18:36 This is the logo of VEB Karosseriewerke Dresden (KWD), formerly also known as Gläser-Karosserie. It was an East-German coachbuilder that produced bodies for Wartburg sport, cabrio and camping station wagon. At a later time they also produced bodies for coupe, after VEB Karroseriewerk Meerane, another East-German coachbuilder, had to focus on Trabant body production and couldn't produce Wartburg bodies anymore (that's why Wartburg sport and cabrio were discontinued in 1960). The only Wartburg models that were completely made in the main factory in Eisenach were 4-door sedans and 2-door station wagons (as well as some early Wartburg sport from 1957 and maybe 1958). Technically all Wartburg models that had their bodies outsourced should have these extra logos, although I guess there might be exceptions where they were not fitted
Very interesting to see where they exported Wartburgs to. I learned that they made right hand drive models for the UK and even South Africa (which all the lefties of the world boycotted - not the GDR) And they put red rear lights and odometers in miles on them for export to the US. In the bad old GDR times we didn't knew auto makers or any vendor of any good to be flexible in any way. Take it or leave it. But these they made for USD :-) "real money". What looks strange to me is the lack of an oil mixer. Wartburgs and Barkas vans sold to Belgium all had them. Over the time I haven't met many Americans being careful with machinery - turn the key and it should work. So I suppose that many Wartburgs died early with stuck engines for the lack oil. An oil mixer would have prevented it from happening.
Thank you for your comment! I haven’t seen ANY Wartburgs or Barkas vans with oil mixers. But I’ve seen the DKW with it but every owner I’ve talked to weren’t using it because sometimes they failed. The only way they found out that the oiler failed is when the engine siezed…. In Victor’s back yard most of the cars have original tires because their engines failed way before they could use up the tires. The reason was (just like you wrote) lack of oil in the gas… As far as I know the UK models were re named to Wartburg Knights. I know this for the 353 but don’t know much of the 311 UK export. I did read about the African spec 311 cars. They all had water pumps for example.
@@Rick-S-6063 A fiend of mine - German as I - who spent his childhood and teens in the US once ruined his automatic gearbox by filling it up with motor oil instead of the required transmission fluid. Arrggh - and he wasn't even a complete jerk when it came to technical stuff.(working in IT)
@@Rick-S-6063 I see that you’ve figured the Americans out. But when the key won’t turn they can go out and buy a new one. Just like a fridge. Do you ever do maintenance on your fridge? You actually should pull it out and clean the condenser fins😂 A car is a transportation appliance for most Americans. So as the owner of 3 British cars I can ask you if you know why the British like warm beer? Because their fridge was made by Lucas🤣 But you probably have heard this joke before…..
You picked up that the East Germans didn't put sealed beams on it. In those days it was very common for US-bound European cars to leave the factory without headlights, there'd be tar paper "eye patches" over the empty sockets held in place by the trim. Dealers would then source, install and aim the sealed beam headlights before the car was sold.
I had drive that Wartburg 313 15 Jears and its change my life. There was only 468 build. Now I have just a Hardtop with the big Back-Windshield and look to sell it. Thank you for the video.
I love the fact that this car still has a fully original interior and you can use it to determine when Wartburg cabriolets stopped having wooden imitation dashboards because this one is definitely original and probably one of the latest known ones to still have it. 1959/1960 Wartburg catalog shows one that's probably just a few weeks or months newer and doesn't have the wooden imitation anymore
Very interesting! All the cabriolets I’ve seen had the same dash. That doesn’t mean much, perhaps all the ones I saw were older versions. But as you wrote, this one is all original. The dash is painted but on top of the doors they’ve put real wood as a cover. Based on the VIN it was made for the local German market but once it was done, they’ve shipped it to the US for some reason.
@@budapestspeedshop The catalog I've mentioned is from 1959 or 1960. Probably mid to late 1959 because all cars shown have the asymmetrical wipers pattern that was used since spring 1959 and Wartburg cabrio was also discontinued in 1960 so it would make little sense to advertise it in 1960. All of the earlier catalogs show the dashboard just like it is on your friend's car. Another interesting thing you can also see in these catalogs is that all models made before the dash redesign in 1962 had their gauge shades, ashtrays and radio covers painted to match the dash. Now after the paint is gone you'd think they were always black. Aside from catalogs there is also a German Wartburg wiki that has a long list of changes made to the car during production with specific dates and chassis numbers as well as some original promo photos (a few are even in color). I think the list of changes was first compiled somewhere in the 60s or 70s for repair reference. Now it's very useful for originality Here are the links if you weren't familiar with them: www.die-besten.de/wartburg/prospekt/311/311.htm wiki.w311.info/index.php?title=Hauptseite
@@professormicron6470 very interesting websites! Thank you. My friend has collected most of those colored sales brochures and I also have a few. Most of them are in English. Also have the original Wartburg sales documents from the US West coast. Have some English and Hungarian 8mm films as well. In the US very few people like Wartburgs and only two of us collect memorabilia of them.
