@@Skyline25 In the eastern bloc you had to wait for years after the order. Back then it was a big deal to sell used cars because they gave more money for them because they didn't had to wait years for the cars this way.
@@Skyline25 Real, in east Germany you had to wait like 10-15 years after your order for your new Trabant, this was normal. Because export to other east block countries like Hungary had priority. My parents been lucky they could find a used one and didn't had to wait. 👌
When I lived in Berlin in the early 90's "Trabies" were the favorite cheap first car for engineering students, and because of the (non-rusting) plastic bodies, you could easily make body modifications and spray paint them with graffiti for art. Lots of them were restored to "better then new" with machine shop parts. The Berlin government made a grandfather clause to exempt Trabants from environmental regulations as historical vehicles, and there are still a lot of Berliners who keep them as a hobby and join together for road trips on weekends. I think I may have lost my virginity in one, but maybe was too drunk to remember.
@@aris95 tanks can be driven as long as it's for historical events or things like that, i guess if you don't make it a daily and keep it in the best shape possible with regular restorations you might be able to do so :³
In Balkans it's: R - Rezerva (no need to translate) Z - Zatvoreno ("Closed") A - Ajmo ("Lets go") :) An amazingly durable car despite its questionable quality and constant mockery, since it first came out. I still see them driving around :)
My maternal grandfather had a Trabant when I was very young... he tuned it up to a beast, says my family. He then got a Wartburg, which he also slightly modded. He was a guy who did what he wanted when others did what they could. Always tinkering with something, always learning more about different gadgets. He even put some of that spirit in me. Sadly he didn't have many more years with us. Sometimes I wonder how he would have felt about living through the digital revolution for example... would he have liked the more modern cars etc... he would be 105 now though and likely never driven a 2000's car.
Very special to see a Trabant (from Hungary) driving around in the US. I can imagine they are very rare. If you are in need of spare parts please get in touch. I have a Wartburg 1.3 (1991) One of the last build before the closed factory. Enjoy the Trabant. Greetings from Hungary.
Interesting. Old guy here and I remember driving cars with column shift, I didn't find it difficult. However, I can imagine very difficult if learned that in one car like your Saab, then jump into a Trabant and it's the opposite! No gas gauge, reminds me of early VWs with no gas gauge. I find it fascinating you manage to get a Trabbie and license it for the roads. I imagine many people turn their heads in puzzlement "why does that car sound like a leaf blower?" I've heard the story "too bad they didn't design it with dual exhaust, it'd make a fine wheelbarrow."
There is another way to keep the engine from ceasing when you coast, and this is to give the gas-pedal a little jolt once in a while when you go downhill. You could step on the clutch and just rev it, or simply accelerate for fraction of a second. The freewheeling in fourth gear is per design. Many of these small engine cars drive like digital: gas or no gas. My mom had the Western version of the Trabbi a VW Polo that probably did not drive that differently, although it had a four-stroke engine, that one that later made it into the Trabbi in its final years. You do not need a tachometer to change gears. You can easily hear and feel when to switch to keep the engine happy. In these small engines, the torque band is so narrow, specifically with these two-strokes, that "feeling" it is is much easier than setting it into to any given RPM range. Given the roads in those days, you rarely would have driven it much above 30 MPH anyway. The 50-65 MPH it made was adequate for the East Autobahn that had a speed limit of 80 and 100 km/h (while in the West you had of course none).
It was not that easy. The two-stroke engine was lubricated by a mixture of oil and petrol, so you always had to make sure the lubrication was not interrupted with the engine getting blocked.
Somewhat off-topic - something that surprised me in this video is how short that bicycle wheel kept spunning. A healthy wheel should take at least 4-6x as long to come to a stop without external input. The simple explanation is therefore: there *is* external input. Like the tires touching the frame or the brake not being properly aligned. A deeper cause could be the bearings and such, but that's pretty rare.
Stop the engine with pulling out the Choke when you're putting the car away for the day, next day it'll start instantly without the need of starter spray.
