I'm a Top Gear addict. But I also enjoy this kind of videos as much. HubNut and furiousdriving do a great job aswell as Top Gear. I just wish that the Top Gear trio would do reviews too, because they also do a very good job when they do and that Chris Goffey would still do videos, I liked him very much in the 90's.
Trekka. So many memories. We were the agents for them at 5 Star Motors in Christchurch. We hated them and tried to kill them. 'A' framing Kombis. Loading three 44 gallon drums of waste oil on the back of a pick-up, to empty the contents at the Bexley dump. Drifting round corners with the inside wheel off the ground. W/shop fitting a crude Skoda LSD in the diff, and then sticking a BT (Balanced Traction) badge on the back. Running into cars with rear wheels smoking and locked, with much positive camber. They didn't suffer from the 'Hate everything foreign eg Russian' syndrome here in NZ in the '60/70s. I saw graffiti scrawled on a parked 'Lada' . It was actually a Fiat 124, but the tree-hugger didn't know that. Pedant alert. 27.10 Not 'conTRACTor',but 'CONtractor.'
@@glennpowell3444 Actually it is not staight cut, it has helical gears. That is probably why it has this sound. as well as because it uses Gleason type bevel gear in the differential. And also it is so loud because it has no sound proofing at all in the Trekka 😁because I don't think the original Octavia was so loud (though it was not quiet either).
@@ChrisG3253032 According to the company the current badge has nothing to do with a Kiwi, but the original most definitely did and was even nicknamed the speedy kiwi. Love the Terminator pic.
I've never seen a wiper behave like that and, given that I do most of my driving in Scotland, the thought of it terrifies me. It also reminded me of my first car. It was a Nissan Bluebird which I wisely decided I should drive from London to Fife on the day I bought it. (This was also the first time I'd driven since passing my test a few days earlier. I was a lot younger and far stupider then than I am now.) We were overtaking an enormous lorry on the motorway in torrential rain when the driver's side wiper somehow got stuck on the edge of the windscreen. Luckily neither my passenger nor I panicked and she was able to guide me past the lorry then over to the hard shoulder, where we proceeded to panic once we were safe. So glad she'd decided to go with me that day as I'm less than sure I'd have managed on my own.
Love the Trekka! Born in -66 and a Skoda owner I love the utilitarian appearance! Just signed up for a Skoda Citigo-e and that's also very simple for being an electric vehicle.
@@dlittlester in Sweden where I live we get a 60' SEK subsidy so they cost about USD 21000, but I'm leasing mine for USD 350/month including insurance and winter tires (obligatory according to law) for 36 months. Will see how we get along. Have an ace up my sleeve, my father in law lives close to us an he says we can borrow his Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV if we need long distance hauling.
Pure HN. Don't stress about quality content just knock more of these out. As you say it's a HN thing, speed, high octane and grace found elsewhere. And all the better for it.
What a great video Ian, so many memories. Learnt to drive as a young teen in a Trekka on uncles Waikato dairy farm, us kids called it "the rhino chaser". 😁
I was a kid when these came out and we had allot of farmers in the family who were very proud of their "new" cars, anything else was pretty much unaffordable new. It was a car of its time and fairly popular including enthusiast clubs almost from the beginning. Oddly enough at the time my dad had American dollars for some obscure reason so was buying a new Holden every year and trading in the old one for more than the new one was worth effectively changing his yank bucks to Kiwi dollars via General motors and making a nice profit along the way. It was a strange economy back then. Most of the Trekka's ended their days as paddock bashers on farms.
On the low reverse gear, I remember my father telling me that the cars he drove in his youth, which were the likes of late 30's or late 40's Austin 8s and such, had to be reversed up particularly steep hills. Cheers.
UA-cam is slowly starting to think I'm an Aussie, more and more recommendations for videos about Holdens etc are starting to appear. So thanks for that.
Did Holden have a version of the Corsa C ? I'm on my second Vauxhall Corsa C . Back 10 years ago ,local English boy racers had a fad for rebadging them as Opel. I got the perverse idea of rebadging mine as Holden ,just for fun 🤪
It reminds me of a series Land Rover mixed with Postman Pat’s van. That transmission whine is just fantastic! Love the period correct power distribution solution in the rear, PDL gear by the look of it.
Irrelevant fact: in "North by Northwest" during the cab ride scene you can see a Skoda 445 Spartak in the backround. The Spartak then was facelifted into the Octavia.
Delightful, and you said what I was thinking... there’s a certain charm to very simple vehicles, crude as they may be. Perhaps it’s that they’re honest machines, with few pretensions. They are what they are, and can be very enjoyable, if a bit frightening.
