@@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. 👌
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.
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.
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.
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 :)
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.
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
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!
@@Amai-Kurvi-Tasch 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.
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!
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
I love how you acknowledge the cars you feature are often terrible and shouldn't have been made in the first place but should also be looked after and preserved. I like the "This is crap, I don't know why it was made but it was and so we should ensure it's looked after as there's not many around" attitude.
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 ! :)
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?
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.
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.
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.
I gotta love that there is a can of starter fluid, a wrench, and a roll of tape sitting ready in the dash tray, as absolutely essential accessories for driving this thing
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!
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.
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
If you are having problems with idling, your engine might be loosing compression, or you have incorrect air/fuel ratio. What type of carburetor are you using? If it is the 28H 1-1 it has a bypass idling fuel and air nozzles, or how do you cal them... passages inside the carb itself, so you may need to clean them, there is also a needle screw behind the throttle - choke linkage that needs cleaning and re-adjusting. Older carburetors seem to be running without issues from my experience. Oh, and I almost forgot, the level of the fuel inside the carb needs to be set correctly, so it does not overflow and flood the intake. There is a needle that gets worn down above the float ball, if it is faulty, not closing the fuel valve will cause the gas to drip underneath the car in a few minutes. Hope you find this helpful!
It might also be an air leak between the air cleaner and the carburetor. Mine does that, and I have to get a better quality air intake hose. Put your hand over the air cleaner while the car is running. If the car starts to shut off, the air path is OK. But if it does nothing, and then only starts to shut off when you put you hand over the carburetor throat itself, then the air intake hose needs to be replaced.
I have removed the air filter and replaced it with a cone filter - the car runs with no problem, and runs the same without an air filter, so a bad hose should not be a problem.
I would have to say a Trabant engine doesn’t get hurt from going down a hill with throttle closed so much as more likely from running too lean or not having enough oil in the gas in the first place. With needle bearing connecting rods you KNOW when you don’t have enough oil.
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.
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
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.
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.
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
Hi, I am from germany and the "Trabant 601 s deluxe" was my first car in 1996/97. It was a great car and a nighmare. I could repair and maintane everything all by my self, no electronics just bare mechanical Problems and there where not much. For the downside: it was loud, I melted in the heat of the summer (no ac) and was freezing in the winter because the heater was a joke. It uses the heat of the engine to heat up the air that comes into the cabin - it does not work well. But great memories and a great east-german car.
BTW the rough idle you can adjust with the idle air scew on the carburetor. Also look at the fly wheel adjusting ignition timing. At idle speed it should be around -0.5mm and higher rpm's it should move to -4mm before upper piston position. Before my escape from east Germany I used to repair pretty sure everything on both my Trabbies.
I used to have a pea green one in 2001 when I lived in Poland. I loved it. It was very quick in first gear. Loved the smell of the 2 stroke exhaust fumes. 👃
This stick shift is the best anti-theft device I have seen so far. would be interesting to see hidden camera footage someone trying to drive away with that and then give up after 3 hours of trying :D
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.
I used to have the hatchback version of the Trabi when I was studying at the University I Bucharest, Romania :). I drove a lot. It was able to climb some steep hills loaded with 4 adult people and a trunk full of baggage. Granted, the smoke tail it was leaving behind was as long as the road over that hill :)
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...
Ah, yes. Leave us with the 'peaceful' ending that is a Trabant wheezing down the road, while many parts are rattling, clucking, and the engine groans down the road. And all while melting a small icecap. How peaceful.
I love your video. It really makes me want a Trabant. I didn't even know they existed. Many years ago, a friend had a car with a 4 speed shifter on the column and it was fun to drive. I think it may have been a Fiat. My daily driver is a 1982 Isuzu I-Mark diesel. 51 fire-breathing horsepower. It has 470,000 miles and can still give 45 miles per gallon. I just love it. Cannot give it up. I love your Trabant!
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."
