Sinkingly, this diligent workhorse dragged a ton of Ost-Zeug around without grumbling or cutting zones.
Performance
With 42 hp between the front seats, that seemed like a big job. The small two-stroke three-cylinder, however, had little trouble with it, as long as it didn't have to be at dizzying speeds. Moreover, those 990 cc produced more horsepower than a T1 released on the rear wheels. The Barkas B1000 was dragged through the front wheels through this power pack. Without that thousand kilos of cargo on board, 100 km / h was already a major achievement, with a little wind on the head a utopia. A high top speed was not possible, he reached a good age with ease. The convex bus turned out to be extremely reliable.
Appearances are deceiving
After all, this Ost-Bulli had proved that after thirty years. In 1961 the Barkas B1000 came on the market in the GDR as a modern and attractive buyer. Only in 1991 did the curtain fall for this mule on wheels. By that time he was completely out of time and outdated, almost ubiquitous nowadays. That is certainly not always a recommendation, but the Barkas B1000 is very sympathetic. Almost touching, as if he is not hurting a fly. But appearances are deceptive. He not only crushed insects with his windshield and enormously mischievous bakkes, the exuberantly smoldering two-character behind it unintentionally demolished almost the entire living environment with a ruthless fanaticism. But hardly anyone was busy with that.
Versatile
The van itself was, with anything and everything. Over the years, countless variants have been released, for each subject or discipline a customized Barkas seemed to be available. The Barkas B1000 sputtered through the eastern block as an ambulance, passenger bus, police car, camper, tow truck, pickup, tractor-trailer, fire engine, shop or the Stasi might know what. And always smoking to your heart's content, just like everyone else back then. The Barkas B1000 indestructibly did what was asked of him, you just had to take his morning mood into account. Once started, nothing stopped him and he asked for little in return, in the form of maintenance or other special attention. Enough gas and a lot of oil, that was enough.
Succes
In 1990 the Barkas B1000 was considerably modernized and available with a four-stroke Volkswagen engine. This B1000-1 was not a success: after fewer than 2000-built copies, the old-fashioned Barkas finally went out of production a year later. More than 175.000 copies were built from its predecessor. The convex and reliable Bulli quit smoking late, but grew quite old with it. A justified and striking success.
Barkas was also supplied with a diesel engine from Ford at the end of its career
The East Germans had more products that were basically (but not in the implementation) better than the products of the West Germans. This is a good example of this. Because VW's acclaimed T-series not only required a lot of fuel and oil, but also the flexibility of the driver and passengers to escape death from a tilted T. And an elastic engineer to tinker through the small hatch at the back. Long live the Barkas!
the neighbor (had a taxi company) also did an ambulance job once bought a hail of new barkas never experienced anything else if he chose to jerk off the whole neighborhood behind that bitch had to push to get him talking (nice detail the horns were fitted with squeeze balls 🙂 you had to squeeze yourself in the right order) a Mercedes ambulance was quickly purchased