I'm sure you have it figured out by now, but the fact that it won't idle, and then idles too high, indicates that it has an air leak. This could be something simple like the connection between the carb and engine, or it could be something hard to find like a worn throttle linkage / shaft, or it could be something in the engine, like a crank seal, crank cases or cylinder bases. Though there are all sorts of safety reasons NOT to use this method, I have quite often sprayed flammable brake cleaner on a running engine / component to narrow down and then pinpoint the source of the problem. I posted a video, several years ago, of using this method on a chainsaw to diagnose a worn throttle plate shaft.
4 года назад
Damn, Trabant with Hungarian licence plate... brings back good memories! I still remember our family Trabant 601. Loved it!
Do not despare! There is a four stroke version with VW 1.1 liter engine. After 1990 Trabant produced the last version with completely new engine and revised chasis. They are still dirt cheap ni Europe, but the price is ascending. For around 1500Euro you can have prestine example.
1500€? Here in Poland we can buy for it VW Passat, Audi A4 or even a Golf 3 which are much newer and more comfortable to drive. Anyways, didn't expected Trabant for 1,5k€, that's new for me
Ziomus93 is right - get him some vodka :D But the Trabant is still classic - and pretty damn rare now - especially 2 stroke. Even in Poland. Pozdrawiam, Ziomuś! :D
We had one of these bad boys when I was very little, but it was a kombi and a much later model, maybe even post unification, and it had some kind of 4-stroke Ford engine I think. My dad sold it in 2005 eventually, but saw it on the road sometimes for a couple more years. Sweet memories.
I have seen a few if these Trabbie sites now. I find I still do not understand why anyone would want one. My neighbor was an Osti (his term for himself). He drove a Trabbie until he had a near disaster on the Autobahn. He then towed it home and turned it into a planter. To me that is probably the best use of those dangerous little vehicles. They were a true hazard right after Reunification for two reasons...first East Germans stopped on on-ramps before entering the Autobahn, next they apparently could not go much over 45 mph. That is a fatal flaw when operating on the Autobahn. Not trying to criticize, just trying to understand.
I remember a fishing trip as a kid, my 2 m tall father, a fat drunk, an autistic chess player, all of us driven by a guy with a shorter leg in a grey Trabant, I'm not making this up
I don't understand why do you keep going from 4th to 3rd. Just keep driving on either 3rd or 4th. You are going to destroy the clutch and gearbox, and what's worst - the Trabbi is air cooled, means that you will easily overheat it this way if you drive longer. If you don't have enough throttle response on 4th there has to be a reason behind that or you simply want way too much out of it. You seem to be driving it like a motorcycle when this is a 1400 pound car. About idling problems - the Trabbi has an idle screw on the carb. If that doesn't help clean carb and replace spark plugs, check air filter, inspect your head gaskets and piston rings. Last thing is check your timing or electronic ignition block (depending on what your model is equipped with. I think 6 volt trabants have timing which has to be periodically tuned). And most importantly have fun with your Trabbi!!
no its a wartburg and one balkan band have song about it and in it say 4m sheet metal and 5m smoke....ofc its 2 stroke engine,people pour alot of stuff in it and it use to go just had bigger smoke lol much better car then trabant :)
My farger once bought one. The gas tank was full, and the gas was worth more than the entire car. Early 2000's in Hungary. That one comes from here as well. :D
@Boogaloo Howie it was produced behind the "Iron Curtain" in Soviet Union controlled East Germany. Essentially a Communist Government inexpensively manufactured automobile and like the owner of it in the video stated that seatbelts were laughable as the car had as much accident safety quality as if it were made of cotton cloth or tin foil. A step up in the automobile from the Trabant was the Lada and the Yugo.
@@roya.cathcartjr.5042 Yet the real reason of constructing the Trabant this way was the embargo of steel products against East Germany. That is why they used Russian cotton to make a car body from.
@@henryseidel5469 using those materials I'm sure kept the Trabant from being Rust Buckets like steel vehicles. Here in the State of Pennsylvania in the United States our highway department is generous with spreading salt on the roads during the winter months. You are lucky if your vehicle hasn't disintegrated into flakes of rust within 10 years.
