Martin de Jong has had one for six years Trabant 601 from 1965. Now he is looking. Who bought this car without frills at the time?
By: Max the Warrior
Martin loves his Trabant 601. It feels like an adopted child to him. That is why he is looking for the first owner. AND the second and maybe more. He has already seen the owners from 1988. Paper ashes come to the table. Everything for 1988 is therefore unknown and thus shrouded in mist as if a Trabant is passing by. And there is that gap, despite his further searches in the dark cave of the past.
Back in time
“The RDW does not go far back in time. I ride the ambulance, so I have connections with the police. They too cannot look far back. Binckhorst in The Hague was the importer of Trabant. They are now Mazda dealers, I called them but they have no information. The current insurer knew nothing. Umbrella insurers date back to 2007, "he sums up. A reader may offer a solution.
Specially for the Dutch market
In 2014 Martin de Jong bought this Trabant 601 from 1965. He calls the car quite unique. It has decorative frames à la Daf 33 on the side. That is specific to the Dutch market. The fine mesh work of the grille is typical of the early types. It is the luxury version. A sun visor, two mirrors, chrome rings around the headlights and a flap for the glove compartment.
Engine problems
Immediately after the purchase, the Trabant 601 had to be modified. “I got stuck on the drive home. A lot of noise and no assets. Gently to the emergency lane and the ANWB there, but I had no towing arrangement. So in the end I dragged it 120 kilometers to a friend myself. I had already called and said "come on." The crankshaft bearing had come out. But luckily I got a lot with the purchase, including an exchange engine. After a few hours we already drove the first round, that is how easily you can work on a Trabant. It is just like a toy, "Martin looks back.
A modern radio was in it, with speakers. For Martin that was really cursing in the church and so the old radio came back in again. The front bumper is again chromed, a new sky has been made in it and the inside of the engine cover and case were in poor condition. Wheel bearings and kingpin bushes have been replaced. There were large headrests on the seats. “Ugly of course, a child with a water head. It does not fit with a 1965 Trabant. "
Martin is anxiously awaiting a report from the first owners of his adoption Trabant. Or the second or the third. But that should not spoil the fun in the Trabant. Certainly not with his girlfriend Heleen de Jong by his side. Martin is clear about that. “Driving on a country road, in the Trabant with my Heleen next to me. That is love squared. "
More Trabant through this link…
My case does not go that far back to 1998. Bought a Jaguar XJ that had already changed owners several times according to the transfers, mainly through traders. Now there was an original car phone in the car that I wanted to have complete. Now the book was still there with the name of the first owner. Checked the address, thinking that the man would be old, sent a letter (with photos, keep the car now) to the address in the booklet. I heard nothing and thought that those people no longer lived there, or maybe worse were members. Now, they had moved and received a voice mail from the man contacting him. But no longer at the old address but from a different province, so probably the current residents of that house turned on old neighbors at the address in the booklet and forwarded my letter, the man will call this afternoon.
As the Netherlands I was once allowed to take a look at the Wartburg factory in Eisenach. Then we talk about the GDR times. Driving a Trabant over the cobbles and a blue smoke, the nostalgia of socialist automobile driving. Nice that I experienced it ...