Reminds me of the first time I saw a Trabant. We were on the autobahn at night in southern Germany somewhere in 1991. The slow lane was moving slower than usual plus there was a haze of blue-black smoke in the air. It didn't take too long to find the reason for the slow traffic and the cloud of pollution. It was a strange, dirty, kinda rusty and quite ugly car, one which I'd never seen before. It still had East German plates on it which was my first clue to its level of quality! :) LOL
They exist. Im from east germany were it was build. Here it is a iconic car and many people drive this and tune it up. A friend of me built an hayabusa engine with bigger Turbos in this car. It has reached over 250kmh on the Autobahn and goes 0-60 in 3,2 Sec. .Also, an Trabant with Honda engine (0-60 2,4sec) exist. And some other tuned "Rennpappen"(racecardboards, a Nickname of the Trabant )also. I am currently building an 2jz trabant with over 700hp and widebody (15-25cm wider fenders). Mine isn't a sleeper anymore after the restoration and tuning but the trabant from my friend is an ultimate sleeper which kills almost every stock Porsche.
I remember seeing some rather naff comedy film in the 90s which was based around the whole idea of some East German inventor modifying his Trabant into something that could get him over The Wall... basically putting something on the engine that made it ludicrously fast and economical, and jumping it over a ramp. Then becoming disillusioned with the west when everyone tried to steal his design for their own purposes, eventually trashing the mods and going home... very odd. Anyway, there's plenty of scope for wedging e.g. a Hayabusa motorcycle engine in there and making something that could, if not beat the 1000hp modified Mustangs, at least have a fighting chance against other more stock run-what-ya-brungs. Common mod for original Minis, Smart cars, Westfield/Caterham ultralights and the like.
Well, usually engines do loose some power over their lifespan, and no matter what you do, unless you completely rebuilt the engine you'll never get it up to the original hp again. So if it still has 25 of 26 that's outstanding.
In 1970 there was a double victory of two Trabants in the Monte Carlo Rally in the class of the cars up to 850 cc. The GDR-team was felicitated by Grace Kelly and Rainier. The Trabant was the overall weakest car with 46 HP and the spikes tyres were self-made. Nevertheless, the two Trabants won against the Minis and Fiats with bigger and more powerfull engines under heavy winter conditions.
@@michaelboyko5024 The story is true and proven and there's no place to make fun out of it! They took a weakened and rusted Trabant to falsify the crashtests with the aim of selling more new cars. Doing the tests correctly the Trabant was better than its western counterpart's!
Not having a seatbelt is a very important part of the weight reduction.And 50MPH was the speed limit on East-German country roads.No truely communist car would go faster.
@@michaelpielorz9710 I dont know where you got this speed limit number, but I was born in the GDR and in town we had 50kmh => 31.05 mph, outside town it was 100kmh => 62.1mph and on the Autobahn 120kmh => 75mph . Mom and Dad drove our Trabant 601 up to 60 on the countryroad and let me tell you the car has a stiff riggid case construction and the body on top is made of fibre inforced resin parts - in a crash there is nothing realy to reduce the impact force - even if it is a slow comi-car...seatbelt maybe is not a bad choice ;)
you know, trabant, simson and wartburg were all meant for easy fixing for the people of the GDR and every screw and every part was so well thought through, that most of it can be fixed in so little time, because you don't need to de-build the whole car.
When I was a teenager, we took a ride with my friends in a Trabant, and we were able to reach 90 km/h with 3 of us in the car. It had a stock engine. It definitely was an unforgettable experience to drive that thing. Especially off road.
@@thecow2756 not really, the stock 2 stroke engine could go 120km/h and even more in an ideal scenario. the one seen in the video is just poorly maintained, the engine is in poor condition and so is the transmission (hence why the guy is rebuilding the engine right now) plus the trabant was originally designed to run on leaded fuell, which i doubt he is using here, you can still get it at airports that allow vintage planes to start and land, you don't need a lot of it, just mix a little into the fuel mix and it'll run a lot smoother with fewer backfires.
John Doe I've seen them in the wild in East-Germany before the wall came down, and that as someone who lived in the Netherlands. One was allowed to visit family for events like holidays after all, as long as all the paperwork was in order. I've also seen them in Hungary as well though, just as much as having seen the Yugo in Yugoslavia (before that came tumbling down as well). ;)
@Ambrose Burnside You know what is also a nice vehicle? A DAF with variomatic automatic transmission, which is a seemless transmission that makes the car go as fast backwards as it can go backwards. It is a Dutch car and we used to race them backwards across the former Formula 1 circuit of Zandvoort. Great fun that was to watch.
I wonder if a more powerful engine could be squeezed under the hood. The body is light so it probably wouldn't take much power to get it moving. I doubt the stock transmission could take the extra power, and of course, a gas tank would have to be installed. A Trabant street rod, that would be an interesting vehicle. It would also be a little embarrassing to get blown off the road by a Trabant.
@@redstickham6394 If you put in a more powerful engine you'd also have to change a lot of the rest. Neither the suspension, nor the drive train or any other things were designed to work with a powerful engine. This car was basically built to drive in cities in a time when the only bigger vehicles were buses and lorries. Today it is totally unsafe. If some guy in a SUV hits you in your Trabbi you're fucked.