My father bought a Trabant 601 in 1966, and I learned to drive it while I was a teenager. In 1981 I managed to buy my own Trabant 601S. Even now I regret that I had to sell it in 2001. I had not to take my hands from the driving wheel when changing gears; it was enough to stretch the fingers of the right hand, and to move the “door handle”, how my friends named it in derision. Only the reverse gear needed a strong push forwards and then downwards, which requested my hand to leave the driving wheel. For me it was a wonderful car, it worked summer and winter, day or night. Even when my battery was almost dead, I could start it by pushing the car alone, without any help: opened the driver’s window, choose the 1st gear, turned the ignition key, stepped out of the car, pushed with the shoulder against the doorframe, while holding the right hand on the gear lever. When, after pushing 2-3 steps, the engine started, I moved the level into the neutral position, than I opened the door and could sit on my seat and drive away. Nostalgic memories…
@@gui18bif that's why I like having a car older than me ^^ not a verry old car ( 1994 peugeot 106) but before every part of a car was electric car had character , on month ago I had my first problem due to a very cold winter , I had to go to my "university" ( technical university institute to be precise) for an exam on saturday morning , I get rid of the frost on the windshield than discovered my door was frozen , the key won't opened it , I entered the car by the passenger seat , go join the friend I was driving to the exam and ask him to help me with the windshield , we drove to the exam and he had to help me geting out of the car because the lock won't let me ^^ it was a hard time , but it was fun and a great story and I'm happy that I have those memory for later
I don't think I ever saw a car again that you could manually start so fast. When I was a kid...i mean around 7-8...I was able to start the car with a little help from my dad sitting in it. The car is so light, it literally rolls away standing if you don't use the handbrake.
i just bought a ´89 Trabant 601L back in November ´18 and currently fixing it up. It was in the Garage of the preowner for 10 years, but i´ll soon get it registrered here in West-Germany.
Z means zu (closed), A means auf (open) and R obviously means Reserve, which is the same in German and English. Our Trabant actually had a little device nicknamed "Mäusekino" (mice cinema), which was an engine rpm indicator with little green, yellow and red lamps.
I lived and worked in East Germany for a year and lots of enthusiasts there lovingly keep their Trabants alive. One day I was idling at a red light and suddenly there was a horrible rattling noise. I was worried it was my engine, but then I noticed there was a wheezing Trabant behind me.
Lazo Vodolazo stock Trabies won’t overtake you in normal conditions (if you both keep speed limit and stuff). These don’t really have power in any ways. 2 strokes hardly get to 100 kph, believe me.
Yeah, a 15 years waiting list and the price continued increasing throughout the years. If you didn't have the right amount of cash at the end of your waiting time, then you lost your bid. You had to wait another 15 years then. And there are people who are still thinking back with nostalgie about the "good old days".
@@renegade25_banhammertech_40 Many thanks indeed, I take your good word for it. I visited East Berlin in 1969 and was explained by some locals about how the system works and of course the long waiting list.
My grandpa had the kombi version ( station wagon ). I remember him and I driving from Budapest to lake Balaton and picking up two hot hitchhiking East German girls. Along the way I tried my limited German and they tried their limited Hungarian. At one point the focus of the conversation became the car. I told them we called it 'Paper Jaguar'. They understood why and we had a good laugh. That car never broke down and it was cheap to run. It was great for fishing trips and giving rides to beautiful East German girls. We dropped them off at one of the camping sites at the lake. I got a kiss from the blond girl right on the cheeks. I felt like a man. I was only 11.
@@sbrunner1234 I remember driving in Germany just after the Hungarians relaxed their border controls with the fall of communism. The autobahnen were full of Hungarian Trabants off to see the wonders of the free world, and all trailing long plumes of blue smoke!
I once drove a Trabant myself, it was great fun and felt like driving a MiG-15 fighter. Incredibly noisy and smelly, so at 60 km/h it was like driving at 250. Super cool, but not somthing you would rely on.
a recent study carried out by the kraftfahrtbundesamt (federal institution of powered traffic) found that the trabant is, to this day, the cleanest production car ever built, outperforming even smart cars in terms of amount of CO₂ produced per kilometre driven.
