Driving Berlin in a Trabant - The East German Communist Car
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- Опубликовано: 3 окт 2024
- Happy New Year from JayEmm on Cars! We've just been to Berlin and I fulfilled a lifelong ambition of driving the town in a Trabi - the official car of East Germany.
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I'm 19 and I've always wanted one of these cars. Since last week I've been lucky enough to own one in the UK! They're a lot of fun. Great video by the way
CrabManiac I'd agree with you, it's a fantastic little car. It's definitely on my wish list.
Ironically you are as old as it took to get one of those over there...
@@X8X8X8X8X8X8X8X8X8X 10 years was the normal waiting time. Most of the time you parents or grandparents ordered a Trabant by the time you had "Jugendweihe" at 14 if they had enough money.
I would love to have one by my self, i am saving at this moment to buy one but i will get it only as a second car to drive in the summer :) I am really looking forward to it. The cool thing is that you can repair everything by your self, everything is very simple and because of this you can drive this car forever.
@@kuessebrama
What a mess of a country...
3:24 Yes, the later Trabant models could be fitted with an AM radio.
Also, the amount of Trabants still running on 6V is pretty low. Most of them have been converted to 12V.
Also also... You're german sounds pretty authentic to be honest.
+Justus Moritz Thankyou ;)
This video could have been titled " The Travelling Travails of Two Englishmen Abroad ", or, perhaps, more accurately, " Two Hicks From The Sticks Titting About Abroad ".
+MrKeyboardCommando Oh I like both those titles.
I'm delighted they meet with your approval.🤪
Jay the type of guy that would..... Wait, wrong channel.
at least your comment doesn't get lost in 3000-odd here!
Trey Quattro one day, hopefully.
I dunno. The commenting at "the other channel" is out of control. It must be bots. But yeah, hopefully more subs and commenters at this channel
Pretty fitting you drove that on a street named after karl marx
Ok, concerning the "historic registration" or "H-Kennzeichen" as we call it, the authorities are not as strict with the registered cars beeing completely original as you may think. On many vintage car meetups you see cars that are modified in the way you described, just because some parts are not available in their original form or are just unpractical to run in today's world. As long as you don't do crazy modifications (for example very strange bodykits, as some people did with the Trabant), you should be very fine.
Excellent work chaps. Had a shit new year's Day and the smiles this gave are very much appreciated.
My two favorite slightly unhinged Brits lurching about Berlin in high style indeed. Very amusing!
Happy New Year from sunny LA to you both!
+T. Howard Thanks! I think I'd rather be in a Vette on Sunset though...
How is LA? Are the fires sorted now?
JayEmm on Cars: The Thomas fire is now 92% contained, still smoldering in places but with the increasing humidity it is nearly over. About 440 sq. miles of hills and canyons burnt. We have had almost no measurable precipitation here since spring 2017. Such is life in Southern California! That and the occasional earthquake...
+T. Howard Glad it's being sorted but devastated to see it happening. Burbank is my spiritual second home
JayEmm on Cars: Thanks for your concern; from a CA native it is appreciated.
BTW, I live in Santa Monica, (incidentally the home of many expat Brits). My house is about three blocks from the beach and Pacific Coast Highway (please don't hate me, haha!)
+T. Howard Grabbing a Fro Yo and walking down 3rd St is one of my favourite things. I think you may have a branch of Stout burger there too now?
Lucky man indeed!
Great start to the new year, great video, thanks!
During the 80s in the GDR my mother raised both me and my sister on her own. While having a job! And a Trabi!
To me that sounds quite progressive in hindsight
That was cool,Berlin is fantastic.....
Happy new year guys👍
I still love that sound of that 2-stroke engine!
I’ve done this with some colleagues - had 8 cars in 2 convoys was awesome -
Will you do a Polski Fiat 126p in Poland next time maybe? Or a Lada 1200 or 1500 in some former East-European country? Or a Skoda 110 or 120?
+donphobos We would love to, or the Yugo
JayEmm on Cars need to see this
My old man was given a 126 in lieu of payment for a job in about 1991. It has not long been driven from northern England to Berlin and back to see the war come down. It was missing a front seat as the owner had a small bed set up in it.
It was the soft top version. My day cut the top frame off it and we took it to bike meets, where he taught me to drive, about age 11. If you can drive something of that vintage (about 20 plus years old then), with that type of power, or lack of, you can drive anything.