Just to let you know, we got a spell in Germany (eastern Gemany) "Who ever can drive a Trabant properly can drive any car of the world" XD And after the great video you know why XD
Niiice. I am from Hungary, my grandmother had Trabants since I was 6 up until '99 or so. My wife's parents also owned one for several years and they gave it to me for a few years to use. I just estimated I drove these cars for around 25000 miles. I was even doing 75 mph in them on the highway! Scary as hell, but also fun! I loved them, actually a well tuned one is pretty quick from 0 to 30, so a good option for in-town driving. ... :-)
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 :-)
Have had and have som real old cars myself, one of the funniest things is that you feel like a rallcross driver when driving according to speed limit, to brake the speed limit is more a goal while driving, especially in winter conditions. And you are really DRIVING, your shifting, braking etc gives direct feedback, a modern car is so forgiving I have seen 10yo stealing their parents cars, wont happen with e.g a Trabant.. Cheers from Scandinavia
@@ZGryphon Don't forget the technology is over sixty years old. And it is still working. After my grandfather had come back from the war he was happy about this little "pearl", which was his first car after a life in sadness and misery.
This is the first video of yours I have seen and I dig it. Your explanation of how this is just like any other modern car is spot on. The driving footage was awesome, it looked like you were going much faster than you really were. The Trabant has a lot of, um, character. I still want one.
Having the 4th gear in up position makes perfect sense since then the lever will be out of the way most of the time. Like the R4 that in early 70s had the 4th when the lever was pushed in but later changed to normal config which meant the lever was in the way most of the time
Having idle problems could be a worn throttlevalve ,or better said the throttlevalve shaft that might be worn out so extra air can enter the throttlebody causing your idle mixture to be off, at higher RPM and under normal driving you can experience a hesitation upon acceleration from lower RPM,s. Try finding out if your throttlevalve has play on the shaft bearings,especialy on the side where the throttlecable is mounted,these carb,s will wear out on that side causing it to leak air .
I was watching Amazing Race and they had to drive a Trabant, a search of UA-cam brought me to your video. We met at Stone Mountain in 2016 I have the 1967 MC the same color as yours. I love your videos!
I love your enthusiasm about the Trabbi! My dad had one in the 80s. Fun fact 1: The Trabant's engine was manufactured in a town called _"Karl-Marx-Stadt"._ Fun fact 2: In the GDR, due to the shortage of everything, second-hand cars were more expensive than new cars. (you probably already heart about the waiting time of 10 to 12 years. My dad said that the longer the car the longer you have to wait, if you want a new car. And that is why there were more sub-compact Trabants than larger, but still compact cars like Wartburg, Lada or Skoda in the GDR.)
@@Pedroleum100 Indeed you are right ! The engine was made in 'Barkas'- works in Chemnitz (former Karl-Marx-Stadt), and the car was assembled in "Sachsenring" Zwickau. Thanks for being so attentive, and good luck !
I drove my trabant a couple of times today yet i enjoyed this video. :) i didn't know that v4 saabs had freewheeling, thought that was just the two strokes. I had horrible idle problems and solved it by replacing a pinched fuel hose and taking apart the carburator and cleaning it out. and did all the adjustments if you have the HB28 its only two screws, for easier access to the fuel mixture i bent a steel wire at 90 degrees and could turn the screw a quarter turn at a time the other is the one on the throttle valve stop.. correct idle seems to be about when the charge light goes out, on the 6v models.
I ordered one 11 years before reunification. Still waiting for it.
Is this a joke or actually real?
- Skyline - i can imagine this is real
@@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. 👌
Depreciation was inexistent. You rolled out on the gate and your car worth 5x times of it price you paid.
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…
Memories we don't get with new cars.
@@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.
My ...is built 1965.
I'm the second owner. Yeah...still running!
“And up into 4th.”
“And up into 4th.”
“And up into 4th.”
And reverse...
And reverse...
*clunk*
There we go!
cha cha real smooth.
He is gentle ... and this is trabant, it needs some violence for a nice releationship.
@@varsamJust like every relationship should! (jk)
did you mean
10 print "And up into 4th"
20 goto 10
The longest car in the World! - 3 meters car and 30 meters of smoke
hahaha
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 :)
Wartburg bre
wartburg limuzina ua-cam.com/video/pvG7vi3bFCY/v-deo.html
Lol!
How do you double the value of a trabant? Fill the gas tank.
How do you triple the value?
Buy a fuel cap.