@@windhelmguard5295 Cleanliness of exhaust and amount of CO2 are completely separate issues. CO2 is relatively harmless and is just a function of the fuel burned. Dirty exhaust can contain nitrous oxides, unburnt fuel, and more which have direct health consequences.
@@eDoc2020 the truth is that the laws of physics dictate that, the less fuel you're burning, the less dirt of all kinds is produced in total. all gasoline engines produce nitrous oxides, more so than the trabant even, since they have to burn more fuel to get the desired result. soot is also produced by all combustion engines, difference being that "dirty" old cars produce soot with larger particles (hence why their exhaust is visible and considered dirtier) which are fairly harmless because the human nose can filter those out, the soot modern cars produce has smaller particles (which is why you can't see it), which can actually get into the lungs and cause health issues.
@@windhelmguard5295 My understanding is that the more tightly controlled AFR provided by EFI reduces emissions at the engine itself (too lean makes NOX and too rich makes soot) and the catalytic converter reduces the emissions more. Also not burning the oil surely helps. Do you happen to have the emissions numbers for the Trabant?
You forgot the most important feature of the Trabant - character. Also if you are a young single bloke and a Trabant is your daily driver and you meet a girl who still wants to marry you. You know you have a keeper.
I was a US Expat living in Fót, Hungary from 2003-2005. My 6'6" self drove a Trabant every day a few kilometers from the house I was staying in to the bus stop to catch the bus to Budapest for work (how I fit, I'll never know). There are times I miss that car and all of its delightful quirks. It was amazing at times that the thing even ran. It's incredible that you have one in the US. Awesome stuff!
@@tristanzz1630 Partly because I would not trust it on the roads between Fót and Budapest. Speed limit _in_ both was 30 kmph unless otherwise posted, but the roads between are higher speeds. However, it was also _considerably_ cheaper to ride the bus and metro from Fót to Kálvin tér (District IX; near Margitsziget) than it would've been to drive and then find parking.
The Yugos were made on the basis of Fiat. Mechanically, everything was from Fiat. Only the bodywork of the Yugo 45/55 was designed in Serbia. The same story for the later Yugo Sana, based on the Fiat Tipo. @@aris95
Every German Trabant-Buyer would be shocked by watching you driving! ;) The engine of a Trabi is designed for very high tournaments and only if you force them, you are able to drive the Trabi quick and most efficient. Only by hearing the typical yowling of the engine, you can feel the Trabi is working well (which means 30 km/h in gear 1, 50 km/h in gear 2 and 70 km/h in gear 3).
@@jan-pieter4538 Indeed the English term is 'revolutions', but a foreign speaker tends to avoid this word - in order not to mix it up with the history of the Soviet Union.
I saw one on the road a few months ago. I was like, “Holy Shit, a Trabant.” My friends were like, “what’s a Trabant?” East Germany’s best automobile. The Pride of Communism. They all watched the video of the manufacturing process. And laughed at the poor comrade trying to bend the metal door and Goodson it would shut.
The older a car is the faster 70km/h seems Edit: We had a Morris minor 1000 70km/h seems like 100mph I had ride in a 1919 t model ford... it Feld like 100 mph when it was at 30km/h
What this neglects to show is how behind you all the leaves turn to brown and fall off. But it looks cute, with its wide eyes, looking in wonder at the huge American cars, who try not to step on it.
As an experienced Trabant owner for years I must tell you this: There is no need to have the engine idle so much and therefore no need to constantly shift forth and back between 3rd and 4th gear. My engine worked perfectly fine for over 23 years!!! in every condition of the year, the lubrication works well in 1st to 3rd gear if the car pushes the engine downhill, it will not seize at all! Its bult so, that there is always enough oil, also consider the power rating and cooling if it is pushed, it cant overheat, the fan is still running via the belt, no need to be supercareful. Rather get new bearings for the crankshaft, it does not sound good anymore... after changing the crankshaftbearings the engine is fine for the next years coming. Enjoy!! :-) P.S.: Mix fuel to oil you should go more to 33:1 in winter, in summer I used always 50:1 ...so 33:1 is ALWAYS good, but leaves a bit more smoke behind...