I have learned to drive on a Wartburg 353W Tourist. 3-cylinder, 2-stroke, 1-liter with 50 hp. It was an interesting vehicle, handling and general operation was much different to modern day cars.
donphobos lol, you were spoilt compared to me. Different times. My first car i owned was a 1991 ford escort van, iirc 1.3l with all of about 50bhp. It was great actually. Nothing went wrong with it, nothing to go wrong, and it was built like a tank. metal front and rear bumpers, which a friend of mine ran into the back of In a rainstorm one day. Mine was fine apart from rear van doors didn't quite lined up afterwards, but still functioned fine. her fiat punto, however, was destroyed.
20 years on from the Escort, i moan about my late 2015 car (GTC) cos of tiny niggles. I'm getting old and spoilt.
My GTC was built in Poland, even though we have a Astra car plant 30 miles from my house. Though that only does the 5 door.
Great video. I see that you have figured out the ventilation by the end of the video. Winter driving was a constant fight with fogging up, I remember from my childhood :-)
What a wonderful video! Really enjoyed that, thank you
4 years later and I’m back on this video whilst looking to buy one for a trip to Berlin from Worcestershire and back, that will be a task n a half
It's interesting how we have become so trained in the ways of modern cars. Nobody thinks about driving. That's a complement to modern designs, and yet when put in a vehicle that requires some forward planning you are reminded how much has been forgotten. Although the Trabi was old even when it was new, this was how cars used to be. They had a high workload, there was no infotainment until the Blaupunkt revolution, you had to be mindful of things like the gear you were in and it took time and experience to learn to move it along smoothly.
I expect with a few more hours in that combi you'd be trundling along like a pro.
Brilliant! I'm seeing all the locations you come across in Len Deigton's 'Bernard Samson' novels.
Happy new year boys. What a great idea. I'm going to look into doing a similar trip having seen this video!
+Iain MacKenzie We are running a trip to Berlin with Magnitude this year, join us!
Good stuff, guys! I am from Berlin and have grown up in the area around Karl-Marx-Allee, where you started your tour. It’s nice to see all these places through your eyes and glad to see that you seem to have enjoyed them. BTW loved the leaning to the right joke! I do them all the time. Then the Trabi... what shall I say? My parents used to have one when I was a kid. Years later my dad and I had a go in one again and it is one of my top automotive experiences and memories. What I loved about it is that it is so basic and reduced to the essentials of driving. You have a lot to do, to think about, look ahead.... the breaks are a joke! So much fun! At the same time, I am very glad that I don’t have to drive something like this on a daily basis. It is literally technology from another century. Very entertaining though! I’ll keep stopping by your channel. You seem nice blokes and you have some interesting car content. I wish you a great and happy new year!
+Charles M. Burns Thanks Charles!
0:59 you got me laughing hard xD
4:19 that's not the rev counter; Is the instant fuel consumption gauge ;)
You can use it as a rev counter, I think you wanna shift when it hits the final green or first yellow
Maybe
iirc speedometer had markings where to shift as well
at least i think mine has it, at least the book about these cars stated where to shift to achieve maximum power and maximum fuel economy
A Trabant will not be smooth off throttle. As the lubrication comes from the oil which is mixed into the petrol. So in situations where the engine is spinning at higher RPM but no throttle is applied, let's say coasting/going down a hill. The engine is not getting properly lubricated. The solution to this problem ( aside from using a different car) is a freewheel device, which allows the engine to return to idle when off throttle. This is a common solution in many 2 stroke Saabs and it works in every gear while also being disengage via lever. The TRABANT has the freewheel device only on FOURTH GEAR. Unless you're in fourth gear you're either on the gas or you're in neutral.
Lawrie, if you loved the Trabant you should look out for a Barkas van - even more fun!
16:39 a freaking ford excursion cruising around Berlin someones crazy. those things are so thirsty.
top tip: don't mention the war
It's Only Me which war ?