The golf cart would have hammered that Hungarian deathtrap, it's probably got a better power-weight than the Trabant (even if it's electric, those motors get a decent amount of horsepower)
@Tian kay It was the 1.1 Liter Volkswagen Polo engine, which was the second weakest car engine available in 1985. It had to be throttled down to 30 kW as it turned out to be far too strong for the rest of the Trabant. That car was a mess. In a NACP crash test it would get five tombstones instead of stars.
@@tristan6509 No, it was NOT recycled plastic, but a mixture of cotton and polyester resign - heavier and more expensive than sheet metal. Nevertheless rust was a severe problem on this car, as the frame was made from cheap steel with a more or less symbolic rust protection.
Well, perhaps modern ignition with CPU might help to wake up all the horsepower? You could have a switch on the dashboard Normal and Sports mode, or Caterpillar One and Caterpillar Two modes... :) good luck with your Trabant!
First thing first, design dual resonator exhausts for both cylinders, do a basic 2stroke cylinder "tuning" , reinforce everything connected to the crankshaft to prevent it exploding at 10000rpm , get dual carbs on it... U might get 50hp out of it :D At least DDR rally teams did back in the day :) Greetings from Hungary
Add resonators,cut the top of the cilynders to increase compression to almost diesel,leave the crank and bearings alone,they do fine.Make water cooled cilinder heads and add high speed ignition.Change the carb with a bigger one .This can easily have 140-160 Hp and weigh just 600 kg.Would eat a.lot of fuel thogh .Its made to be only 26 hp so that it eats less fuel .
That sounds like the time when I told my friend in the US that I had a Simson in Hungary as a teenager 25 years ago. I looked it up and it had 3.7 HP. Maaaan , he couldn't stop laughing. I had to mention the .7 , come on , that's almost 25% of the power it had :D He was riding a Hayabusa at the time and I had the Yamaha MT10
Maybe you don't know, but there existed racing Trabant in its time! Made 180 to 200 km/h and had a quite good road handling (would easily win against any US-car). I actually watched a race of that Trabants and was quite surprised. On a circuit with many curves and only one straight section, the Trabant were clearly faster than the Ford Mustangs due to much better handling!
you very likely talking about this: ruclips.net/video/lCDJngP9Sdc/видео.html was at the track back then. Fun too watch but to be honest, the M3 driver was very gentle with his car. Never the less, good driving by Wolfgang Ziegler. He won the championship in the lada-trabant series, so he knows the car very well
Josh Adamson He rather shouldnt put a rollcage there, it would be heavier than the whole car. The frame is literally made from fabric with a glue like thing and compressed together
The track time is not bad actually. A lot better than I would have expected. Cool video. :) Back in the day I thought the US did not allow these cars in due to the emissions and safety but glad they allowed a few after all.
I'm sorry I haven't laughed this hard in a long time... Now I remember why I subscribed to your Channel ...lol You both deserve a participation trophy 💓💓👍
Trabi is the best car ever!! Just looking at it brings so much joy, and everywhere you drive it, there must be a sea of smiles (once the smoke clears). Thanks for making my day with this awesome video!
There is a guy in Poland who put an Audi TT engine in his Trabant. Because it’s so small and light it beats Porsches and other cars in accelerating. It’s lovely to see this as well from my country, Hungary. We had an estate version of these when I was really small. 😀
A sub-30s 0-50mph time with only 25hp is pretty damn good, particularly as you probably weren't revving it absolutely as hard as technically possible to avoid blowing it up (I bet it can hit at least 50 in third; they were _allegedly_ good for just about 60 in top when new, and that's about what I'd estimate for that much power vs those lacking aerodynamics). Must be even lighter than it looks...
It depends. If you go against wind its only about 55 MPH. So 49 MPH is not so bad at all at first try. Not mentioning that, this short distance is not enough to accelerate up to the top speed. This is not an imperialist racecar.
aaahhhhh...not just 100kph. Back in the days when I was a child my father and some other guys were racing on the eastern german autobahn. Some of them where even doing 115kph (around 72mph). That was a great advantage when you raced another Trabant which was just doing 112kph. But even though, please keep in mind that the Trabant's maximum speed is around that value american people are ALLOWED to go on an interstate. :-D
OMG, this is hilarious. Back in early 1990’s spent some time working in former East Germany. The car which we were given to use was a Trabant. Fueled by premix gas from the pump, paper machae body, fuel level checked with a stick, etc, etc.... And an absolute blast to drive around. For weekends we rode around in the plant owners 500 series Benz. For speed it’s the Benz, for absolute fun it’s the Trabant.
I remember this car from when I was in Hungary. We ran out of gas and I'm sitting there thinking "this will be fun on some back road in the middle of nowhere" and then the driver goes "dont worry I just need to open the reserve tank". On the way to the gas station he was telling me that you must shut off the valve before filling the reserve tank or it will drain into your main tank and if you run out again you will not have any reserve.... I guess it happened to him once before.