Great review Ian. These were good little farm utes, as long as you kept out of the mud. We used to exercise our horse with our old one many many years ago. The other big issue was the cost to repair. As the chassis and engine parts were not simple to get and the cost to repair meant parking up or scraping.
Watching you drive that little box was simply joyous, and the 50s sound of the engine just sublime. Thank you very much for sharing your video Sir 👍 Tam.
We had one of these back in the 70's. Dad used it for his work truck. I rember it well as I used to go places with him in it all the time. I also remember it breaking a rear axle and watching the rear wheel pass us as we drove down Grey street in Hamilton east.
I love the comment. 'Interlocking Knees, sometimes the way new relationships are made'. I love these videos. These old cars are just so much more interesting than the new things where you wouldn't even be able to tell who they were made by apart from the fact they have badges on telling you. Top show Ian.
What a lovely condition that car is in - Great Video Ian. We're so glad such vehicles exist, we're so glad people are restoring them or keeping them going. Fantastic Trekka brochure. Brilliant. Very many thanks. Cheers.
...Trekka.. We Are unworthy. 💪🏻🤟🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻 Turners ,the Jowett agents also built the Trekka and did a deal with the commos to swap frozen lamb and butter for Chassis. In the 70's when running a workshop ,I did quite few which were all owned by farmers. One old maori bloke had one which he attempted to preserve from Rust by painting it,often,in different colours. One day he came in and told me he had just bought trekka car.. and proudly showed me his 1960 Skoda octavia. Biggest hassle was head gaskets ,which ,if the owner tried to do themselves often meant a complete engine teardown to fix the wet liners which would move. I think the worst i had to fix was one that bent in half after a load of sand was loaded into the back. Anyone familiar with Tatra Trucks will recognise the driveshaft and swing axle diff,being a ledwinka design.
@@gustavmeyrink_2.0 Yes, the Tatra V570 could be seen as a very early VW beetle prototype. Porsche basically stole the design concept from Barenyi , Ledwinka and Tatra.
Tatra had started infringement proceedings which came to nothing because Nazi Germany annexed Czechoslovakia but the moment Tatra had a presence this side of the iron curtain after the war VW paid them off for the Beetle design. Just wasn't sure it was the same Ledwinka.
I remember being in a queue at a car show to see the prototype, the chap in front of me was saying that this would be ideal for his work but his wife was less keen saying that she would not be seen dead in it as it looked like an old army truck.
At last, I've been hanging out for this one! A very fair and balanced review of a car that has a significant place in the Kiwi psyche. It's not a great car, but it is certainly loved. They don't come up for sale much so if I had the money and somewhere to keep it, I would be thinking about it. Would definitely take the roof off and then only use it on sunny days. As you probably know, Puke is pronounced Puck-eh, but it's certainly funnier pronounced the English way. As everyone living in Te Puke surely knows.
Hi! A shout out to the Kiwi people from Denmark another nation that attempted to develop a domestic car brand several times without lasting success. You did great with what you had and made a little mark in history and your culture with that nugget. It reminds me a bit of our Danbil in the 80'ies and Sommer Joker before that in the fact that the drivetrain, motor and so on was imported. I think Danbil was either Opel or VW guts and Sommer Joker was all Volvo Parts and some box section steel. The Trekka is much more handsome than the Sommer Joker.
@@erik_dk842 Yes but if you had a collision the car would survive and could be passed on to your widow or kids. Further that thing did not need a rollcage it was a rollcage!
The correct pronunciation of Octavia, here in the Czech Republic is the second of your two choices i.e. Octarvia. There's a really good museum in Mlada Boleslav, so why not come over and visit and maybe drive a few Czech classic Skodas, Tatras and Pragas. There's also a good Tatra museum at Kopřivnice in Moravia.
I love it! Not a hot rod but basics transportation to get you and some stuff from a to b. Ez to work on but....now parts are hard to get so don't break it.
Don't know if this has already been mentioned, but in the 1960's, a New Zealand businessman, Alan Gibbs, tried to start up a company to build a car here called the Anziel Nova. He planned to build 3000 cars per year, but the government effectively stopped the project. Alan Gibbs still owns the prototype to this very day. Image of the car in this article: www.themotorhood.com/themotorhood/2019/8/21/homegrown-kiwi-car-near-misses-the-anziel-nova-and-marlborough-carlton Wiki article on the project: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anziel_Nova
Noticed the old bloke getting into what looked like a new red Octavia @23:16 didn't even give you a second glance! Bet he didn't realise you were also driving a Skoda ;)
I recall 3 NZ guys driving the first Land Rover to New Zealand. One broke down in Istanbul and they were waiting for a part from England. I may have ridden in one of these vehicles. The land is very nice. I am from USA. We had an original Skoda in our country
A bank manager I knew in Melbourne once asked me: "You know how to set up a small.business? .. Set up a big business, get a New Zealander to run it, .. then wait."