I mentioned it once but I think I got away with it
4:26 - it isn't rev counter...it is actual fuel consumption meter :)
Its a 2 stroke engine, engine braking is bad and can damage engine . On 4th gear is freewheel
Why did it take 4 years for me to discover this video? Anyway... I don't know if someone already commented about your little history lesson about the 'Stadtschloss'. In fact it was damaged in WWII by bombs and demolished in 1950 on demand of East German authorities. There was nothing left of it when the Berlin wall fell. In the 70ies they have built 'Palast der Republik' on the site, which was a multi function arena that hosted the parliament of the GDR and housing a lot of areas for cultural purposes. That building was the one that wasn't worth to keep in the late 90ies. Now there is the 'Humboldt Forum" that resembles only the west facade of the 'Stadtschloss' and is mainly used as a museum.
You can only do so much with 26Hp. I restored and owned a 85 BHp 1963 Falcon and it's top speed was 60 in third gear-John in Texas
You'll need to shift to the 4th gear for idle drive! Else you'll get slide jerks, which damages the trasmission, because the first 3 gears are fixed gears and only the fourth gear is open for idle drive!
You arent sopost to be off the throttle. You destroy the engine slowly when you are coasting. You can only coast in 4th gear which has a freewheeling device.
One of your best videos!
+Cristian Federico Thanks!
Your surname is my first name
You have to be in fourth dumbo, the freewheel device doesn’t work in any older gear... so when you lift off, you are running without lubrication in the motor
Happy new year to both of you.
Great video guys keep up the great work and all the best for 2018 👍🇬🇧
S stands for Sonderaustattung (Special Features) like having a Fuel Gauge.
Im an english woman in my forties, I want one, but doubt i will get to own one, I only know very basics when it comes to cars, plus Im disabled, so bending down to do repairs or getting on ground to do repairs is beyond me.
Happy new year!!!
I went to Berlin last year (I stayed at the Radisson Blu on Alexander platz, right next to the cathedral and the museums you pointed out).
It’s a great city and would love to go back again, and take a Trabby out for a spin.
Interesting thing I learned when I was there, the American embassy is right next to the Brandenburg gate, and they asked the Germans to move the gate so they could expand their embassy...really.
Also, if you haven’t already, go to the abandoned Tempelhof Flughafen, it’s beyond incredible, and where they used to fly in food and aid packages to the Germans, with a famous pilot called captain wiggle wings, who would sneak in chocolates and sweets for the German kids, and would wiggle his plane’s wings so they knew it was him.
Happy New Year, and keep the videos coming :)
They wanted Germany to... move... the Brandenburg gate?????????????? Wtf
I drove a Trabant in Berlin in 2017...great fun!
I never expected to see Lawrie!
The passenger is like a back seat driver thats useless with a camera.
You need a decent sidekick....
Tbh, as an American, it's kind of sad to see McDonalds and Subway in Germany.
Awesome, happy new year!
I've learned one thing, and one thing only, from watching this video: I FUCKING LOVE BERLIN!
Nice one! Happy new year!
+TheMikep25 Thanks!
TRABANT IS A LEGENDARY CAR...
Happy New Year to you both. Looking forward to Lawrie's Trabant collection video!
spainter1985 Jayemm has said I *am* allowed one....
Nice one, a trabby review :-) Let me know if you fancy Munich and a run in my Clio Trophy.
I love Munich, and do fancy a go in a Clio Trophy. I'll let you know if I find myself nearby
Great video
A noticeable increase in the quality of videos, recently!
+Lewis Thanks Lewis
Im impressed you found a Trabant that hasnt been eaten by livestock, it was made of edible body panels apparently.
Do you really believe that? It´s not true. It´s made out of multiple layers of cotton fleece. Between the layers they have put resin and they pressed that combination under very high temperature. After that they cut it out.
@@Wieditox Old comment I know but I just wanna add that this is one of the reasons this is unironically one of the best cars ever designed, it's actually really hard to design something this simple. Thanks to it's non-metal structure it simply doesn't rust, they were built to last forever and they actually do.
Melody Storm wrong. Dead wrong. The metal skeleton under the duraplast rots like no tomorrow. Panels don’t rot, the car does like crazy
@@goclunker no it doesn't, my grandpa's Trabi is from 1978 and it still hasn't rusted
@@Fred_the_1996 take the duroplast off and you will see the frame is rotting. If it wasn’t garage stored, it will be rusty. Not the body panels.
The sound of the Ttabant reminds me of the tuk tuks back in India in the 1960s
Nice car I would have this over a lot of other cars.
It's not Kombi, it's the Trabant 601 Universal! Universal, not Kombi!
Lovely stuff. Can we have more of this kind of thing please?
