This well-known East German two-stroke, the 601 Trabant 1978 from Jelle, has been standing still since 1989. (But fortunately for 32 years under a warm blanket.) What inspires the owner to store this cute little car after purchasing it in 1989 and not to use it as a hobby car? Hasn't it become a sought-after collector's item? It all turned out differently. Because sometimes there are things in your life that completely occupy you where the possession fades into the background for years.
Trabant enthusiast
A Trabant enthusiast who visited this small part of GDR could not explain that either. But he felt that this way other enthusiasts could not enjoy his property. Jelle: "Sometimes you have to arm yourself against the uncomprehending outside world, for me it was: look at it, cherish it and keep it, and that's what I did."
The wagon of the GDR people
Jokes are still being made about the Trabant. Not rightly so, because the car was reliable, the technology simple and for the most part rust-free due to the Duroplast body. (The bottom is made of steel.)
Trabant testifies to ingenuity, they could repair everything themselves. Duroplast is a fibre-reinforced synthetic resin that is made from cotton fibers and pressed into sheet parts using a binder under high pressure. There is still an active club in the Netherlands for Trabant enthusiasts and drivers who are fully committed to preserving it.
Look in the garage
The few people Jelle lets in to see his Trabant don't care much for cars, they do like it and sometimes even confuse it with the Dutch DAFje.
Enthusiasm?
Nevertheless, Jelle's heart beats enthusiastically for the Trabant. Jelle: “I bought the car from the Dresden area immediately after the fall of the wall. The GDR creation was a nice appearance and the purchase was possible with a small purse. I came into contact with a car transporter who brought many Western cars to the GDR and always brought Wartburgs and Trabantjes to the Netherlands as return freight. This most beautiful Trabant was kept, because of its good condition, but also because it was the first owner. All documents were complete, looked very attractive, very fully equipped with, in addition to the tools, even a real grease gun, and it seemed to me to be a useful hobby car.”
Trending
According to the Trabant enthusiast, it is clearly noticeable (also within the club) that more Trabants appear on the road. There are many that are not (yet) on a license plate, but could be back on the road after refurbishment or restoration. This is how the Trabant is kept alive and kicking. You cannot give status yourself, it must come from others. We then give Jelle that status for his beautiful and special Trabant.
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The East German automotive history has always been recognized. If you consider that before the split of the country, the main industry was located in the eastern part of Germany. the big brands we know such as: DKW Audi, Horch, Wanderer, Benz, BMW and many others originated in that area. The Sachsenring Trabant is a further development of the DKW F8. The Trabant was preceded by the AWZ P70 as well as the AWZ P50 (the P70 was known in Scandinavia as Audi P70) and was also developed and manufactured in the Audi factory.
To my honor and glory, to never forget, I have written a (very detailed) book about the AWZ P70 history (160 pages, with many beautiful photos). Unfortunately I won't be publishing it. But for an interested car magazine, I may have material available.
What a beautiful story. With all those "ses years waglys spotted" from that East block make this even more valuable. That two-stroke enjintjie is a jewel. A Bosbouer told me that the two-stroke kragsae was more durable than the “only modern” enjin.
This makes me think back to my 1964 Simca 1000 what ek until that Kalahari sand spawned it with success.
(Here is Dutch ge-turbo African language)
Abe, you are right of course.
The Trabant has a 2 cylinder boxer engine.
Two-stroke, so lubrication via the fuel (mixed lubrication).
Incredibly reliable. but a blue smoke from the exhaust!.
I always thought trabants had a 2 cylinder engine.
Trabant for the small purse? Not quite. It was certainly kind of affordable if you neatly awaited the eight-year delivery time of a new copy. If you wanted it faster, that was also possible, but then you had to rely on the second-hand market. However, the second-hand cars were significantly more expensive than a new one. So one of the older employees of the Stasi museum in Berlin told me. He further said that he also had hered Trabant, but also Volga. So it was one who had held a higher position. In that museum there was also a Trabant with a whopper of an infrared flash built into the right door. That infrared went straight through that polyester door to secretly photograph suspected persons driving past, also in the dark. There is also og Trabbi World in Berlin. Also nice to see that there are still Trabbis driving around there. The Trabant also served as the basis for the MUNGA, which has not been used by the Dutch army for too long.
Not entirely true, the Munga came from DKW and had the same three-cylinder two-stroke, we thought it was fine for defense because it had a heater in it and it was not allowed to come out because that was part of the engine cooling, it was removed in the NEKAF because you had to get hard
In Belgium, better in Sint Katelijne Waver and even more precisely in the Leliestraat lives a owner of many TRABANTS and cool stories (even has a museum)
Mr. OLBRECHTS
Sorry I had it around 1968 and it was the attached model.
Such a beautiful car. I myself have long been looking forward to a Glas Isar 600 being placed here at amklassiek. Why? I had such a car in the early 70s and finally sold it because it was rusty and hard to get parts for. But what a nice car that was, it had a 600cc boxer engine and I thought of a BMW motorcycle that the police also drove. The beauty was the simple, like the air cooling and the ignition system that gave a spark to both cylinders with every revolution and therefore without a manifold. Very simple and yes I hope one day to be able to read a nice story here from someone who still owns such a car. Many thanks in advance and I'll wait and see 🤷🏾♂️🤷🏾♂️🤗🤗 George