Agreed, I would worry more about wearing out the gearbox/linkages/clutch etc with the constant shifting than I'd worry about engine wear. You stand a better chance of being able to get engine parts in the US than drivetrain parts (heck I think you'd only need to find appropriate pistons/rings, the barrels could even be sleeved when too far gone to bore out & bearings/seals ought not to be an issue at all). Love the sound of the gear whine and 2T buzz, like a 4 wheeled version of my MZ TS250 :)
@@danmackintosh6325 Nobody has mentioned the Wartburg Knight Which l drove like a 2T motorcycle Hell to anyone following (Smoke) It Had 3 cylinders classics.honestjohn.co.uk/reviews/wartburg/353knight/ I liked it And has anyone driven the older Czech Skodas? Other quirky cars on my list in No Order The Japanese Kei Cars ,The Euro Quad cars and vans with the Kubota Engines and belt drive (CVT ) transmission (Lot of models The French? Axiam Megavan is seen sometimes around the UK in Streetmarkets or short local delivery runs www.autotrader.co.uk/vans/used-vans/AIXAM/MEGA www.aixam.com/en/ Another Classic was the Dutch Daf with A Renault power plant & CVT Dafs only Car!. Daf =Daffodil (Built in the Netherlands) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DAF_66 More? How about the UK Bond Cars of the 60's Which were propelled By British Motorcycle engines and you had sometimes climb into the Engine compartment to Kick start the engine! BTW Reliability was bad Lighting 6 volt Joe Lucas !!! 🤔 Reliant 3 wheelers and the 4 wheel Kitten/Rebels. Not forgetting the Bond Bug(with the Leicester cheese wedge body) Another Manual gear shift type Does any one have experience of the Renault 4 Push pull dashboard Gear shift? Became 2nd Nature after taking a few corners albeit slow. PS The Pudding stirrer shift on the MK1 Minis which were really fun to drive. Started by the Solenoid button between the front seats farm6.staticflickr.com/5825/21093740794_722220155f_b.jpg all British cars Had a Crash 1st gear till the Mid 70's and the Syncro would break often on 2nd sometimes 3rd Leaving you to Change down Carefully ....Motor cycles NEVER have syncro change but never encountered a Bad change in Many years riding Bar an early Test ride whose bike had stripped the 2nd gear cog PPS Have encountered Some big differences on Parking brake lever layouts RE the Handbrake sited on the side next to the drivers door and the Shooting brake on the Dashboard on Bench seat Models (with Column gear change)
Motorcycles don't need syncros, they're almost universally constant mesh. There may be exceptions far enough back in history or on any odd Eastern European cycles of which I'm not aware. Be interested in knowing about them if there are!
My neighbor still drives this thing. Some 20 years ago he put a Goldoni 14hp diesel engine in it and it still works somehow. Top speed 60km/h, fuel consumption something like 1,5l/100km. Best part is, Goldoni engine fits the transmission without any modifications
The Z stands for "Zu" which means closed, the A stands for "Auf" which means open and the R stands for "Reserve" which you can probably figure out yourself^^
'ein' has two meanings in German. As a pronoun (a/an), and as an adjective (on). However, in German, you can switch stuff 'on/ein', but valves and similar machinery are referred to as being open or closed, instead of on or off. Also, 'ein' in the sense of 'on' was later replaced by 'an' ('anschalten' meaning 'to switch on'). I know, our language is weird.
Have you ever checked whether this was a Trabant sport? In the sport version there were 2 pairs of trainers in the trunk! 😂🤣😅 But you have to admit one thing to the Trabi ... the thing was indestructible...and always ready for action in wind and weather. In East Germany, the Trabi was something like the Model T for the USA.