The NZ Dairy board were owed so much money for Butter exported that they came up with a deal to use trade off the money owed for Skoda chassis. Hence the birth of the Trekka.
When I wrote my first comment I hadn't watched the video in full but was pleased to hear that I'm not the only person who thought it looked like Postman Pat's van! For all its faults though, it has bags of charm and I could quite happily imagine spending a few nights camping in it. It was well worth the wait to see this - thank you :)
@@fasthracing Jet boats, disposable syringes, electric fences, Ski planes, top dressing, the referee's whistle, the Gibbs Aquada, and of course McLaren racing.
seen these do amazing things, in the same breath seen them tip over many times.i thought it was great that ordinary people could buy this car at the time.the road speed limit at the time was 50 or 55mph.they didn't rust.oh yeah, we used to stop at stop signs too.you got some english driving habits.
Having been involved in the development of three different agricultural type vehicles, the Trantor, the Agrover and the RT 25 tractor I can both understand and sympathize with the numerous constraints and challenges that the New Zealanders laboured under. However, nothing ventured nothing gained, my journey started in the UK then India, The Gambia, Ghana and Tanzania. Along the way, I had many fascinating experiences and met many wonderful people, a unique journey in many ways.
Dad bought one for a farm vehicle late 60's But it was slightly modified as it had full cab with utility back and half doors. Two gearbox's one 4 speed the other 3 speed so we had 13 forward speeds and 7 reverse. Rear tires tractor tread type. Deadly on the road but OK on the farm off road, Bounced like a bronco our workers girlfriend said she needed steel bras when riding in it. Did sterling work for about a decade.
Dad bought one to use as a builders van, I remember stopping by the side of the road to clean the windscreen on a sunny day as the wipers were rubbish. It was not very long before he upgraded to a Falcon wagon.
I was waiting for this video so badly! I do like things that are far away from perfect - so I like the Trekka. The 50's sound is really great! Thank you...
What a charming little vehicle, from the flappy windshield wiper, to the "fireflies on coffee" turn signals! Would not have known such a vehicle existed, if it was not for your channel, so thanks for sharing this one!
The more I see of New Zealand the more I'd love to live there. Sadly they don't have much call for people who make parts for vintage motorcycles (or more to the point they have their own very capable vintage motor vehicle engineers) 😢 I can't afford the other option of investing £750000. Perhaps if I agree to drive a trekka forever?
I don't know why, but crude and slightly crappy vehicles are so utterly charming and very desirable. This isn't so much a car, more the sort of thing you would keep as a pet. One that you'd love to bits and regard as your best friend. You'd probably give it a name too. Or it might be that I'm just a bit wierd. Either way, I really love the Trekka, and I didn't even know they existed until I saw this video. Ian, please import one when you return to the UK. It would make a perfect Hubnut fleet car for the channel. 👍🚗
@@cocainecowboy_ but your not supposed to think that hard about the joke lol but i know what you mean. Here's another Skoda joke, How do you double the value of a Skoda...............fill the petrol tank up.
Aha - Firmly back to HubNutopia after those potent Fords and Holdens, eh? :D Very enjoyable episode - I doubt I will ever see one of those in real life. Extra points for sounding exactly as the intro to the 1974-version of Kraftwerk's classic "Autobahn" when driving off ;)
Sadly production had ceased by the time the optional typewriter was available. Awful in it's brilliance and brilliant in it's awfulness. Behold....the Trekka!
The Trekka looks what it is: A badly assembled kit car. Dymo labels for the controls? The cheapest rear lamps available and the interior fit and finish is laughable. Concept =Good. Reality=Rubbish.
surprised you slowed for the 50 kph limit, a speeding fine would be a badge of honour in a Trekka. You could note it on the top of the drivers door like a fighter pilot recording a victory. Also love the dancing windscreen wiper. Quality.
Has most of the handling characteristics of a 1956 Studebaker pickup, but with less power, geared low for a bit of grunt, with 65 horse power would make a passable farm runabout. Because of the gearing in the diff, (They could pull tree Stumps)when the Studebaker six got to 50- 55 miles an hour, the vibration harmonics would cause the truck to start to shudder, and bolts had to be tightened regularly. As the use was on non metal-ed roads and tracks, they did a decent job, never meant for modern highways. This Skoda, with a 1200 CC engine does remarkably well considering the low power band. I'd like the chance to drive it around as well!!