That was the greatest Trabant video ever!! I actually remember it growing up in communist Poland 1980s as a dream of many people those days. It was a first car one off my class mates
If (or when) I get a Trabant to modify, I have already decided what engine is going in it. A Wartburg engine. It's still very communist and smoky, but it would be way faster and sound quite good.
Hey man! Funny stuff, but you know that you could actually get Trabis in Hungary that would make the Mustang owners cry, right? With a Hayabusa engine i.e.? By the way in your comments you mention you would put a Wartburg engine in another one if you had, like a "tuned one". They actually made late models in 1990s with 1.1 VW Polo engines, that went into the Wartburgs as well. But if you look up on RUclips, you'll find all kinds of solutions. But the orig engine can also kick some ass, they did use these cars in Rally, you know. And there is the next point. Actually, even if the car is tall, the center of its gravity is so low that it is very difficult to roll it over. You can get it to lift one wheel off the ground relatively easy, but it is not at all easy to roll it. Those goons were wrong in their assessment!
Hello! Congats to the Trabi! As far as I can remember there were some slightly tweaked ones what can reached even 90-95 Km/h. Average good conditions can run 80-85 max. And not for a prolonged time... Keep it up, it is a living peace of history. :)
Around ten jears ago my best friend purchased a Trabbi in Leipzig. we drove 530km (330 miles) back to our home town, the brakes were in a horrible condition and we overtook two times other cars in this time!😂 but this journey was the most fun we ever had!👌
DarkWolf Gaming LOL the frame would bend under the load of a V8 engine even if we're talking about lightweight small block V8s. Trabants are basically made from paper 😂
I think it would be actually very interesting to see what a Trabant is actually capable of with enough modifications. I've seen what highly motivated (and talented) people can do with car engines.... Certainly that engine can produce more than 30 hp.
0:27 _Ahh-!!_ I'm running! I'm running!! CLASSIC SERPERNTINE MANEUVOR! SERPENTINE! SERPENTINE! _SERPENTIIIIINE!!!_ Bwahaha, I was expecting a sleeper here, but oh, well. You turned some heads and rolled some eyes, and that was enough.
jesus guys, its mechanical thing. Owner just have to do some stuff to bring power back. Trabant engines were renewed at around 50K Km. After that you had to rebore and change pistons and stuff. Doesent matter how old it is, its just about how do you care about it. And i am from former comunistic country so i know Trabants very well :)
It is a carburetted 2-Stoke, you literally can´t turbo this with any sence. The Pressure would push the fuel back into the fuel tank. It would be possible to supercharge it, though. Even if you would need to move the carburettor to another spot in the engine to have enough space for the Supercharger and this would mean, that you have to have a Fuel Pump, which this car hasn´t...
After the Iron Curtain fell, all of the people of the Sowjet Union and the GDR came over to us in the western part of Germany in their Trabbis. They were doing barely 140 km/h (ca. 90 miles) and we all had big BMWs or Mercedes going at least 200 or maybe even 250km/h (140 to160 mph). A friend of mine had a new BMW 750i and used to "play" a game we called "Trabbischaukeln" roughly "Rocking the Trabbis". Whenever he saw a Trabbi on the Autobahn, he went as fast as he could and passed the Trabbi pretty close, which resulted in the Trabbi rocking from side to side pretty badly. To be honest, it was pretty stupid and really dangerous, but we were young, had a lot of money and didn´t really care about all that. Sorry to all of you Trabbi drivers out there we rocked.
*Mustang driver does burnout for little cloud of smoke*
*Trabbi driver simply revs the engine for big cloud of smoke*
haha
Reminds me of the first time I saw a Trabant. We were on the autobahn at night in southern Germany somewhere in 1991. The slow lane was moving slower than usual plus there was a haze of blue-black smoke in the air. It didn't take too long to find the reason for the slow traffic and the cloud of pollution. It was a strange, dirty, kinda rusty and quite ugly car, one which I'd never seen before. It still had East German plates on it which was my first clue to its level of quality! :) LOL
@@williamfluit6198 am I the only one who thinks they look really good
@@gabrielcooper1248 I think you're alone. :)
@@williamfluit6198 so are you :) nobody replied to either
@@gabrielcooper1248 actually, I too think they look nice, so there are at least two of us.
The world needs a sleeper Trabant.
watcbd nope, a clean is more valuable with a 26hp engine
*I messed up I typed cc accidently
In my city I few times saw trabant with stripped interior, racing saets and wide tires. But It could have a stock engine, idk.
They exist. Im from east germany were it was build. Here it is a iconic car and many people drive this and tune it up. A friend of me built an hayabusa engine with bigger Turbos in this car. It has reached over 250kmh on the Autobahn and goes 0-60 in 3,2 Sec. .Also, an Trabant with Honda engine (0-60 2,4sec) exist. And some other tuned "Rennpappen"(racecardboards, a Nickname of the Trabant )also. I am currently building an 2jz trabant with over 700hp and widebody (15-25cm wider fenders). Mine isn't a sleeper anymore after the restoration and tuning but the trabant from my friend is an ultimate sleeper which kills almost every stock Porsche.
every trabant is a sleeper. they're all sleeping very deeply
Try googling 'Wabant', real eastern block modding.