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
@@damnedlegionaire u can quadruple it buy buying a spare tire
@@ionavram4002 Or putting a pair of sneakers in the trunk. Btw. That's also how you turn a Trabant into a sports car.
If these are this cheap we need some of these in the states
“What country is this from?”
“It no longer exists.”
Simpsons
Put it in H!
@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.
In Germany we say: "If you can drive a Trabant you can drive everything."
Sehr lustig 😂
What about a Mercedes-Benz CapaCity L? 🤔
And we say that also in Hungary.
Trabant ist recht easy zu fahren. Da hab ich schon schlimmeres gefahren.
Sagt niemand
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.
Car: East German
License plate: Hungarian
Driver: American
Hotel? Trivago.
Witzig!
Penis haircut
@@Sachsenfuchs Er ist aber kein Deutscher
@@JustA.Person macht nix
@Daniel ! Hi also from Hungary
R Stands for Reserve
Z Stands for Zu (Closed)
A Stands for Auf (Opened)
Great Video! Greetings From Germany.
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 :)
A few nicknames for the car:
- trabi
- pekperepek (the sound of the Trabant engine)
- plastik fantastik
- smrdljivac (stinky)
doesnt R for Rückwarts ?
+johnnyhun1 no. He said its the reserve. not reverse. It wouldnt make a lot of sense.
NOPE! it meany RALLYE!! :)
I'm a simple eastern European. I see a Trabant I press like.
why not !
same here bro
Me too. Did you see the registration plate is Hungarian? :D
@@MMKaresz_az_eredeti kajak dekomoly 😂😂
1.1k likes. thank me -later- never
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.
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.
This entire comment was really wholesome until the last sentence
Is it allowed to drive Trabant nowadays because of extreme pollution?
@@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
Yeah, we will now always remember the Trabant as that one dudes sex car
A little skill and a dollop of enthusiasm, a swap to a better and cleaner engine wouldn't be difficult
"What country is this from?" "It no longer exists."
East Germany or "German Democratic Republic" (GDR), in german "Deutsche Demokratische Republik" (DDR)
Pocket Fluff Productions put it in H!"
Patrick Grainger Blyat!!! You beat me to it!!!!
It will do 40 hectares on single tank of kerosene.
Hungary "H"
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!
These old cars are a space mystery. They look tiny, and are too, but somehow, you can fit everything in them. They're absolutely magical.
@@justjaguar2314 maybe because the paper thin walls don't take away from the inside space, they take away from your life expectancy.
Curiously why didnt you just drive to work？
@@Amai-Kurvi-Tasch 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.
She'll go 300 hectares on a single tank of kerosene.
"Poot it in H!!!"
_"The country where this car was made doesn't exist anymore"_
@@FuzzBass66 HAHA. I can see that scene in my head... losing it.
Take it for a drive and you'll agree, Zagreb minik zloty diev!
@@JMG_86 and you'll agree
A true car aficionado...no music, no talking and no anything else. Just car. Bonus points for you sir.
yeah, that's called driving
A man who chooses to drive, let alone own and maintain, a trabby deserves a hug and a 6 month voucher for counseling services. Love your channel.
That's the beauty of this channel.
Your Trabant has a heater?! Decadent Luxury! Standard Trabants were issued without one.
Heaters are for capitalist pigs!
Also, you don't listen to the radio. The radio listens to you (if it has one)
In the deluxe version it had a rpm gauge and a fuel gauge with a radio installed and a heater
@Nihil Patel to frigging funny caught me by surprise!
It's the high spec version they sold as Trabant Limousine.
This really makes me want a trabant
Get in line.
Order today and get it by 2035!
Hey Speed Comparer. Ich hab einen, kannst ihn dir ja mal für ein Video leihen^^
The car is just plastic trust me my grandma drives her 50 year old to this day and its a mess
mess? No, its just a car. I have one and can drive it like any other car.
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!
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.
It was called Rennpappe in Germany, which means racing-cardboard (box) ...
@@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!
@@davidjones332 Those were likely East Germans.
The wildly underrated, old cardboard cars. Good ol' Trabants.
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.
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!