9:50 this story is not correct. The palace there was badly damaged in WWII, and the DDR government demolished it because they considered it a symbol of militarism. They replaced it in the 1970s with "The palace of the republic" a kind of community centre with cinema, bowling alley, restaurant, theatre etc, which was also used for things like SED party congress and Volkskammer meetings.
The palace of the republic was only 15 years old when German reunification happened, however the new government was on a warpath to remove all DDR things from public life. Everything from names of streets, architecture, art, TV shows etc was being swept away. Eventually there was serious backlash against these actions, with protections being put on a lot of things, but Palace of the Republic wasn't saved. It was closed and stripped down to empty shell in the 1990s and argument over it's fate went back and forth for an extremely long time before it was demolished beginning 2006.
In turn they build a plastic disney replica of the old prussian palace on the outside with a modern building on the inside.
7:15 it's Karl-Liebknecht Road I think
It's not "papierweiss", but "papyrusweiss". ;)
communism had this while west germany had Mercedes Benz 450 SEL 6.9 ... and some people still want communism back 😂😂
It wasn't all bad sell your soul and join the KGB and you could be cruising around in a V8 Volga all people are equal some are just more equal.
I hate communism, but why the fuck are you people so materialistic? It's a car, it doesn't need to be fancy or really expensive. Be happy with being able to get by and shut the fuck up, stop taking things for granted. At least in East Germany people knew they weren't going to be abandoned by their government even if it mistreated them, their jobs were secure, unemployment was low, items were REALLY cheap, healthcare was mostly free or cheap, communities were united, and people were not always out for money so the crime was relatively low in most areas. I guess your life is just so insignificant that you have to overcompensate with expensive shit.
So you're telling me that everyone had a big 4 door Merc in the 60s and 70s? This was a people's car, east germany also had big saloons. Wow, I bet you're rich
Your German pronunciation is spot on! Do you actually speak German? If so, how come?
+Doktor Zappergeck I learned a little at school, and then have visited a few times since.
Love Berlin, not so much the Trabant. You were very brave.
Your not supposed to be off the throttle unless in 4th gear!
16:47 performing pointless overtakes of bikes and complaining they aren't looking at you. Why should they look at you? They can hear the 2 stroke loud and clear
The Umweltzone isnt that strict, a lot of cars even from the 80s/90s still meet the requirements^^
+Fatscreen Euro 4 cars from the 80s?
you don't need euro 4, petrol cars can also be as low as euro 2 as far as I Know
+Justus Moritz Berlin and others need Euro 4 for the city centres
Only if you are driving a dirty diesel. Petrol from Euro1 onwards is fine (a port-fuel injected petrol engine with a catalytic converter is cleaner in real life than almost all euro5 and even euro6 diesels...)
The confusion may be rooted in the colour-codes windshield stickers. The green ones that are required for Berlin and Munich also sport a "IV", but that does not relate directly to Euro 4. Petrol engine with euro1 or the US equivalent will always qualify for the green "IV" sticker.
I love the little rattletrap communist cars
Dear Cletus and Clovis,
Last year you requested that your long suffering audience do five things to aid your good selves. As this is a time of goodwill to all men, I've gone to the time and trouble to list five things you could do to help yourselves, a kind of New Year's Resolution list, if you will. None of my suggestions is obscene nor anatomically impossible, but don't be disappointed, they'll still do you the world of good. Each suggestion applies equally to both of you.
1) Get a descent haircut. Cheerleader ponytails and triangulated heads don't cut it anymore.
2) Have a shave. A beard is O.K., stubble is O.K., and clean shaven is O.K.. Looking like you've just had a run in with a blunt chainsaw is not O.K.
3) Lose some weight. There isn't much call for Sumo wrestlers in the flatlands, and the power to weight ration is just as important for people as it is for cars.
4) Get some decent clothes. A biker jacket you bought when you were six stone lighter, and wearing your grannie's patchwork quilt, are not good looks. The farmyard animals may not notice, but people do.
5) Buy a full length mirror. If you can look into it without screaming there's a chance you're fit to go into the outside world.
Honestly, the selfless efforts I make to help other people, I really am one hell of a nice guy. All the best to the pair of you.👍🏼🤪
+MrKeyboardCommando Thanks for your input.
Which one is Cletus?
Hey, don't mention it, I'm only too happy to help you less fortunate ones, it being Christmas and everything. Any other hero would do the same.