I bet everyone thought you had a trick up your sleeve until they saw you run, then they were like "Oh.. welll..." lol.
Jake The Snake Productions they thought it was a sleeper
well they thought right.. it is a real sleeper.. :P
KvAt, it walks the strip
Thank you all for making me laugh.
I remember seeing some rather naff comedy film in the 90s which was based around the whole idea of some East German inventor modifying his Trabant into something that could get him over The Wall... basically putting something on the engine that made it ludicrously fast and economical, and jumping it over a ramp. Then becoming disillusioned with the west when everyone tried to steal his design for their own purposes, eventually trashing the mods and going home... very odd.
Anyway, there's plenty of scope for wedging e.g. a Hayabusa motorcycle engine in there and making something that could, if not beat the 1000hp modified Mustangs, at least have a fighting chance against other more stock run-what-ya-brungs. Common mod for original Minis, Smart cars, Westfield/Caterham ultralights and the like.
"I have 25 horsepower, you might win!"
lol xD
Randy Mack the trabant gave 26hp
Well, usually engines do loose some power over their lifespan, and no matter what you do, unless you completely rebuilt the engine you'll never get it up to the original hp again. So if it still has 25 of 26 that's outstanding.
i don't think this guy has leaded fuell.
WE have 25 bhp, WE might win!
In Germany, the hardest rally drivers ride trabant. They even turn the lights off in the dark, just to save some Watts of power.
damn that was a close race. you almost had him
Levente Deli Totally agreed, he was like,
I thought he beat him
Just another quarter mile....
Majdnem megfogta báttya
(trabant 26s + ford ~11s) / 2 = they both did 18.5s
This isn't YOUR Trabant, it OUR Trabant.
travos k
Actually back then it was easier to create(from scratch)/modify and use own car.
We are always watching, kommrade.
Da tovarisch.
Lol
Ah, man of culture aswell
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Cotton is a carbon based fiber, so technically that Trabant has a carbon fiber body.
I still haven't reached the end of the track I loved that part😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
Its made of steel, its a myth bro i live Not far away from where They were build her in germany
@@bubatzpirat396 he means the body panels not chassis, chassis is steel
@@Fred_the_1996 they arent made out of cotton either
@@Fred_the_1996 these things still rust through , iv seen many of them in wilderness
A second for each horsepower
BakedThePotato nah, it took a bit too long for that.
@@fordsquared537 O N E T O O N E R A T I O
Nah too fast
Probably a second for every @1/4 hp
@@XxmatixX6videosdiariosdenadav one to one ratio, one horsepower for every tonne
In 1970 there was a double victory of two Trabants in the Monte Carlo Rally in the class of the cars up to 850 cc. The GDR-team was felicitated by Grace Kelly and Rainier. The Trabant was the overall weakest car with 46 HP and the spikes tyres were self-made. Nevertheless, the two Trabants won against the Minis and Fiats with bigger and more powerfull engines under heavy winter conditions.
I was felicitated by Grace Kelly in 1956. She was surprisingly good for a white girl.
soaringvulture interesting
A battle so small no one gave a shit
No doubt Stazi and KGB did their best to help them win! Kidding
@@michaelboyko5024 The story is true and proven and there's no place to make fun out of it! They took a weakened and rusted Trabant to falsify the crashtests with the aim of selling more new cars. Doing the tests correctly the Trabant was better than its western counterpart's!
lol I love the contrast of the tryharding Mustang with slicks battling a stock Trabant. Amazing. That 49 MPH trap speed tho!
I am pretty sure he didn't need to put the belt on for that speed...
generaldwarf The sestbelt might save his life if he hits a squirrel.
Not having a seatbelt is a very important part of the weight reduction.And 50MPH was the speed limit on East-German country roads.No truely communist car would go faster.
@@michaelpielorz9710 I dont know where you got this speed limit number, but I was born in the GDR and in town we had 50kmh => 31.05 mph, outside town it was 100kmh => 62.1mph and on the Autobahn 120kmh => 75mph .
Mom and Dad drove our Trabant 601 up to 60 on the countryroad and let me tell you the car has a stiff riggid case construction and the body on top is made of fibre inforced resin parts - in a crash there is nothing realy to reduce the impact force - even if it is a slow comi-car...seatbelt maybe is not a bad choice ;)
@@michaelpielorz9710 thats wrong.
Lucky for you that it rained, only 2 children got asthma that night
thebetatester800 😂😂
XD XD XD
Übertreib' Mal nicht
I love the smell of 2 stroke smoke
Simon Hahn ^^
It's like the 86 from Initial D except it goes as fast as it looks instead of surprising people.
Its a sleeper except it's slower than people expect
I thought the entire 6 minutes 33 seconds would be the car's pass.
LMAO
30 seconds at 50 mph?
3 hours at 5 mechanics per hour.
you know, trabant, simson and wartburg were all meant for easy fixing for the people of the GDR and every screw and every part was so well thought through, that most of it can be fixed in so little time, because you don't need to de-build the whole car.