A fabulous example of how bonkers those Kiwis are. This, The Jet Boat, Zorbing, Bungee Jumping, The Jet Pack, Pavlova, Instant Coffee, McLaren.. Kiwis are awesome Bro!
That right wiper! "Let me show you the dance of my people"...
It's apparently a RAIN dance ...
🤣
😂
@@earnestbunbury2103 Really...
@@gosportjamie aah come on, that's just brilliant! 😂
Greetings from Ukraine to Czech Republic and New Zealand! Bravo, Škoda!
Please keep doing what you do. We’re not all top gear addicts.
I'm a Top Gear addict. But I also enjoy this kind of videos as much. HubNut and furiousdriving do a great job aswell as Top Gear. I just wish that the Top Gear trio would do reviews too, because they also do a very good job when they do and that Chris Goffey would still do videos, I liked him very much in the 90's.
Trekka. So many memories. We were the agents for them at 5 Star Motors in Christchurch. We hated them and tried to kill them. 'A' framing Kombis. Loading three 44 gallon drums of waste oil on the back of a pick-up, to empty the contents at the Bexley dump. Drifting round corners with the inside wheel off the ground. W/shop fitting a crude Skoda LSD in the diff, and then sticking a BT (Balanced Traction) badge on the back. Running into cars with rear wheels smoking and locked, with much positive camber. They didn't suffer from the 'Hate everything foreign eg Russian' syndrome here in NZ in the '60/70s. I saw graffiti scrawled on a parked 'Lada' . It was actually a Fiat 124, but the tree-hugger didn't know that. Pedant alert. 27.10 Not 'conTRACTor',but 'CONtractor.'
That transmission whine is heavenly!
@@glennpowell3444 Actually it is not staight cut, it has helical gears. That is probably why it has this sound. as well as because it uses Gleason type bevel gear in the differential. And also it is so loud because it has no sound proofing at all in the Trekka 😁because I don't think the original Octavia was so loud (though it was not quiet either).
Wonderful! The labels on the dash were made with a Dymo.
Nice, and period correct too...
I learned a long time ago crude vehicles beat walking any day.
As my dad used to say: "Third class riding beats first class walking."
Second Class Motoring Beats First Class Walking on a Rainy Day !!
And as my Dad used to say, "it's much better sitting crying in a car when it's raining than it is sitting crying on the sidewalk".
My diesel Peugeot 106 was a testament to this, it was shit but it was better than walking or taking the bus!
Exactly, I've gone through quite a few beat to shit snowmobiles that barely run but they were always better than trying to walk through 8 feet of snow
Fascinating little car. The engine and gearbox noise is actually really nice, in an old school kinda way.
Said the little Trekka "When I grow up, I want to be a Land Rover"
Oh bless it, in the opening shot it looks just like it's come off a kiddies' roundabout 🤗
It's got a Kiwi on the badge just like a McLaren. There, the similarities come to a screeching halt. But it's part of who we are and I'm proud of it.
Chur bro.
What kiwi? If you meant the manufacturer logo badge, it's not a kiwi, it's a deer with antlers. Btw, hi from Dunedin.
@@ChrisG3253032 According to the company the current badge has nothing to do with a Kiwi, but the original most definitely did and was even nicknamed the speedy kiwi. Love the Terminator pic.
It is oct-aah-via. Also, pronuncion of "Škoda" was spot on :D
Hi from Czech Republic!
Thank you! I did wonder...
@@HubNut In Welsh... Its Wythtavia.!! lol.!
Quite a lot of czechs are drawn to this channel. I guess we all find cheap cars interesting, as long as they are quirky.
Of all the cars you've driven this is the one I'd choose to own. It's simplicity is beautiful.
The worst car ever built.
The engine is in a remarkably clean condition. Love these sort of tests.
oil pressure too low to leak out!
I've never seen a wiper behave like that and, given that I do most of my driving in Scotland, the thought of it terrifies me.
It also reminded me of my first car. It was a Nissan Bluebird which I wisely decided I should drive from London to Fife on the day I bought it. (This was also the first time I'd driven since passing my test a few days earlier. I was a lot younger and far stupider then than I am now.)
We were overtaking an enormous lorry on the motorway in torrential rain when the driver's side wiper somehow got stuck on the edge of the windscreen. Luckily neither my passenger nor I panicked and she was able to guide me past the lorry then over to the hard shoulder, where we proceeded to panic once we were safe. So glad she'd decided to go with me that day as I'm less than sure I'd have managed on my own.