My Mother drove our Trabi with owner 100kmh , suddenly one of the piston rings decided to break and made deep grooves into the cylinder . We came home with only one cylinder in the freezing winter time , no power , no heating , that was an adventure ! :)
for all who smirk at Trabant: you shouldn't. people find Trabant a laughing stock because it's outdated, small and austere. but, it's not the car's fault that it stayed in production way too long and technology moved on. that was a political decision. it's not the car's fault that it was conceived as a budget car in a poor country. btw. this car was technically very innovative when it first appeared (for the time): light, front wheel drive, reliable, zippy, rugged and affordable. i mean, just look at comparable generation japanese small cars - huge similarities - small, square, 2-stroke. secondly, it was the first car to use recycled materials. thirdly the car was designed in a very short time out of a project which was originally intended to be a motorcycle with trailer. the car itself has preformed it's role of providing transportation on an affordable budget in countries with horrid road infrastructure plagued with usual parts shortage. and for this it needs to be respected both as a technical solution in austere social context and for the service it has provided in such conditions over decades.
>poor country it was made in communist (east) germany darling, it was just a very very poor car and it deffinetly wasnt anywhere close to zippy, or rugged,... or reliable, they were very crappy cars when they came out, and they remained that way. the japanese had rotary engines in that period arleady, quite good luxury cars, and very good cars in general.
east the average person in east germane was very poor 'darling' the Russians did not care all the much for the Germans and the only real reason the country was there was as an extra buffer. it wasn't until Germany unified that people were finally able to live proper lives and the infrastructure was rebuilt to a reasonable standard.
@Gynkys: It IS zippy, rugged and reliable, and I know that from actually using one as my only car for 6 years now, not from some stupid Western gossip... only one breakdown was in that period, and always starts if the battery is good. Of course it needs some servicing here and then, but which 34 years old car doesn't? Definitely needs less servicing than a rotary Mazda or NSU from that age, or a luxury car filled with useless electronic crap destined to pricy failures... And for the record, there were Trabant prototypes with rotary and diesel engines, just the frickin' Communist Party didn't allow any large modifications to the base model.
Brilliant video :-) I was camping many years ago and was awoken at 7am by the sound of 2 stroke engines, I stuck my head out of the tent, expecting some old 80's motorbikes but no, 5 of these things had arrived, driven all the way from East Germany, what really impressed me the most was I was camping at Loch Ness, in Scotland!
Toltott Kaposzta igaz egy nem olyan jó állapotú az nagyon olcsó de a nagyon jók meg drágák. Én is szeretnék egyet venni de nekem elég ha a karosszéria jó mert a motort meg tudom oldani. Meg a többi mechanikai dolgot.
We had Trabant and we did a pretty long trips with it. I live in Czech republic and we went to Slovakia, Germany, etc... My father loved that car and I really never understood why. Today I'm starting to get it. Nice video. I'm glad it still runs even in the US.
Went from East Germany even to Poland, Hungary and Romania in the Trabant. The maximum speed was about 110 kmh. On a motorway it was a nuisance, but on ordinary roads it was not a problem keeping pace with the ordinary traffic flow.
As I’m sure you know by now, idle quality in a 2 stroke has a lot to do with how well the crankcase is sealed. As seals and gaskets begin to leak, idle quality suffers. Pressure and vacuum tests verify this situation though. Thanks for the video!
beware! keep some space, keep some space. a trabant has no breaks, a trabant has a "delay" only it's amazing to see a trabant driving on the streets of the united states
Actually seems like not such a bad car. Reminds me a bit of the old VW Beetles, of which I had several in the 60's/70's. Nice and simple, easy to get to the wiring behind the dashboard. Nowdays you have to dismantle the entire dashboard to change a light bulb. Nothing wrong with sophisticated, electronic, high-performance cars for those that want them, but it's too bad they don't make any simple cars at all any more these days. I also had a Lada, which was built like a tank and simple too. You could practically do a complete overhaul with the few hand tools provided in the tool bag :-)
Im from east Germany near the City of Dresden if you live here you kinda enjoy this there are Hundreds of these... not as Historical pieces but as normal every day Cars they keep on working there are some that are 50years old and have lived through 800.000 kilometers because Replacement Parts are so cheap to find here... especialy in the smaler vilages you can see lots of these...