Robert: This is a fairly rare car in the United States, so I want to save it as much as possible
Also Robert: takes it auto crossing rally style
The hardest part of driving a Trabant in the DDR was to get one in the first place.
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".
@@klausadrift7568 it was a mix of 18, 15, 9, and if you were lucky 2 or 3
zumindest als Neuwagen und gebraucht überteuert
@@klausadrift7568 literally nobody ever waited more than 2 years for one of them
@@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.
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.
Daniel Dacey she must be really desperate
We're talking about the car, not you Ben.
Pushing it will save on gym fees 😂😂 and you'll appreciate buses and trains more
Actually, girls think it's cute and it does get you lots of attention.
Almost as effective as a puppy haha.
yes so true - such things can be a 'quality woman magnet' !
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).
You mean rounds per minute not tournaments hahaha.
@@LMvdB02 That's RpM ! (rotations)
No, rpm stands for revolutions per minute. As in a rotating revolver cylinder and “revving-up” an engine.
Addition: In the context of the performance of a machine gun: yes, rounds (bullets) per minute.
@@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.
The smell when you start the trabant when it's cold. As a 80's kid from thuringia in east germany a trabant smells like childhood. :D
Is that even a real country?
Edit: nvm its probably a town name
@@peytonpanos7026 No it is not a town name, it is the name of one of 16 German states. Thuringia is located between the state of Bavaria and Saxony
@@dejan.b17 thank you.
Stimmt.
2 Takt Geruch ist einfach geil und für ostler lebensnotwendig
I've always aid a Yugo was a huge step up from this car and a bus pass was a huge step up from both of them.
I remember trabi was almost the same pre-war third reich DKW technology. Yugo was designed 40 years later.
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
I am from Hungary and my father used to have a Trabant when I was a child. The sound of the engine brings back memories, thanks for the video!
Lmao imagine you are driving and someone overtakes you in this thing.
Imagine when he overtakes other cars. Those drivers must be boiling to see a cheap communist car shaming their "big tiger".
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.
@@zsszeli 130kmh is possible with luck. source: my own eyes.
*Trabant suddenly transforms into T-72B*
You have to imagine it because it will never actually happen.
The fact that you have that red sticker on the rear, saying: "When I grow up, I'll become a Mercedes! ^_^" ... I found that to be so cute lol :D
I love how you acknowledge the cars you feature are often terrible and shouldn't have been made in the first place but should also be looked after and preserved. I like the "This is crap, I don't know why it was made but it was and so we should ensure it's looked after as there's not many around" attitude.
As a Hungarian I love you kept the Hungarian number plate 😁
Helyesen ugy hívják : license plate.
I grew up in Germany and these were the subject of many funny jokes from my parents. So this car is a bit of nostalgia for me
Istvan Farkas some friendly Hungarian people made a nice game called “The Long Drive” you should check it out
@@gabortamas7493 Köszi, anglia északi részen number plate-nek hívják 🤓
@@datsun100a3 Thanks I'll have a look
And up into 4th... And up into 4th... And up into 4th... Made me laugh harder than it should
ikr
All those old shifters are like that you put it into gear or you don't or it just skips.
“And off the gas at 70 mph... 70 km/h, ‘scuse me.”
1:28 And reverse is all the way forward, and down... And down... And down- there we go. That's reverse.
I wish I had one.
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 ! :)
The Trabant (trabi) is a ZERO emissions vehicle!
it has Zero emissions controls in place!
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.
Got the name of that study?
@@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?
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.
From which Country came you? :-)
I'am from GDR! :D
Lada was the prestige car
metal door? komerade i thing u mean cardboard and cotton
@@ionavram4002 he referred to the metal frame on that the car bord cotton mix was secured with resin
Maik Weiß the Lada Niva? 😅✌️
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.
How to Drive a Trabant simple just floor the hell out of it like crazy and you'll be fine🤣🤣🤣
No longass intros and straight to a topic.
My man.
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.
Very well said, sir! :)
Amen
>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.
I gotta love that there is a can of starter fluid, a wrench, and a roll of tape sitting ready in the dash tray, as absolutely essential accessories for driving this thing
You don´t drive Trabant, Traband drives you (insane).
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!