Love the Trekka! Born in -66 and a Skoda owner I love the utilitarian appearance! Just signed up for a Skoda Citigo-e and that's also very simple for being an electric vehicle.
I'd love a Citigo-e. Two things though - they don't sell them in my country, and if they did, I couldn't afford one. You're taste mirrors mine.
@@dlittlester in Sweden where I live we get a 60' SEK subsidy so they cost about USD 21000, but I'm leasing mine for USD 350/month including insurance and winter tires (obligatory according to law) for 36 months. Will see how we get along. Have an ace up my sleeve, my father in law lives close to us an he says we can borrow his Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV if we need long distance hauling.
Pure HN. Don't stress about quality content just knock more of these out. As you say it's a HN thing, speed, high octane and grace found elsewhere. And all the better for it.
What a great video Ian, so many memories. Learnt to drive as a young teen in a Trekka on uncles Waikato dairy farm, us kids called it "the rhino chaser". 😁
My girlfriend was miss waikato back in the 70s
I was a kid when these came out and we had allot of farmers in the family who were very proud of their "new" cars, anything else was pretty much unaffordable new. It was a car of its time and fairly popular including enthusiast clubs almost from the beginning. Oddly enough at the time my dad had American dollars for some obscure reason so was buying a new Holden every year and trading in the old one for more than the new one was worth effectively changing his yank bucks to Kiwi dollars via General motors and making a nice profit along the way. It was a strange economy back then.
Most of the Trekka's ended their days as paddock bashers on farms.
On the low reverse gear, I remember my father telling me that the cars he drove in his youth, which were the likes of late 30's or late 40's Austin 8s and such, had to be reversed up particularly steep hills. Cheers.
It's like a Chinese counterfeit Land Rover!
UA-cam is slowly starting to think I'm an Aussie, more and more recommendations for videos about Holdens etc are starting to appear. So thanks for that.
Just avoid recommendations for anything containing "John Cadogan",a very,very annoying man!.
@@k1ckyscotland988 Like an Aussie Scotty Kilmer lol 😂
Did Holden have a version of the Corsa C ? I'm on my second Vauxhall Corsa C . Back 10 years ago ,local English boy racers had a fad for rebadging them as Opel. I got the perverse idea of rebadging mine as Holden ,just for fun 🤪
Yes, saw a Corsa C yesterday with Holden badges. I've seen far more Corsa Bs, sold here as Holden Barina.
@@HubNut Brilliant Ian , thank you ! Enjoy the show in Melbourne 👍👍👍
It reminds me of a series Land Rover mixed with Postman Pat’s van. That transmission whine is just fantastic! Love the period correct power distribution solution in the rear, PDL gear by the look of it.
Irrelevant fact: in "North by Northwest" during the cab ride scene you can see a Skoda 445 Spartak in the backround. The Spartak then was facelifted into the Octavia.
what? screencap?
The engine noise and transmission whine reminds me of every car I travelled in during the 70s
What an absolutely charming vehicle!
Well done New Zealand. What an utterly charming little vehicle. Wonderful stuff.
Delightful, and you said what I was thinking... there’s a certain charm to very simple vehicles, crude as they may be. Perhaps it’s that they’re honest machines, with few pretensions. They are what they are, and can be very enjoyable, if a bit frightening.
Glad you dress for the occasion, it is the Hubnut attention to detail that makes the difference.
All the New Zealand adventures have been great!
Great review Ian. These were good little farm utes, as long as you kept out of the mud. We used to exercise our horse with our old one many many years ago. The other big issue was the cost to repair. As the chassis and engine parts were not simple to get and the cost to repair meant parking up or scraping.
Watching you drive that little box was simply joyous, and the 50s sound of the engine just sublime. Thank you very much for sharing your video Sir 👍 Tam.
love the engine noise! a charming little utilitarian vehicle for pottering around the village. thank you ian for a delightful half hour viewing :)
We had one of these back in the 70's. Dad used it for his work truck. I rember it well as I used to go places with him in it all the time. I also remember it breaking a rear axle and watching the rear wheel pass us as we drove down Grey street in Hamilton east.
I love the comment. 'Interlocking Knees, sometimes the way new relationships are made'. I love these videos. These old cars are just so much more interesting than the new things where you wouldn't even be able to tell who they were made by apart from the fact they have badges on telling you. Top show Ian.
What a lovely condition that car is in - Great Video Ian. We're so glad such vehicles exist, we're so glad people are restoring them or keeping them going. Fantastic Trekka brochure. Brilliant. Very many thanks. Cheers.
Had one of the original Skoda Octavia's. It felt like driving a tank while you were actually driving a bicycle.
