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

[rangie999]

I can confirm that pot holes are terrifying at at almost any speed!!

[AceOfHearts]

rangie999 said:

I can confirm that pot holes are terrifying at at almost any speed!!

What about with a 6" suspension drop?

[rangie999]

Well I doubt it could be less jumpy.....might make it more predictable?

[AceOfHearts]

Today i spent 45 minutes before dark wiring up the ignition, alternator and starter motor. I then rubbed down and high temperature painted the exhaust heat exchanger so that can be fitted tomorrow.

[Lewis's Friend]

Good man - I expect this to be finished by the time I get back from holiday...

[AceOfHearts]

Progress today - She goes and stops!

Got the clutch unstuck, finished plumbing and bled the brakes. The rears are dragging slightly and we picked up a few more small jobs (fuel tap rebuild for one) but today was a massive mojo boost.

Here are some more dorky photos of Jon

[Lewis's Friend]

I definitely feel there should be some pictures of the OP - this is all very one-sided and unfair!

Pleased we got so much done though. There will inevitably be snagging to do (and wiring; the horror), but I finally feel like its not too far from an MOT...

[Mothersruin]

Great stuff - looks very 'stanced'..

[5harp3y]

looks awesome!

[AceOfHearts]

https://youtu.be/4S3ME7sajOY

[N Dentressangle]

AceOfHearts said:

https://youtu.be/4S3ME7sajOY

Sounds really good! Not that smokey, either, I'd say, compared with most of the ones I remember rattling around Berlin in the time I lived there when it was a current model.

[anonymous-user]

Sounds great, do love the sound of 2 stroke!

[Trabi601]

N Dentressangle said:

AceOfHearts said:

https://youtu.be/4S3ME7sajOY

Sounds really good! Not that smokey, either, I'd say, compared with most of the ones I remember rattling around Berlin in the time I lived there when it was a current model.

Modern oil tech. has come on a long way - you can run lower concentrations and it doesn't smoke anywhere near as much.

I run mine on some lovely Elf fully synthetic stuff (I got it free, and have enough to do 5k miles in my Trabi) - at a 40:1 concentration, it doesn't smoke at all!

[BlueHave]

They actually made a RS Rally version of it.

You car looks very low, you could almost call it a Trabanter

[Kieranv]

Good effort getting it back together and running again. Sounds (and looks) good!

Which suspension kit did you buy? I'm planning on getting the wheels on mine banded to 7" to hopefully provide some extra footprint and lower the car a bit (not stancey low).

At the moment it suffers from awful rear positive camber and some interesting bump steer at speed.

[AceOfHearts]

It was the 6" lowering kit from Trabantwelt. I don't think it is 6" lower though, closer to 4" maybe

[Lewis's Friend]

AceOfHearts said:

It was the 6" lowering kit from Trabantwelt. I don't think it is 6" lower though, closer to 4" maybe

You can buy camber correctors separately, but we held off and happily the lowering sorted the dodgy camber too!

[AceOfHearts]

Just spotted this glowing overview on Jay Lenos garage

https://youtu.be/_gqy_bq3ZfE

[anomaly]

Drove one of these at the weekend at Trabi Safari in Berlin. It was as appalling as I expected but surprising fun!

[AceOfHearts]

Got the rear brake freed off today (new adjuster was no good and seized on) and fitted the right hand drive headlights. We also removed the seized steering arm lock nut, but we are still awaiting a delivery from Germany.

Took it for its first spin up and down the road though, it definitely smokes like a good'un and especially after the exhaust got hot