You're Cletus, your name derives from "Cletus" in Ancient Greek meaning "one who has been called," and "Anacletus" meaning "one who has been called back." In other words, you don't know if you're coming or going.
Clovis is Mr Ponytail. His name derives from the Old Frankish, meaning " famous in battle " following his fight with that tree.
You guys provide one of the best three programmes on RUclips, and deserve only the very best.👍🏼😜🤪
+MrKeyboardCommando That's amazing. Thankyou.
I'm using those names
Go for it, Cletus😆😆😆
12:56 very left: woman disappointed as picture is ruined by masterpiece of commie engineering
I think you are the first american that I have ever heard saying Trabbi
American?
Your not I am so sorry XD
Haha you're not the first
How much is it to rent one of these in Berlin?
Pretty cheap, I think we paid like 100 euros
Bri ish people be like "belin"
Be'lin
Is it me or did this guy engine brake all the time? Poor two stroke engine.
the 2stroke cant coast, or it does without oil
+sliwka621 There isn't really any engine braking feom a two stroke, and we were told not to depress the clutch until we needed to!
JayEmm on Cars There is always a minimal amount of engine braking due to friction and pumping losses. But the point is that when you let off the throttle and start slowing down in gear you are almost starving the engine of the oil fuel mix. I know this very well as I had owned a Wartburg with the 3 cylinder 2 stroke.
+sliwka621 I used to ride a lot of two stroke motorbikes years ago, they are the same - they like being used
0-60 is
*yes*
Around 30 seconds if you have 3 or 4 people in the car
So much false information in that video oh god. Still pretty nice. :)
+Erik Wiedemann Erik, the information we had was given to us at time of rental. If you can tell us what we got wrong if the opportunity to correct it comes along I will. Accuracy in my videos is very important
Just a few minor things.
1) Entry into the so called "Umweltzone" does not depend on age, but on emissions classification.
Diesel cars have to be Euro4 or higher; with Petrol, you need only Euro1 (so basically a lambda sond and a catalytic converter.) Petrol engines with a cat have been pretty clean for ages - no particulate problem and once the cat is warm also no nitrous oxide. Before entering a Umweltzone, get the correct windshield ticker. Fine for entering without is 80€.
The other option is a vintage car with the special "H" registration plate.
2.) Vintage cars have to be original or at least "consistent with the time period" to qualify for the spcial "H" registration (which changes taxation and allows entry into Umweltzonen). So you can actually modify and tune your classic, but only to what could theoretically have been done until 10 years after manufacturing. And of course, all this has to be approved by an engineer of one of the testing/certification instituions (TÜV, Dekra, etc).
3.) The imperial Stadtschloß was slightly damaged during the war (well... it was bombed out, but in relation to how other buildings were hit, that was only a minor scratch) and was blown up by the communists, who then build the "palace of the republic", an actually quite nice modernist building as the seat of the east german parliament (which in a communist dictatorship had no power, but at least it should look somwhat representative).
After reunification, that building was found to be contaminated with asbestos, so it was scrapped and now they are "rebuilding" the imperial castle. That is, they are building a shopping mall and then they glue a copy of the facade of the imperial palace to it.
4) Duraplast was a "communist fibreglass" in a way that it was a fiber-reinforced plastics. But instead of glass fibers soaked in resin, they used textile fibers - I am not sure whether it as was hemp or cotton, but certainly one of these.
But for bloody tourists you did not so bad. We might give you a pass on that.
I noticed in your Porsche Boxster video that your german is actually quite good. Really, I've never heard an Anglo-Saxon with a better pronunciation.
PS: how many Germans does it take to change a light bulb?
One. We're efficient and we don't have a sense of humour. ;-)
Keep up the good work. I'm really enjoying your channel.
Thanks Martin!
So in Berlin you can't drive anything older than 2006 because pollution, unless it's a vintage car that pollutes like crazy, nice logic.
Yeah, but the number of vintage cars is basically nothing, and it lets car shows etc happen. The Trabi is part of Berlin's history
Yeah I know but still... Trabant is part of communist history which was the east part of city.
MITS U BISHI
Ausgezeichnet
I’ve been there 🇩🇪🇩🇪🇩🇪🇩🇪🇩🇪Deutschland
;)
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
+L Rodger Someone get this man a new keyboard!