@@karlobrutalo425 Endlich Leute die Ahnung haben!👍🏻
@@karlobrutalo425 It was going to be even better thought through if it didn't need to be fixed that often :D
@@Sesarrbg if u treat it correctly, you don't need to repair that often ;)
@@Sesarrbg mine is working well for over 30 years.
When I was a teenager, we took a ride with my friends in a Trabant, and we were able to reach 90 km/h with 3 of us in the car. It had a stock engine. It definitely was an unforgettable experience to drive that thing. Especially off road.
Laszlo Attila it must have had the 1.1 vw engine some of these came with
@@thecow2756
not really, the stock 2 stroke engine could go 120km/h and even more in an ideal scenario.
the one seen in the video is just poorly maintained, the engine is in poor condition and so is the transmission (hence why the guy is rebuilding the engine right now)
plus the trabant was originally designed to run on leaded fuell, which i doubt he is using here, you can still get it at airports that allow vintage planes to start and land, you don't need a lot of it, just mix a little into the fuel mix and it'll run a lot smoother with fewer backfires.
what bracket would you run that in> ? i mean if you could pull consistent 28's like that
Glad to see your comment here Sir Ichiban
You know you’re in the right part of youtube when you see Ichiban comments
haha! badass.
A horse?
Huffy bracket?
Hungarian license plate number on the Trabant. :) Greetings from Hungary buddy! :)
on a german car lel
John Doe I've seen them in the wild in East-Germany before the wall came down, and that as someone who lived in the Netherlands. One was allowed to visit family for events like holidays after all, as long as all the paperwork was in order. I've also seen them in Hungary as well though, just as much as having seen the Yugo in Yugoslavia (before that came tumbling down as well). ;)
@Ambrose Burnside You know what is also a nice vehicle? A DAF with variomatic automatic transmission, which is a seemless transmission that makes the car go as fast backwards as it can go backwards.
It is a Dutch car and we used to race them backwards across the former Formula 1 circuit of Zandvoort. Great fun that was to watch.
I wonder if a more powerful engine could be squeezed under the hood. The body is light so it probably wouldn't take much power to get it moving. I doubt the stock transmission could take the extra power, and of course, a gas tank would have to be installed. A Trabant street rod, that would be an interesting vehicle. It would also be a little embarrassing to get blown off the road by a Trabant.
@@redstickham6394 If you put in a more powerful engine you'd also have to change a lot of the rest. Neither the suspension, nor the drive train or any other things were designed to work with a powerful engine.
This car was basically built to drive in cities in a time when the only bigger vehicles were buses and lorries. Today it is totally unsafe. If some guy in a SUV hits you in your Trabbi you're fucked.
You should have tried racing that golf cart back there. (1:58)
The golf cart would have hammered that Hungarian deathtrap, it's probably got a better power-weight than the Trabant (even if it's electric, those motors get a decent amount of horsepower)
@@cw3040
first off the trabant is east german.
secondly i kinda doubt that, the trabant is easily the best car in it's weight class.
It's actually East German.
@@redstickham6394 His particular example was imported from Hungary though.
Haloid Kusnetsov
Yes, but they were all BUILT in East Germany.
"Sir, you were the first driver to be lapped on a drag strip. Congratulations."
Of course, the trabant had a 16 valve version, 4 to serve the two cylinder engine and 12 in the radio!
bad joke, the trabant has a 2 stroke engine.
@Tian kay It was the 1.1 Liter Volkswagen Polo engine, which was the second weakest car engine available in 1985.
It had to be throttled down to 30 kW as it turned out to be far too strong for the rest of the Trabant.
That car was a mess. In a NACP crash test it would get five tombstones instead of stars.
@KvAT Until.1990 that car was sold at 2,000 to 10,000 US$ - depending on the exchange rate ("real" or "official GDR")
@@norbertfleck812 well it's made of recycled plastic, what do you expect?
@@tristan6509 No, it was NOT recycled plastic, but a mixture of cotton and polyester resign - heavier and more expensive than sheet metal.
Nevertheless rust was a severe problem on this car, as the frame was made from cheap steel with a more or less symbolic rust protection.
You should redo these runs with your new, properly working engine, just to see how much of a difference it makes.
I'm betting he'll pick up a few seconds after the complete rebuild
Well, perhaps modern ignition with CPU might help to wake up all the horsepower? You could have a switch on the dashboard Normal and Sports mode, or Caterpillar One and Caterpillar Two modes... :) good luck with your Trabant!
Dude, I'm not sure, but you might have overdone the oil in your gasoline mix
Nope! Its normal, its Trabant!! :D
I think it's still too much oil. I have some experience with two-strokes on the street. It should smoke, for sure. But not that much.
Well, he's giving it the beans, can't you see? :) That's why the trail of smoke...
It’s to prolong the life of the engine. It reduces the wear on the internal parts.
Well, 30 years ago the air in Berlin was a mixture between blue and grey, thanks to the Trabant twostroke...