The two-stroke three cylinder engine is ultra smooth and was used to good effect in the Saab 96 until they installed a rough and off-beat Ford V4 four stroke. Popular in East Germany was the 2t engine ..... used in the Trabant too.
Thank you for your comment. I remember the “Slab” engines. I have 5 Barkas vans, two Wartburgs and 3 Trabants. I still found two gas stations in East Germany last summer where they were selling mixed gas!
So there is no Reserve parts available except what is used in the limousines. What I wanted to say is, in the Triangle between Chemnitz, Zwickau, Dresden Area there was also Buna/ Leuna Chemical Empire, it was like a German DuPont or ICI Corporation, they developed a special rubber to replace Leather on the roof or seats or the piacryl for roof glasses in the Camping Limousine because GDR could not produce rounded glass for the backsides..
My friend flies to Germany once a year and buys all kind a spare parts. Most of his cars are complete (or close to it) even if they are in a sad shape. We went to the Sport treffen last summer and had a great time!
Actually the situation with spare parts for all vehicles made in GDR is quite good because they were of short supply all the time. So people bought exhaust pipes, carburetors, body panels etc. in advance when they were available to exchange them later for other parts that actually broke. Many where stored in garages the like as shown in the video (but too small for modern day cars - so they were left alone until some treasure hunter came to discover spare parts or entire cars in them) The stagnation and the monopolization also helps today as many parts are interchangeable and used in production for decades.
18:36 This is the logo of VEB Karosseriewerke Dresden (KWD), formerly also known as Gläser-Karosserie. It was an East-German coachbuilder that produced bodies for Wartburg sport, cabrio and camping station wagon. At a later time they also produced bodies for coupe, after VEB Karroseriewerk Meerane, another East-German coachbuilder, had to focus on Trabant body production and couldn't produce Wartburg bodies anymore (that's why Wartburg sport and cabrio were discontinued in 1960). The only Wartburg models that were completely made in the main factory in Eisenach were 4-door sedans and 2-door station wagons (as well as some early Wartburg sport from 1957 and maybe 1958). Technically all Wartburg models that had their bodies outsourced should have these extra logos, although I guess there might be exceptions where they were not fitted
Thank you for the info!
i am crying .. wonderful!!!!
I’m glad you liked it!
Very interesting to see where they exported Wartburgs to. I learned that they made right hand drive models for the UK and even South Africa (which all the lefties of the world boycotted - not the GDR) And they put red rear lights and odometers in miles on them for export to the US. In the bad old GDR times we didn't knew auto makers or any vendor of any good to be flexible in any way. Take it or leave it. But these they made for USD :-) "real money".
What looks strange to me is the lack of an oil mixer. Wartburgs and Barkas vans sold to Belgium all had them. Over the time I haven't met many Americans being careful with machinery - turn the key and it should work. So I suppose that many Wartburgs died early with stuck engines for the lack oil. An oil mixer would have prevented it from happening.
Thank you for your comment! I haven’t seen ANY Wartburgs or Barkas vans with oil mixers. But I’ve seen the DKW with it but every owner I’ve talked to weren’t using it because sometimes they failed. The only way they found out that the oiler failed is when the engine siezed….
In Victor’s back yard most of the cars have original tires because their engines failed way before they could use up the tires. The reason was (just like you wrote) lack of oil in the gas…
As far as I know the UK models were re named to Wartburg Knights. I know this for the 353 but don’t know much of the 311 UK export. I did read about the African spec 311 cars. They all had water pumps for example.
@@Rick-S-6063 A fiend of mine - German as I - who spent his childhood and teens in the US once ruined his automatic gearbox by filling it up with motor oil instead of the required transmission fluid. Arrggh - and he wasn't even a complete jerk when it came to technical stuff.(working in IT)
@@Rick-S-6063 I see that you’ve figured the Americans out. But when the key won’t turn they can go out and buy a new one. Just like a fridge. Do you ever do maintenance on your fridge? You actually should pull it out and clean the condenser fins😂 A car is a transportation appliance for most Americans.
So as the owner of 3 British cars I can ask you if you know why the British like warm beer? Because their fridge was made by Lucas🤣 But you probably have heard this joke before…..
You picked up that the East Germans didn't put sealed beams on it. In those days it was very common for US-bound European cars to leave the factory without headlights, there'd be tar paper "eye patches" over the empty sockets held in place by the trim. Dealers would then source, install and aim the sealed beam headlights before the car was sold.
