Trabant 601 - The Beast from the East (of Germany)

[AceOfHearts]

So here is the latest silly project, a late (1990) 2 stroke Trabant. Me and my friend Jon went halves for it and plan is to get it road legal then have some fun modifying it.

It was imported over as a film prop for the new 'Man From Uncle' film, but since filming stopped it's went up for sale and we got it

We have to get the Jag and TVR's sorted before we can properly start on it but that should only be a couple of weeks away now.

Today I made a quick start by getting it on the drive ready for work, it ran but poorly and wouldn't rev. I started by replacing the plugs with genuine 'Isolator' ones from Germany, and cleaned out the fuel tank of the old stale fuel, cleaned up the fuel tap and refilled with fresh 50:1 mix. It started up first try and ran lovely, albeit a little smokey



Awesome seat covers


Height of luxury . . .




Clean tank


Nice and fresh inside too which is a bonus

Edited by AceOfHearts on Thursday 19th February 18:17

Edited by AceOfHearts on Thursday 19th February 18:18

[HonestIago]

I was driven around Krakow at what seemed like considerable speed in a Trabant...was somewhat alarming although good fun!

Would be good to see pics!

[AceOfHearts]

Pics uploaded

[LanceRS]

I have to ask, what is the attraction? A lad a work bought one recently, so far he has not managed to get it on the road. After many conversations about it, he has still to convince me of any endearing qualities.
Having said all that, you are to be applauded for being brave and buying something a bit different.

[Art0ir]

LanceRS said:

I have to ask, what is the attraction? A lad a work bought one recently, so far he has not managed to get it on the road. After many conversations about it, he has still to convince me of any endearing qualities.
Having said all that, you are to be applauded for being brave and buying something a bit different.

Similar to a VW Beetle I imagine; retro fun, quirky looking, can disassemble and reassemble with a £15 tool kit.

[Mr.Jimbo]

Plus you can usually light the exhaust pipe and have your very own blowtorch wherever you are!

[AceOfHearts]

Art0ir said:

LanceRS said:

I have to ask, what is the attraction? A lad a work bought one recently, so far he has not managed to get it on the road. After many conversations about it, he has still to convince me of any endearing qualities.
Having said all that, you are to be applauded for being brave and buying something a bit different.

Similar to a VW Beetle I imagine; retro fun, quirky looking, can disassemble and reassemble with a £15 tool kit.

Just a bit of fun / an oddity really. They also have a lot of interesting history associated with them and its something we can play with easily and have fun with without ruining its non existent value

[AceOfHearts]

Though I would add a bit more info on the high tech East German features:

Fuel gauge (at least it is accurate ) 3l in the tank at present



Top of the range sound system





Rear blinds



Luxurious deep pile carpets



I also had a poke around some of the grotty parts today and it looks like we have about a days worth of welding to do. Also looks like we need to remove the right hand rear quarter duroplast panel to get access to one bit.

I might buy Jon and see if he will find the time to come down next week and do it.

Edited by AceOfHearts on Friday 20th February 11:53

Edited by AceOfHearts on Friday 20th February 11:55

[Triumph Man]

Wow that is actually the "fuel gauge"?

And we have people in this country who want the controlled economy communist approach to government? Perhaps we should take away their ipads, their small Audis, (their top knots in some cases) and make them drive around in a Trabant!

[Lewis's Friend]

I have the honour of being the second party in this slightly odd project.

I think the best that can be said is we both have a dark liking for terrible things (although AceofHearts is definitely the worst)!

[AceOfHearts]

Just ordered the steel ready for our mini weldathon

[stevenorris29]

Whilst at Zcars we built 2 of these both exactly the same for the man from uncle film. Both had hayabusa engines as the production team wanted a car they could drift for certain scenes. Was good fun testing them out in the carpark.

[AceOfHearts]

Excellent that sounds like great fun. Do you know where the two Hayabusa engined ones are now?

[Kieranv]

I love these. Just back from berlin over the weekend and we did the trabi Safari. Ive always wanted one but now I really really want one. Deffinitely next on the list of purchases I think.

[marky911]

Never trust a car that has coils that are beefier than its strut tops.

Everything about that car is hilarious. The seat covers and Happich speakers are great!

Off topic Ace, your driveway looks very flat and firm for gravel. How is it done? Hardcore whacked down then top gravel or is it the solid base, spray on glue then gravel type?
Just curious as we will be tackling ours over the next 12 months and due to budget I think it will have to be gravel for a few years. Not ideal for jacking up cars on though.

[smithyithy]

Fantastic, I've always wanted one of these as a bit of fun.

I'd have to just make a tape of random Eastern European music to play whenever I was in it like a taxi driver or something

[jamiebae]

I have a real soft spot for old communist cars. But not these

Give me an FSO Polonez, Yugo 311, Barkas or Lada 1200 any day but I have no desire to own a Trabant. Amazingly I've seen at least one of them road legal in Switzerland, which I assume must be a late four stroke version.

Enjoy the awfulness of it, I shall be watching with interest!

[AceOfHearts]

marky911 said:

Never trust a car that has coils that are beefier than its strut tops.

Everything about that car is hilarious. The seat covers and Happich speakers are great!

Off topic Ace, your driveway looks very flat and firm for gravel. How is it done? Hardcore whacked down then top gravel or is it the solid base, spray on glue then gravel type?
Just curious as we will be tackling ours over the next 12 months and due to budget I think it will have to be gravel for a few years. Not ideal for jacking up cars on though.

Cheers, surprisingly the radio and speakers actually work Ok!

The drive is resin bound, I got it done as a trial by the company my dad works for as it is normally used by them in cycle lanes, but it has been standing up to the jacking the Jag up remarkably well! 8 months in now and no issues at all.

http://www.resin-bound-and-bonded-surfacing.ronacr...

The product is the Ecopath MT. The trial on ours is 8" of compacted type 1 with a 2" layer of the resin bound aggregate on top

[marky911]

Excellent, thanks. Just had a good read of that. It's a good system and looks lovely and uniform for OCD nuts like me.

Cheers.

[stevenorris29]

AceOfHearts said:

Excellent that sounds like great fun. Do you know where the two Hayabusa engined ones are now?

unfortunatly i dont. These all had full cages, a bucket seat and a rear mounted fuel cell. Obviously they used the bike engine sequential box and had an mg rear axle.
Not too sure where they would be now though. Probabl crushed i imagine?