First thing first, design dual resonator exhausts for both cylinders, do a basic 2stroke cylinder "tuning" , reinforce everything connected to the crankshaft to prevent it exploding at 10000rpm , get dual carbs on it... U might get 50hp out of it :D At least DDR rally teams did back in the day :) Greetings from Hungary
Or put the 3 cylinder Wartburg engine from the 353 in it. There are some companys that design all the parts you need for this engine swap ;)
Sanyey Rally Trabis have round about 50Horsepower.... And the racetrack trabis... Have 70-80horsepower... And Sprints from 0-100 in under 8s.....
Add resonators,cut the top of the cilynders to increase compression to almost diesel,leave the crank and bearings alone,they do fine.Make water cooled cilinder heads and add high speed ignition.Change the carb with a bigger one .This can easily have 140-160 Hp and weigh just 600 kg.Would eat a.lot of fuel thogh .Its made to be only 26 hp so that it eats less fuel .
"Everybody else is doing it wrong." xD
Greeting from eastern Germany, formerly known as GDR, where this baby came from.
How do you double the value of a lada?
Fill up the tank
Ora nge no no. You put lada INSIDE other lada. Get double value lada.
Your are incorrect, guys. The correct variation was about the Zaporozhets. A Lada was a success🏆💪
Lada is a god tier car compared to stock trabant
The Lada is an actual car that you can drive without thinking about everything you're doing, unlike this contraption.
That communist joke. It broke my humour. Now I can never laugh again.
You can fix it with some Flex Tape.
He can only laugh together
0:25
"I'm not sure what it is but I love it"
Americans in a nutshell.
Yes
According to legends, he still hasn't reached the finish! 😂😂😂
Respect and high five from Hungary! 👊🤚🇭🇺
NO! YOU HAVE 26 HP!
Gergő Kovács Having the headlights on probably takes 1HP haha
I thought that was the sports edition only.
26HP when new. Once it’s run in, 25 seems legit.
That sounds like the time when I told my friend in the US that I had a Simson in Hungary as a teenager 25 years ago. I looked it up and it had 3.7 HP. Maaaan , he couldn't stop laughing. I had to mention the .7 , come on , that's almost 25% of the power it had :D He was riding a Hayabusa at the time and I had the Yamaha MT10
You need a mini soviet flag and the soviet anthem blasting on your stereo all the way down the track!
the trabant was east german, not soviet.
It doesn't have a stereo...
DER TRABANT WAR EIN OST DEUTSCHES AUTO, KEIN RUSSISCHES
The east-german-anthem has a really great melody. Check it out when you don't belive me!
@@ailst agree. East germany buddy. Hier wo vodka wie in Russland fließt und wir Mopeds haben die schneller fahren dürfen als alle anderen
Ezaz mutasd meg az amcsi benzinfalóknak mi is az igazi teljesítmény! :D Nagyon szép a Trabi és a hangja meseszép!
Szerintem ha ezt angolul írtad volna akkor még el is értél volna az írásoddal pár embert. ;) (Rajtam kívül).
Nem a külföldieknek szántam plusz nem tudok angolul szóval az kilőve! :D
Fordítok
Rough Translation: Show it to those American what real performance is! :D The Trabant is beautiful and the sound is wonderful.
Egy Magyar Trabantról magyarul írjunk :) Tényleg szép a hangja, szép a kiállása is a Trabinak. Nekem is van egy :)
Nem is lenne igazi trabant ha nem lenne ott a magyar rendszam is!
A glorious revolutionary day at the race track
Maybe you don't know, but there existed racing Trabant in its time! Made 180 to 200 km/h and had a quite good road handling (would easily win against any US-car). I actually watched a race of that Trabants and was quite surprised. On a circuit with many curves and only one straight section, the Trabant were clearly faster than the Ford Mustangs due to much better handling!
you very likely talking about this: ruclips.net/video/lCDJngP9Sdc/видео.html was at the track back then. Fun too watch but to be honest, the M3 driver was very gentle with his car. Never the less, good driving by Wolfgang Ziegler. He won the championship in the lada-trabant series, so he knows the car very well
I died when he told, i cant do a bournout, but can do smoke and pumped the gas and filled all the place with smoke ... LOL
Put in a roll cage, do some weight reduction, and put on some hella lights. 👌then you'll have a rally machine 😂
Josh Adamson He rather shouldnt put a rollcage there, it would be heavier than the whole car. The frame is literally made from fabric with a glue like thing and compressed together
Erwin Schrödinger Yes i know, i just stated that te frame is lighter than a rollcage and that its made of wool and resin
Jakub Hobl the frame is actually steel! The panels are resin.
The only weight to lose is between the steering wheel and the driver's seat
Maybe just get a Trabant 800RS 800cc 80hp 600kg a real beast rally car
I grew up in Germany, east Germany! I want another Trabant bad
Eddie&Katja Berberich what was East Germany like?
Ich schätze, die sind immer noch schwer zu bekommen.
@@CyberlightFG Denkste, wa? Ich bin aus Nordwest-NRW und hab keine 50km von hier einen für 800€ gekauft!
@@Handyman1199 Ich spare lieber auf einen Abarth.
I can sell you one for 1000 euros
The track time is not bad actually. A lot better than I would have expected. Cool video. :) Back in the day I thought the US did not allow these cars in due to the emissions and safety but glad they allowed a few after all.