It's fairly simple job , maybe it's also the reason that he finds 70 a good cruising speed . we always had pedal to the metal and drove 105 -:)
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.
I have only one question HOW DID YOU FIND A HUNGARIAN TRABANT IN GOOD CONDITION???????????!?!!!?!!?
I'm occasionally in Budapest, and well preserved Trabis are not all that rare.
ahogy látom, itt a magyar gang
@@barnabasantoni-kovacs9631 hát persze
Hát igen
@Daniel ! Iggen
its made from duroplast - it never rusts!
The panels are. The rest rusts like crazy, you just don't see the thing rusting on first glance.
And gets eaten by rats
And goats! In case you ever run low of fodder in the collective farm, comrade...
Mental Gear and a pig from the movie Bubamara
fiberglass
A FRIEND OF MINE drove one across Africa - it was hysterical...
But the cornering is astonishing in them, they are so light they corner AMAZINGLY.
I love that you kept the Hungarian plate :D
DaneShady nekem is feltűnt
Nekem is :D
Nekem is :)
nekem is
Hajrá Magyarok! :D
I love the Trabant. Great video :D
Greetings from Zwickau, where the Trabant was built :D
Galant, greetings from NY. I was shocked to see the Trabi had cup holders. I thought they were considered Bourgeois... no?
@@RandallFlaggNY Like most old european cars, Trabant did not have any cup holders, he put him there himself.
Galantdriver :D
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
6:48 *a wild tricycle appears"
My grandfather still has one of these badboys.
(The 4 stroke actually but still)
Then it was one of the last. With the VW engine.
My dad let me drive one when I was a kid, living in east Berlin. It’s nice to see that they are still some of those cars around. I enjoyed your video.
If you are having problems with idling, your engine might be loosing compression, or you have incorrect air/fuel ratio. What type of carburetor are you using? If it is the 28H 1-1 it has a bypass idling fuel and air nozzles, or how do you cal them... passages inside the carb itself, so you may need to clean them, there is also a needle screw behind the throttle - choke linkage that needs cleaning and re-adjusting. Older carburetors seem to be running without issues from my experience. Oh, and I almost forgot, the level of the fuel inside the carb needs to be set correctly, so it does not overflow and flood the intake. There is a needle that gets worn down above the float ball, if it is faulty, not closing the fuel valve will cause the gas to drip underneath the car in a few minutes. Hope you find this helpful!
It might also be an air leak between the air cleaner and the carburetor. Mine does that, and I have to get a better quality air intake hose. Put your hand over the air cleaner while the car is running. If the car starts to shut off, the air path is OK. But if it does nothing, and then only starts to shut off when you put you hand over the carburetor throat itself, then the air intake hose needs to be replaced.
I have removed the air filter and replaced it with a cone filter - the car runs with no problem, and runs the same without an air filter, so a bad hose should not be a problem.
I would have to say a Trabant engine doesn’t get hurt from going down a hill with throttle closed so much as more likely from running too lean or not having enough oil in the gas in the first place. With needle bearing connecting rods you KNOW when you don’t have enough oil.
Trabant owner here! This car is a legend to me! Apreciate the video.
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.
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
and it's made of cardboard
roberttoth8923 how many people does it take to build a Trabi?
Two! One holds the cardboard, the other one applies the glue! 🤣😂
Now that's a true chick magnet. Love the Trabants
Definitely. If his rivals for a young lady's attention only had mopeds, the Trabant owner was king.
It's a magnet, but oftentimes the wrong polarity...
Blind deaf chicks that can't detect odors?
My wife loved the vibration coming up through the passenger seat. No kidding.
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.
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^^
It was the Zu I had trouble finding. This is mostly because I thought German for "on" was "ein", but I clearly know nothing.
Jonas Simson power
Ein is singular isnt it "ich bin ein mann"
Eine is feminine and Einen is when you possess something (I believe)
'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.
Broienk Baieyne You're completely right! Ich komme übrigens aus Deutschland 😉
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
Hi, I am from germany and the "Trabant 601 s deluxe" was my first car in 1996/97.
It was a great car and a nighmare. I could repair and maintane everything all by my self, no electronics just bare mechanical Problems and there where not much.