...Trekka.. We Are unworthy. 💪🏻🤟🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻
Turners ,the Jowett agents also built the Trekka and did a deal with the commos to swap frozen lamb and butter for Chassis.
In the 70's when running a workshop ,I did quite few which were all owned by farmers. One old maori bloke had one which he attempted to preserve from Rust by painting it,often,in different colours. One day he came in and told me he had just bought trekka car.. and proudly showed me his 1960 Skoda octavia.
Biggest hassle was head gaskets ,which ,if the owner tried to do themselves often meant a complete engine teardown to fix the wet liners which would move. I think the worst i had to fix was one that bent in half after a load of sand was loaded into the back.
Anyone familiar with Tatra Trucks will recognise the driveshaft and swing axle diff,being a ledwinka design.
That the same Ledwinka who designed the VW Beetle?
@@gustavmeyrink_2.0 Yes, the Tatra V570 could be seen as a very early VW beetle prototype. Porsche basically stole the design concept from Barenyi , Ledwinka and Tatra.
Tatra had started infringement proceedings which came to nothing because Nazi Germany annexed Czechoslovakia but the moment Tatra had a presence this side of the iron curtain after the war VW paid them off for the Beetle design.
Just wasn't sure it was the same Ledwinka.
0:25 "postman pat, postman pat, pm pat and his ....."..
I was just thinking the exact same thing lol,
@@AJ-qn6gd :-)
Yep, NZ Post had many
Even the gearbox sounds like his van in the series🤣!
Only needs red paint....
I remember being in a queue at a car show to see the prototype, the chap in front of me was saying that this would be ideal for his work but his wife was less keen saying that she would not be seen dead in it as it looked like an old army truck.
Wives always ruin the fun.
That Ka looks neat. Love the way the wipers flap at 10 Mph.
At last, I've been hanging out for this one! A very fair and balanced review of a car that has a significant place in the Kiwi psyche. It's not a great car, but it is certainly loved. They don't come up for sale much so if I had the money and somewhere to keep it, I would be thinking about it. Would definitely take the roof off and then only use it on sunny days.
As you probably know, Puke is pronounced Puck-eh, but it's certainly funnier pronounced the English way. As everyone living in Te Puke surely knows.
When I lived in NZ many moons ago, If you said BBQ or took the roof off it always rained.
@@lesfox2010 I'm guessing you were in Wellington?
@@gordy_wgtn_j8 no, Auckland
I'm goin Te Puke. Love it.
Ah, its the original Skoda Octavia chasis, not "VW Skoda Octavia" underpinnings.
Wow, New Zealand looks like such a beautiful country!! Cool little car as well...
Just don't mention the rain....
@@lesfox2010 are you from England? "Pot" and "Black" come to mind!
@@Purlee100 Expat Kiwi. Know all about the rain growing up there.
Marty T has shown us what rain in NZ means. Holy cow.
Love it, what a great bit of history preserved and you brought it to us with your lovely dry humour. Real fun.
Hi! A shout out to the Kiwi people from Denmark another nation that attempted to develop a domestic car brand several times without lasting success. You did great with what you had and made a little mark in history and your culture with that nugget. It reminds me a bit of our Danbil in the 80'ies and Sommer Joker before that in the fact that the drivetrain, motor and so on was imported.
I think Danbil was either Opel or VW guts and Sommer Joker was all Volvo Parts and some box section steel. The Trekka is much more handsome than the Sommer Joker.
The Joker looked like a hen house on wheels
@@erik_dk842 Yes but if you had a collision the car would survive and could be passed on to your widow or kids. Further that thing did not need a rollcage it was a rollcage!
Personally I consider the "dancing wiper" to be a useful safety feature, serving as it does as a useful auxiliary speedometer.
The correct pronunciation of Octavia, here in the Czech Republic is the second of your two choices i.e. Octarvia. There's a really good museum in Mlada Boleslav, so why not come over and visit and maybe drive a few Czech classic Skodas, Tatras and Pragas. There's also a good Tatra museum at Kopřivnice in Moravia.
Yes, Czech Republic is very much on my wish list. Probably won't make it this year, but maybe next...
Taking styling cues from a Series Land Rover just means they have impecable taste! ;-)
Totally love everything about this beastie, so want one!
Top work mr hubnut!
A nice around town grocery getter vehicle
24:32 yours for $NZ21,500
It is a delightful mechanical symphony...I miss those sounds in cars.
ian you r a legend! been looking forward to this vid for ages! from a skoda fanatic.
I couldn't stop watching the dancing wiper!