I'm sorry I haven't laughed this hard in a long time... Now I remember why I subscribed to your Channel ...lol
You both deserve a participation trophy 💓💓👍
dude, your Trabi needs a tuneup, you can do 20 sec quarters
Michael Annen this was did before in Hungary with a bmw engine and the chassis bendt because the air resistance
Easily
I love how enthusiastic the guy in the booth is!
"I got it in Florida, it's from Hungary" "From Walmart?" Haha i died!
Trabi is the best car ever!! Just looking at it brings so much joy, and everywhere you drive it, there must be a sea of smiles (once the smoke clears). Thanks for making my day with this awesome video!
0:16 looks like Mr Bean is there too
Made in DDR. I remember East Berlin early morning in 1989 year. Fog and smog in the air. 😁😍🤩Best regards from Poland.
3:46 it looks like a sightseeing tour and not a drag race
Just found this channel. One of my favorites instantly. Keep up the good work.
Hello from Germany, i love Trabant 😉👍
There is a guy in Poland who put an Audi TT engine in his Trabant. Because it’s so small and light it beats Porsches and other cars in accelerating.
It’s lovely to see this as well from my country, Hungary. We had an estate version of these when I was really small. 😀
“I’m not sure what that is but I love it”
Hilarious, love your sense of humor, cheers!
"Dude I almost had you"😅😅😅
you're actually doing gods work bringing a stock trabant and not a sleeper, so that sleepers are more impressive when they actually appear
A sub-30s 0-50mph time with only 25hp is pretty damn good, particularly as you probably weren't revving it absolutely as hard as technically possible to avoid blowing it up (I bet it can hit at least 50 in third; they were _allegedly_ good for just about 60 in top when new, and that's about what I'd estimate for that much power vs those lacking aerodynamics). Must be even lighter than it looks...
Surely your run was the safest I've seen in my life.
2:22 The Trabant should max out at 62 MPH (100KPH) on level paved road
It depends. If you go against wind its only about 55 MPH.
So 49 MPH is not so bad at all at first try. Not mentioning that, this short distance is not enough to accelerate up to the top speed. This is not an imperialist racecar.
Yeah but that will take a while and also depend on it having all its original power.
aaahhhhh...not just 100kph. Back in the days when I was a child my father and some other guys were racing on the eastern german autobahn. Some of them where even doing 115kph (around 72mph). That was a great advantage when you raced another Trabant which was just doing 112kph. But even though, please keep in mind that the Trabant's maximum speed is around that value american people are ALLOWED to go on an interstate. :-D
OMG, this is hilarious. Back in early 1990’s spent some time working in former East Germany. The car which we were given to use was a Trabant. Fueled by premix gas from the pump, paper machae body, fuel level checked with a stick, etc, etc.... And an absolute blast to drive around.
For weekends we rode around in the plant owners 500 series Benz. For speed it’s the Benz, for absolute fun it’s the Trabant.
0:43 turns red as soon as he starts taking about communism
Seriously so happy I came across your channel, love your videos and your personality 😆
That's what it takes for a mustang to win
Mopar or no car
SilverStone yeee. My brother owns a 1967 Plymouth Barracuda notchback. It’s freakin lit duuude
"aah hear that roar" - love it :D
At gateway, you don't have to worry about giving the people asthma. The steel mill already did that to us.
I remember this car from when I was in Hungary. We ran out of gas and I'm sitting there thinking "this will be fun on some back road in the middle of nowhere" and then the driver goes "dont worry I just need to open the reserve tank". On the way to the gas station he was telling me that you must shut off the valve before filling the reserve tank or it will drain into your main tank and if you run out again you will not have any reserve.... I guess it happened to him once before.
Of course most trabants are in Hungary.
Wait a minute I was born there... I want one now
I genuinely wanna see a sleeper Trabant, like a LS swapped one and a manual in it or something lol. Make it run 9’s!!!
I guessed about 23 seconds, so with a good launch, that would've been close
That was the greatest Trabant video ever!! I actually remember it growing up in communist Poland 1980s as a dream of many people those days. It was a first car one off my class mates
Have you considered modding the trabi out? I.e 800cc cylinders machined cyclinder head, custom exhaust? All is possible!
Yes, but I would only do that if I got a second Trabant. I don't want to forget what the original is like
Aging Wheels I agree, but a Trabant 800RS looks like a lot of fun! Especially with all that 2 stroke powerband
If (or when) I get a Trabant to modify, I have already decided what engine is going in it. A Wartburg engine. It's still very communist and smoky, but it would be way faster and sound quite good.
Please don't! Even in Hungary (I live here), we have very few stock Trabants. Parts are very hard to find, so PLEASE keep it stock!
Then buy a new one :D Here in Hungary you can buy one for around 300 usd.
The more i see of this car the more i want one!