For the downside: it was loud, I melted in the heat of the summer (no ac) and was freezing in the winter because the heater was a joke. It uses the heat of the engine to heat up the air that comes into the cabin - it does not work well.
But great memories and a great east-german car.
BTW the rough idle you can adjust with the idle air scew on the carburetor. Also look at the fly wheel adjusting ignition timing. At idle speed it should be around -0.5mm and higher rpm's it should move to -4mm before upper piston position. Before my escape from east Germany I used to repair pretty sure everything on both my Trabbies.
I learned driving a car in a Trabi when I was 12 years old. This was in 1984 in the GDR.
The SAAB is a treat I gotta say. Worked building SAAB in the 80's but the 96 V4 is the coolest of them all.
What's with the windshield wipers parked in the middle of the windshield?
that's not a fault, it's a feature. it's so you know your car has windshield wipers. not to brag or anything..
The trabant wipers stop exactly where they are when you turn them off. ;)
That’s the LaMans GT racer look option 🏁
That is their lowest position.
Needs quite a practice to stop them at their lowest point and their lowest point was quite high anyway , sorta slightly blocking your view .
I used to have a pea green one in 2001 when I lived in Poland. I loved it. It was very quick in first gear. Loved the smell of the 2 stroke exhaust fumes. 👃
This stick shift is the best anti-theft device I have seen so far. would be interesting to see hidden camera footage someone trying to drive away with that and then give up after 3 hours of trying :D
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.
You are the most elegant commenter
I loved that there was a Nissan leaf that drove past too
I would frame that comment and put it over my bed
I am from Germany and my grandma had her Trabant from 1961 and still drive like Pro
This is the kind of content we need should we end up with a Trabant that we need to know how to operate.
I used to have the hatchback version of the Trabi when I was studying at the University I Bucharest, Romania :). I drove a lot. It was able to climb some steep hills loaded with 4 adult people and a trunk full of baggage. Granted, the smoke tail it was leaving behind was as long as the road over that hill :)
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...
Thats interesting. You can barely see any Trabant in Czech republic today. Sometimes in the villages sometimes some enthusiast...
Yeah ikr here near Erfurt you also see them quite alot.
vasek987 But you czechs still have a lot of old Skodas and a fanbase around it. Beautiful cars.
Leider nicht mehr. Ein paar fahren in Dresden als Mietautos rum, der Rest in nur noch in Liebhaberhand
@@Jonathan1234345 aber viele sind es wirklich nicht mehr.
Ah, yes. Leave us with the 'peaceful' ending that is a Trabant wheezing down the road, while many parts are rattling, clucking, and the engine groans down the road. And all while melting a small icecap.
How peaceful.
I love your video. It really makes me want a Trabant. I didn't even know they existed. Many years ago, a friend had a car with a 4 speed shifter on the column and it was fun to drive. I think it may have been a Fiat. My daily driver is a 1982 Isuzu I-Mark diesel. 51 fire-breathing horsepower. It has 470,000 miles and can still give 45 miles per gallon. I just love it. Cannot give it up. I love your Trabant!
I still prefer the 2CV...but this has undeniable motorhead charm.
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."
It's probably registered as a vintage car.
Just to let you know, we got a spell in Germany (eastern Gemany) "Who ever can drive a Trabant properly can drive any car of the world" XD
And after the great video you know why XD
That sounds interesting
Niiice. I am from Hungary, my grandmother had Trabants since I was 6 up until '99 or so. My wife's parents also owned one for several years and they gave it to me for a few years to use. I just estimated I drove these cars for around 25000 miles. I was even doing 75 mph in them on the highway! Scary as hell, but also fun! I loved them, actually a well tuned one is pretty quick from 0 to 30, so a good option for in-town driving. ... :-)
Right ! Acceleration was much better than of larger cars, you never had problems keeping pace up to fifty miles per hour.
It's nice the windshield wipers are always right in your line of sight. Otherwise you might forget you have them.
5:10 it has an old hungarian licence plate!😮
Jaja
Igen
Haha, it's so surreal seeing you cruising along in a Trabant in the area I grew up in. Cool videos.