I had drive that Wartburg 313 15 Jears and its change my life. There was only 468 build. Now I have just a Hardtop with the big Back-Windshield and look to sell it. Thank you for the video.
I’m glad you’ve liked it! I have a few East-German vehicles in Kentucky. Please look at my other videos too!
I love the fact that this car still has a fully original interior and you can use it to determine when Wartburg cabriolets stopped having wooden imitation dashboards because this one is definitely original and probably one of the latest known ones to still have it. 1959/1960 Wartburg catalog shows one that's probably just a few weeks or months newer and doesn't have the wooden imitation anymore
Very interesting! All the cabriolets I’ve seen had the same dash. That doesn’t mean much, perhaps all the ones I saw were older versions.
But as you wrote, this one is all original. The dash is painted but on top of the doors they’ve put real wood as a cover.
Based on the VIN it was made for the local German market but once it was done, they’ve shipped it to the US for some reason.
@@budapestspeedshop The catalog I've mentioned is from 1959 or 1960. Probably mid to late 1959 because all cars shown have the asymmetrical wipers pattern that was used since spring 1959 and Wartburg cabrio was also discontinued in 1960 so it would make little sense to advertise it in 1960. All of the earlier catalogs show the dashboard just like it is on your friend's car. Another interesting thing you can also see in these catalogs is that all models made before the dash redesign in 1962 had their gauge shades, ashtrays and radio covers painted to match the dash. Now after the paint is gone you'd think they were always black. Aside from catalogs there is also a German Wartburg wiki that has a long list of changes made to the car during production with specific dates and chassis numbers as well as some original promo photos (a few are even in color). I think the list of changes was first compiled somewhere in the 60s or 70s for repair reference. Now it's very useful for originality
Here are the links if you weren't familiar with them:
www.die-besten.de/wartburg/prospekt/311/311.htm
wiki.w311.info/index.php?title=Hauptseite
@@professormicron6470 very interesting websites! Thank you. My friend has collected most of those colored sales brochures and I also have a few. Most of them are in English. Also have the original Wartburg sales documents from the US West coast. Have some English and Hungarian 8mm films as well. In the US very few people like Wartburgs and only two of us collect memorabilia of them.
The two-stroke three cylinder engine is ultra smooth and was used to good effect in the Saab 96 until they installed a rough and off-beat Ford V4 four stroke. Popular in East Germany was the 2t engine ..... used in the Trabant too.
Thank you for your comment. I remember the “Slab” engines. I have 5 Barkas vans, two Wartburgs and 3 Trabants. I still found two gas stations in East Germany last summer where they were selling mixed gas!
The early Cabriolets were produced at Gläser Coachworks at Dresden, as well as the Camping Limousine between 1959 to 1965
Intersting! Thank you. Do you know anything else about the cabriolets or Sports?
This car , Wartburg Cabriolet 1958-1960 was more seldom than a Mercedes Gullwing (1400) this was produced only 400 or less.
I thought that Wartburg made 500 sports (313) and significantly more cabriolets. They still pretty rare and most of them ended up in exports.
IFA the producer made no real profit by selling these cars, it was just a means to get changeable money like dollars to GDR.
Gläser built 3 of the legendary Horch 855 Spezial Roadster! ! ! I recommend „Cargold Collection“ video from 9 month ago.
There is also a nice video about the Wanderer W25 K Kompressor Roadster, what a sound! 9 months ago
So there is no Reserve parts available except what is used in the limousines. What I wanted to say is, in the Triangle between Chemnitz, Zwickau, Dresden Area there was also Buna/ Leuna Chemical Empire, it was like a German DuPont or ICI Corporation, they developed a special rubber to replace Leather on the roof or seats or the piacryl for roof glasses in the Camping Limousine because GDR could not produce rounded glass for the backsides..
My friend flies to Germany once a year and buys all kind a spare parts. Most of his cars are complete (or close to it) even if they are in a sad shape. We went to the Sport treffen last summer and had a great time!
@@budapestspeedshop Yes it would be great to see the yellow Sports 313 back on the road…
Actually the situation with spare parts for all vehicles made in GDR is quite good because they were of short supply all the time. So people bought exhaust pipes, carburetors, body panels etc. in advance when they were available to exchange them later for other parts that actually broke. Many where stored in garages the like as shown in the video (but too small for modern day cars - so they were left alone until some treasure hunter came to discover spare parts or entire cars in them) The stagnation and the monopolization also helps today as many parts are interchangeable and used in production for decades.
Each car ist handmade more or less, like a Bentley..
I recommend „Retrokanal“ on UA-cam..
I watch them sometimes, thank you