4:29 It didn't came from hungary it came from the GDR (German Democratic Republic)
That joke about the tires was the best. GG man
Hey man! Funny stuff, but you know that you could actually get Trabis in Hungary that would make the Mustang owners cry, right? With a Hayabusa engine i.e.? By the way in your comments you mention you would put a Wartburg engine in another one if you had, like a "tuned one". They actually made late models in 1990s with 1.1 VW Polo engines, that went into the Wartburgs as well. But if you look up on RUclips, you'll find all kinds of solutions. But the orig engine can also kick some ass, they did use these cars in Rally, you know. And there is the next point. Actually, even if the car is tall, the center of its gravity is so low that it is very difficult to roll it over. You can get it to lift one wheel off the ground relatively easy, but it is not at all easy to roll it. Those goons were wrong in their assessment!
My father flipped one of these. On flat road. With all of us in it. Trust me, they knew what they were talking about.
I knew a guy who drove Trabant races in the GDR.
The engines are tuned up to 65 hp and they did up to 102 mph. 😁
2stroke 2cylinder XD
Without a doubt the most entertaining channel on RUclips! (New subscriber).
I'm laughing so hard when the red light shines on his face while he talks about communism in a communist car 😂
Hello! Congats to the Trabi! As far as I can remember there were some slightly tweaked ones what can reached even 90-95 Km/h. Average good conditions can run 80-85 max. And not for a prolonged time... Keep it up, it is a living peace of history. :)
Well i mean, you're still faster than the peel p50
The other guy probably thought he is gonna be crushed by a mighty sleeper lol
Trabant is originally from gdr - german democrate republic
Bunker Sieben du meinst, wir nennen es DDR 😁
Bunker Sieben
26 seconds in the .25 mile...hhmmm...prob better than a late 70s chevy chevette with 3 cylinder ICE....then again...
Der gute alte Trabi.. Den Geruch kann man wirklich vermissen.
In east Germany the Trabant is called cardboard
I bet you can guess why
Around ten jears ago my best friend purchased a Trabbi in Leipzig. we drove 530km (330 miles) back to our home town, the brakes were in a horrible condition and we overtook two times other cars in this time!😂 but this journey was the most fun we ever had!👌
0:31 what was that red thing
Almat Sailaukhan a tomato
"Oh wow! cool , a sleeper Trabant"
"Nevermind "
This needs an engine swap
Kawasaki 750 triple.
DarkWolf Gaming LOL the frame would bend under the load of a V8 engine even if we're talking about lightweight small block V8s. Trabants are basically made from paper 😂
On a long enough timeline...
K20
The Spoons needs a dodge demon super charger on a V8, that’ll give you about 800hp if I’m not wrong.
1:29 unlike the country where this came from there's not much policing here : )
I love all the slight commie jokes
"I have 25 horsepower, you might win."
Damn i thought it was a sleeper
I think it would be actually very interesting to see what a Trabant is actually capable of with enough modifications. I've seen what highly motivated (and talented) people can do with car engines.... Certainly that engine can produce more than 30 hp.
Trabant has a Hungarian licence plate
0:27 _Ahh-!!_ I'm running! I'm running!! CLASSIC SERPERNTINE MANEUVOR! SERPENTINE! SERPENTINE! _SERPENTIIIIINE!!!_
Bwahaha, I was expecting a sleeper here, but oh, well. You turned some heads and rolled some eyes, and that was enough.
trabants do 75 mph ..urs must have some problem
Krasimir Dragomirov maybe when they were New
Its old And simple car so it loose a lot
His car has many problems, such as the windshield wipers sit in the middle of the windshield.
Krasimir Dragomirov it's
old
jesus guys, its mechanical thing. Owner just have to do some stuff to bring power back. Trabant engines were renewed at around 50K Km. After that you had to rebore and change pistons and stuff. Doesent matter how old it is, its just about how do you care about it. And i am from former comunistic country so i know Trabants very well :)
Do they?
could not stop laffing one of the worlds most ++++++ cars
have fun thank you
Put a turbo in it!
It is a carburetted 2-Stoke, you literally can´t turbo this with any sence. The Pressure would push the fuel back into the fuel tank. It would be possible to supercharge it, though. Even if you would need to move the carburettor to another spot in the engine to have enough space for the Supercharger and this would mean, that you have to have a Fuel Pump, which this car hasn´t...
I like the humor of this, drag racing a Trabant. Lots of smoke, not from the tires, but the exhaust and very little power.
Good old german democratic Republic Work.. ist lifes forever..
ITS manufactured in Zwickau, east Germany 😉
Good car. 3 million satisfied customers can not be wrong.
Put a vr6 in it, thats how we do in germany
After the Iron Curtain fell, all of the people of the Sowjet Union and the GDR came over to us in the western part of Germany in their Trabbis. They were doing barely 140 km/h (ca. 90 miles) and we all had big BMWs or Mercedes going at least 200 or maybe even 250km/h (140 to160 mph). A friend of mine had a new BMW 750i and used to "play" a game we called "Trabbischaukeln" roughly "Rocking the Trabbis". Whenever he saw a Trabbi on the Autobahn, he went as fast as he could and passed the Trabbi pretty close, which resulted in the Trabbi rocking from side to side pretty badly.
To be honest, it was pretty stupid and really dangerous, but we were young, had a lot of money and didn´t really care about all that. Sorry to all of you Trabbi drivers out there we rocked.