress ;)
Rundllx32 you kidin me that polo engine trabant was faster than the 1.1 polo it was way lighter
It wasn't just Wartburgs and Trabants, you would see Soviet cars on East German roads as well, due the the Soviet Army's presence in the DDR. Lots of AvtoVAZ Ladas, the occasional GAZ Volga, maybe a KAMAZ truck or one of those UAZ 4x4 vans.
First off I've had a Trabant so no comment there but have to compliment you on your reports. Very informative and no idle uming and awing just constant dialogue with the odd humour thrown in, keep up the good work. look forward to a good shake down and complete description of a 2CV design features !
You could easily have a Wartburg, Lada, Dacia, Skoda, Moskvich or whatever. Obviously there was a used car market. And wartburgs weren't THAT rare or exclusive. And at least the (old) 311 and 312 looked quite nice. And were quite a bit faster than any Trabant. So while Trabants were dominant, they were by no means the only cars on the roads even for "normal" people. The most common single type of car by far, but not even the majority on the road i'd guess.
Steel: everything you need to produce steel... was dismantled by the russians and shipped to russia. There was about a decade after the war before east Germany had facilities again to produce steel. And even after that apart from the lack of ressources, a lot of East Germanies industry output was also grabbed by the russians. While the US spent billions to get West Germany back on it''s feet. Including rushing to start steel production.
That the east paid the war reparations to russsia alone, is conveniently overlooked when people in the west complain about the cost of the reunification since 1990.
PS: socialist (if that) not comunist.
PPS: Of course all Cars availabe were shit by todays standards. And back then western standards. But from the ground level there was a MASSIVE difference in quaulity, performance, space AND standing between a Trabant and a Wartburg. Lada bordered on luxury. It's all relative.
Actually, there were more modern version of the Trabant. East German engineers were very skilled people, especially considering the lack of material they had to deal with.
In this video (ruclips.net/video/emoF0EFxjjA/видео.html) at about 4:35 you can see prototypes of new versions, including versions with four-stroke engines. Sadly, they never went into production due to the incompetent leadership of East Germany.
I like how robert reckoned he might have the trabant for a year, now he’s had it for 7
People joke about fibreglass cars, cotton cars like the Trabant etc. but I've always wondered why we didn't take the tech seriously in the West. There's no real good reason to use steel as body material like we do is there? Especially in those days with the poor corrosion resistance of cars. In the current era we value composites like carbon fibre, even use them as stylistic embellishment when the strength isn't needed.
I wonder if things would have been different if a respected Western car maker had tried something similar to the Trabant.
Though this is too basic, I wish there were more basic cars out there. Mercedes and Volvo were a lot simpler yet sturdy and more reliable.
It's funny how their ad literally had a traffic light turning into red and then trabant 601 title comes up.
Wow, my mother drove a 604 back in the 80s.
Ah, the Trabant... The East Germans could either order the Trabant and wait 10 years!!!! to get it, or, they could run to their Zaporozhets dealer and get a ZAZ-968 with no wait at all! Unfortunately, the rear-engined ZAZ had a gasoline powered heater that had a tendency to catch fire. Now you see why the Trabant was so popular?
Stuart M. Really? No waiting time for a Zaz? Seems incredible since there were fewer produced than Ladas which had a waiting line.
But Ladas were "prestigious" cars driven by the Soviet nomenklatura. The ZAZ was the Russian equivalent of the Trabant meant for the poor slobs. I can't find any figures on the numbers of ZAZs sold but there were plenty! There are several German RUclipss about the ZAZ and one of them said the ZAZ could be had without any wait. They had no trunk to speak of (the engine was in the back) and the quality left a lot to be desired. And they caught fire, as I said.
Stuart M. Ok, I believe you but I still find that very strange. I hear only 1/10 families in Soviet union had a car so you would think many of them would take any car. Zaz was even quite "cheap" so really surprising if there was no line to get them. Maybe it was just in DDR? If there was no high demand like in the mainland USSR?
If just buy one and try and rig up some kind of electric heater inside
@@prieten49 I thought it was Ukrainian?
I absolutely love this car. Anyone remember this from Jalopy???
In a documentary they made about the Trabant production, they say it was an "inferior cotton from the Soviet Union", so I guess it was not recicled clothes? Idk. Maybe it was both.
Pre-mixed gasoline with oil (e.g. 1:33, 1 part oil for 33 parts gasoline) was available at gas stations when this car was in widespread use.
Just a few months before end of production, a 4 stroke engine was introduced (a license from Volkswagen) and some more technical upgrades. The design was however kept as seen here. This had been the plan by the communist government (they had bought the engine license earlier) but since re-unification took place at the same time in 1990, there was no more demand for the car and production was stopped in 1991.
There is a thing that the Trabant has in common with the Model T Ford. Both have no gas gauge, and both use a dipstick to check how much gas is in the fuel tank.
This Trabant is from Hungary. Do I know it well? :)
East germany zwickau
@@kanazamkniety7705 we know that is was made in East Germany but it has a hungarian licence plate
Do you have to keep the Hungarian number plate as well?
Like the 'when I grow up I'll be a Merc' sticker btw.
I reckon you would love my first car a 1957 Standard. Not the Cadet. The indicator stalk would fall out everytime you went around the corner, there was no synchro going from 2nd to first but the best bit was it came with a crank handle (which I had to use every 3rd or 5th time I tried to start it).
Sharks are unchanged for millions of years, because the design works. The same with the Trabi. ;) To delvelop, design and build a car without any real ressources in such a small country under hard economic sanctions from the west is not far from a real miracle. Communism was only a little problem compared to the sanctions.
I live in the boot heel of Missouri and would love to find one if these just to scoot around town in.
Never even heard of these cars before coming across this channel
How many workers are needed to manufacture a Trabant?
Two. One folds, the other one glues.