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 :-)
I saw the trabant club run in Berlin from west to east this year in May. About 20+ of them all on the same run through Berlin, was awesome.
Oh, the childhood memories..
Have had and have som real old cars myself, one of the funniest things is that you feel like a rallcross driver when driving according to speed limit, to brake the speed limit is more a goal while driving, especially in winter conditions. And you are really DRIVING, your shifting, braking etc gives direct feedback, a modern car is so forgiving I have seen 10yo stealing their parents cars, wont happen with e.g a Trabant.. Cheers from Scandinavia
ahhhh , the trabant , the car made out of cardboard....
i miss this car.
Alacorn Ooh , i am here , comrade
Daniel Bin Hujan Omar what ?
Mai traiesti?
It wasn't made from cardboard but from a mix of resin and cotton.
yep, it was first sign of climate comptrollers
Trabant was the car in which I was learning how to drive. Unforgettable memories.
As an east german, who's grandfather used to drive a Trabbi, i'm really happy to see this east german classic getting some love from overseas :)
As a German, I'm happy to see that this Car is stil getting respected
I'm not sure "respected" is really the word. :)
Jo sind meine Eltern damals gefahren. Schönes Auto.
@@ZGryphon Don't forget the technology is over sixty years old. And it is still working. After my grandfather had come back from the war he was happy about this little "pearl", which was his first car after a life in sadness and misery.
This is the first video of yours I have seen and I dig it. Your explanation of how this is just like any other modern car is spot on. The driving footage was awesome, it looked like you were going much faster than you really were. The Trabant has a lot of, um, character. I still want one.
Having the 4th gear in up position makes perfect sense since then the lever will be out of the way most of the time. Like the R4 that in early 70s had the 4th when the lever was pushed in but later changed to normal config which meant the lever was in the way most of the time
When you mix your sarcasm and your seriousness, i cant tell which is which
Just like a 2-stroke engine. You mix'em
@@nicrobe9443 😂😂
Having idle problems could be a worn throttlevalve ,or better said the throttlevalve shaft that might be worn out so extra air can enter the throttlebody causing your idle mixture to be off, at higher RPM and under normal driving you can experience a hesitation upon acceleration from lower RPM,s.
Try finding out if your throttlevalve has play on the shaft bearings,especialy on the side where the throttlecable is mounted,these carb,s will wear out on that side causing it to leak air .
I was watching Amazing Race and they had to drive a Trabant, a search of UA-cam brought me to your video. We met at Stone Mountain in 2016 I have the 1967 MC the same color as yours. I love your videos!
OMG This is exactly the car Bob Parr had in The Incredibles!!!
Hungarian licence plate :o
Great video! Greetings from Hungary 🇭🇺
I love your enthusiasm about the Trabbi! My dad had one in the 80s.
Fun fact 1: The Trabant's engine was manufactured in a town called _"Karl-Marx-Stadt"._
Fun fact 2: In the GDR, due to the shortage of everything, second-hand cars were more expensive than new cars. (you probably already heart about the waiting time of 10 to 12 years. My dad said that the longer the car the longer you have to wait, if you want a new car. And that is why there were more sub-compact Trabants than larger, but still compact cars like Wartburg, Lada or Skoda in the GDR.)
The car was not manufactured in Karl-Marx-Stadt (Chemnitz) but in Zwickau, former enterprise was 'Horch'.
@@henryseidel5469 - You misread my post. I said that the car's engine was manufactured in KMS, not the car itself.
@@Pedroleum100 Indeed you are right ! The engine was made in 'Barkas'- works in Chemnitz
(former Karl-Marx-Stadt), and the car was assembled in "Sachsenring" Zwickau. Thanks for being so attentive, and good luck !
I drove my trabant a couple of times today yet i enjoyed this video. :) i didn't know that v4 saabs had freewheeling, thought that was just the two strokes. I had horrible idle problems and solved it by replacing a pinched fuel hose and taking apart the carburator and cleaning it out. and did all the adjustments if you have the HB28 its only two screws, for easier access to the fuel mixture i bent a steel wire at 90 degrees and could turn the screw a quarter turn at a time the other is the one on the throttle valve stop.. correct idle seems to be about when the charge light goes out, on the 6v models.