I love it! Not a hot rod but basics transportation to get you and some stuff from a to b. Ez to work on but....now parts are hard to get so don't break it.
Don't know if this has already been mentioned, but in the 1960's, a New Zealand businessman, Alan Gibbs, tried to start up a company to build a car here called the Anziel Nova. He planned to build 3000 cars per year, but the government effectively stopped the project. Alan Gibbs still owns the prototype to this very day. Image of the car in this article:
www.themotorhood.com/themotorhood/2019/8/21/homegrown-kiwi-car-near-misses-the-anziel-nova-and-marlborough-carlton
Wiki article on the project:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anziel_Nova
I've always wanted to see and drive one of these. Thank you so much for the in-depth review! Perfect ♥️👏
Great explanation of how a swing axle works!
I love it ! The look, the feel, the confidence that it will probably keep running.
Has there ever been a more "HubNut" car.....
There are life achievements, and there are life achievements! You look so happy!
Noticed the old bloke getting into what looked like a new red Octavia @23:16 didn't even give you a second glance!
Bet he didn't realise you were also driving a Skoda ;)
I recall 3 NZ guys driving the first Land Rover to New Zealand. One broke down in Istanbul and they were waiting for a part from England. I may have ridden in one of these vehicles. The land is very nice. I am from USA. We had an original Skoda in our country
A bank manager I knew in Melbourne once asked me:
"You know how to set up a small.business? .. Set up a big business, get a New Zealander to run it, .. then wait."
k1w1
You forgot underarm bowling
Such a sad person am I that I’ve been on the edge of my seat in anticipation of this one.
Sad indeed
Yeah me too. Love it !
And me 👍
I was hoping it would happen too after seeing all the dead ones in the scrapyard videos
Magnificently HubNut
The NZ Dairy board were owed so much money for Butter exported that they came up with a deal to use trade off the money owed for Skoda chassis. Hence the birth of the Trekka.
Later on the NZDB imported the Lada's up until the end of the NZDB in 2001. By then it was only the Niva being imported.
I believe that was only the case in the Lada imports?
When I wrote my first comment I hadn't watched the video in full but was pleased to hear that I'm not the only person who thought it looked like Postman Pat's van! For all its faults though, it has bags of charm and I could quite happily imagine spending a few nights camping in it. It was well worth the wait to see this - thank you :)
Thanks 👍
I didn't even know Skoda made the Octavia in the 1960's
Great content, thanks for sharing.
An element of stability. Good luck .
classic hubnut episode. one of your very best, m8
I’ve always wondered and now I know. Postman Pat drove a Trekka.
New Zealand is responsible for many great things....
.... this isn't one of them.
Many great things? Ok name them.
Yeah I'm thinking........Nah I can't think of one important thing NZ has done for the world?
@@fasthracing Jet boats, disposable syringes, electric fences, Ski planes, top dressing, the referee's whistle, the Gibbs Aquada, and of course McLaren racing.
Edmund Hilary
Indeed true. I however am not a country or a nation.
seen these do amazing things, in the same breath seen them tip over many times.i thought it was great that ordinary people could buy this car at the time.the road speed limit at the time
was 50 or 55mph.they didn't rust.oh yeah, we used to stop at stop signs too.you got some english driving habits.
I noticed the Stop sign "error" as well
I’m so glad you got hold of one of these. A really interesting little vehicle and history.
So that is the result when a Land Rover and a Mini fell in love.How cuuuute !
"I couldn't find a button (for the rear window heater)" after first showing the button "de-mister".......😉😃
Having been involved in the development of three different agricultural type vehicles, the Trantor, the Agrover and the RT 25 tractor I can both understand and sympathize with the numerous constraints and challenges that the New Zealanders laboured under. However, nothing ventured nothing gained, my journey started in the UK then India, The Gambia, Ghana and Tanzania. Along the way, I had many fascinating experiences and met many wonderful people, a unique journey in many ways.
'Dancing wipers'.....Only on 'HUBNUT!' 😂
Dad bought one for a farm vehicle late 60's But it was slightly modified as it had full cab with utility back and half doors. Two gearbox's one 4 speed the other 3 speed so we had 13 forward speeds and 7 reverse. Rear tires tractor tread type. Deadly on the road but OK on the farm off road, Bounced like a bronco our workers girlfriend said she needed steel bras when riding in it. Did sterling work for about a decade.
Two gearboxes? Sounds like the Duzgo!
Dad bought one to use as a builders van, I remember stopping by the side of the road to clean the windscreen on a sunny day as the wipers were rubbish. It was not very long before he upgraded to a Falcon wagon.
Thanks for taking us on a ride in one, Ever since I learned these Trekka existed I wanted to know more about them.
Brilliant. This is real HubNut material. Its making me miss poor little TWC even more.
I was waiting for this video so badly! I do like things that are far away from perfect - so I like the Trekka. The 50's sound is really great! Thank you...
What a charming little vehicle, from the flappy windshield wiper, to the "fireflies on coffee" turn signals! Would not have known such a vehicle existed, if it was not for your channel, so thanks for sharing this one!
just shows you a car built in a diffrent time. and love the wiper blade moving around as you drive
What an absolutely charming video. The little car that couldn't quite, but had a damn good go....which is so Kiwi
Smashed it Mr Seabrook. Great car , great content , great presentation.
The more I see of New Zealand the more I'd love to live there. Sadly they don't have much call for people who make parts for vintage motorcycles (or more to the point they have their own very capable vintage motor vehicle engineers) 😢 I can't afford the other option of investing £750000. Perhaps if I agree to drive a trekka forever?
Really like the look of the trekka, I think the styling is awesome. Even if the front indicators make it look really sad. .
I don't know why, but crude and slightly crappy vehicles are so utterly charming and very desirable. This isn't so much a car, more the sort of thing you would keep as a pet. One that you'd love to bits and regard as your best friend. You'd probably give it a name too. Or it might be that I'm just a bit wierd. Either way, I really love the Trekka, and I didn't even know they existed until I saw this video. Ian, please import one when you return to the UK. It would make a perfect Hubnut fleet car for the channel. 👍🚗
13:06 you know why the heated window element was fitted don't you? to keep you hands warm whilst your pushing it :-) Can't beat an old Skoda joke lol
Doesn't really make sense the more thought you put into the joke, why would anyone push a car by its windows
@@cocainecowboy_ but your not supposed to think that hard about the joke lol but i know what you mean. Here's another Skoda joke, How do you double the value of a Skoda...............fill the petrol tank up.
@@paulrobinson3528 ik I just had it in my head for a few seconds and i got confused
A Skoda with a sunroof was referred to as a skip!
@@notmanynamesleft lol, that was the 3rd joke i was trying to remember but couldn't, alcohol pickled brain lol
This makes my vw trekker seem luxurious
Talking about postman Pat, we haven’t had any postcards from George lately! 🐈
Aww, poor you. Apparently he's on his hols at the beach until the end of the month.
What a charming little car that Trekka is. It reminds me of my old Land Rover series 3 I used to own
Aha - Firmly back to HubNutopia after those potent Fords and Holdens, eh? :D Very enjoyable episode - I doubt I will ever see one of those in real life. Extra points for sounding exactly as the intro to the 1974-version of Kraftwerk's classic "Autobahn" when driving off ;)
Sadly production had ceased by the time the optional typewriter was available. Awful in it's brilliance and brilliant in it's awfulness. Behold....the Trekka!
The Trekka looks what it is: A badly assembled kit car.
Dymo labels for the controls? The cheapest rear lamps available and the interior fit and finish is laughable.
Concept =Good. Reality=Rubbish.
@@@TomAlter1000
If the damn thing had been put together properly there would be no need for labels.
@@colintawn3535 unlabelled controls were common in the 1960s. Even on good cars.
@@colintawn3535 You were obviously born after 1960. The Trekka was a bit simpler from budget European cars of the day, but not by much.
surprised you slowed for the 50 kph limit, a speeding fine would be a badge of honour in a Trekka. You could note it on the top of the drivers door like a fighter pilot recording a victory. Also love the dancing windscreen wiper. Quality.
Has most of the handling characteristics of a 1956 Studebaker pickup, but with less power, geared low for a bit of grunt, with 65 horse power would make a passable farm runabout.
Because of the gearing in the diff, (They could pull tree Stumps)when the Studebaker six got to 50- 55 miles an hour, the vibration harmonics would cause the truck to start to shudder, and bolts had to be tightened regularly.
As the use was on non metal-ed roads and tracks, they did a decent job, never meant for modern highways. This Skoda, with a 1200 CC engine does remarkably well considering the low power band. I'd like the chance to drive it around as well!!
A beautiful little car. I want one
Enjoyed the video!
Also learned that NZ has the same electric plug shape as we have in Australia! :)
We use the same standards for lots of things.
A fabulous example of how bonkers those Kiwis are. This, The Jet Boat, Zorbing, Bungee Jumping, The Jet Pack, Pavlova, Instant Coffee, McLaren.. Kiwis are awesome Bro!
They can keep their grubby little Kiwi mitts off our pavlova.
IT'S OURS!