Go Trabi Go!



Rock On.

Ich möchte ein Trabi!

I think a trabant is a most crapalicious car

probobly the first case where kicking the car fixed something lol.

quote:

Originally posted by jvc floyd:
probobly the first case where kicking the car fixed something lol.

Ever drove a Pinto?

I remember back in 1989/1990, after the wall came down... I was in the Air Force then, living in Germany.

Literally, from one day to the next these cars started to flood the autobahn as the people from East Germany were finally able to travel without special papers.

I had a really, really fast BMW at the time and on occasion, when the traffic situation was right and there were no speed limits, I'd zoom by these cars going about 145~150 MPH (yes, MPH, not KPH) in the passing lane. When I looked in the rear view mirror you could see them shake from the turbulence! Their top speed was something like 50mph.

Looking back, it was pretty reckless... but fun nontheless! I actually think I have a VHS of that somewhere.

quote:

Ever drove a Pinto?

I have driven both... And let me tell you, a Pinto is a freakin' luxury car compared to a Trabbi.

Even a Fiat 600 is a luxury car compared to a Trabbi.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong here, but I think Trabant bodies are made of some special compressed/processed paper like substance, not really metal?

Duroplast

Wiki is the best

right JT.

Their body was not made out of metal.It was compressed Phenoplast, that's why people are still joking about Trabis ( right, Trabi..not Trabbi, as it is not a Trabbant )

If you got a good one you could reach up to 120KPH with it.
( there were also models with a VW-golf-engine that were much quiter and faster )

I remember one of the Go Trabi Go movies where the Trabi "Schorsch" made 120KPH and his owner, a really great german actor, was amazed about this record.

Another scene was funny as hell too.

They were at a west-german highway , having a problem with the car.They called a repair-guy and he asked: "What kind of car is that?" The owner replied: "A 601er!" And the guy on the phone was like: "Ah a Porsche, i will see!" and the owner was like "noo waaay..it's a Trabant!!"

Them movies were funny as hell especially due to the saxon dialect the main-actors were speaking.

We people from saxony are the most known and laughed about ppl from east-germany for our dialect and of course, the trabant made in Zwickau!

There are a lot of ppl ( and a lot of young ones ) who still own a Trabi and trust me they all are damn proud to have one!It's some kind of cult.

You know why the Trabant is named 601 ?
> 600 people in the DDR waiting for it - 1 get it!

Now i know how the russians worked at my LADA.
I´m sure, same as the Trabi...

I do remember a trbi movei with Thomas Gotschalk,
it was in the early 90s or so, it was rather funny


I believe it was a turbo trabi or so!

I found a very small part from the film that says it all:

here

In this part the engine strikes ( before the scene i told above ) and the guy is saying "no no!That was the engine!"
after wife & daughter looked at him.

I just realized again that my father looks exact like the guy in the movie..my father had a Trabi years ago and he still has one of them white hats and he also has this very same beard. He also speaks the same dialect


Trabi's are known for that things will break with the time, but the good thing is..EVERYONE can fix a Trabi with ANYTHING laying around.
simple and easy engineering.

Oh and Nicolle..You have to watch Go Trabi Go and Go Trabi Go 2 with Wolfgang "Stubbe" Stumph.
They are the originals and best movies about and with the Trabant!They are very funny!

I do remember that movie!

This is that other movie

quote:

I remember back in 1989/1990, after the wall came down...

I was stationed on an ARMY Post in Vilseck, near Grafenvoir in 1990 and took a trip to the East side when I first saw one of these sweet rides. I liked the 1957 Chevy style rear fenders . I thought it looked cool. I was told that when you turned the car off, you also had to remember to kill the choke or it would flood the engine.

i want one right now

quote:

Originally posted by JT:


I remember back in 1989/1990, after the wall came down... I was in the Air Force then, living in Germany.

Literally, from one day to the next these cars started to flood the autobahn as the people from East Germany were finally able to travel without special papers.

I had a really, really fast BMW at the time and on occasion, when the traffic situation was right and there were no speed limits, I'd zoom by these cars going about 145~150 MPH (yes, MPH, not KPH) in the passing lane. When I looked in the rear view mirror you could see them shake from the turbulence! Their top speed was something like 50mph.

Looking back, it was pretty reckless... but fun nontheless! I actually think I have a VHS of that somewhere.

Which BMW because barring the M1 the only other BMW that was capable of reaching those speeds comfortably would be the 750iL or the M5 and even then the M5 of that year was limited to 155mph and I'm sure the 750 would be right around its maximum velocity at 145-150mph.

However this is in regards to stock specification as modifications by some companies as Alpina were relatively common.

For a short time i owned an WARTBURG 353 Tourist !
Also 2stroke, as the Trabi, but 3 zylinders!
And with metal chassis!

Often in Germany, but very rare in Austria.
It died because of rust in every part of it.

Looking like the factory photo (the right one)in frog-green:


@walkgirl: This film was named "Trabi goes to Hollywood" in german speaking area.

oops. you are right!!

Adding an funny picture i´ve made at the Ossiacher See in Austria 2 weeks ago.
Old Trabi at the local Campingplace:

I like the scene when the father says to the doughter to pull her pants off. And she does.
The doughter was cute

quote:

I was stationed on an ARMY Post in Vilseck, near Grafenvoir in 1990 and took a trip to the East side when I first saw one of these sweet rides. I liked the 1957 Chevy style rear fenders . I thought it looked cool. I was told that when you turned the car off, you also had to remember to kill the choke or it would flood the engine.

Cool! I had been to Graf & Vilseck several times. I spent a total of 17 years in Germany, mostly as a dependent around Nuernberg (where I was born) and Bremerhaven. Then I went back after I enlisted in '86 and was stationed in Wiesbaden.

I particularly remember a dirt racing track near Graf, close to an old tank firing range that I visited a couple of times with friends who would go racing there. I've even got pictures around here somewhere...

quote:

Which BMW because barring the M1 the only other BMW that was capable of reaching those speeds comfortably would be the 750iL or the M5 and even then the M5 of that year was limited to 155mph and I'm sure the 750 would be right around its maximum velocity at 145-150mph

I personally owned a German-spec 1981 323i 6-cylinder. BMW didn't sell that model here in he USA, only the much slower 4-banger 320i model. Stock, the 323i put down 143 hp, which doesn't sound like much, but it was a very light car by todays standards. Mine had a sport-tuned exhaust system and an Alpina head assembly which I guess gave an extra 15hp. With favorable traffic conditions, I could get it up to a drag-limited 230kmh or so. I say "or so" because the needle would go past the 220kmh max on the speedo by about 10k'. 230kmh divided by 1.62 = 142mph. It would hit the 200kmh mark relatively quickly, but that extra 30kmh required quite a bit of open space, which was usually thwarted by traffic anyway. A 6th gear really would have helped that car.

Once, on a downhill stretch between Cologne & Wiesbaden, I got that car up to its redline max and actually felt the rev-limiter kick in... What a rush! The speedo needle was waaay futher than the normal max I could get it up to on flat ground... My guess is that I was pushing close to 240kmh.

I really miss that car. But it would suck here in Florida without A/C, and it used leaded gas.

Also, I was once lucky enough to drive my uncle's completely stock 1989 535i (5-speed) on an empty stretch of A-bahn between Frankfurt & Nuermberg. I got it up to the goverened top speed of 250kmh. 250kmh (div by 1.62) = 154 mph. And that was with two of us in the car and with a couple hundred RPMs left to go to redline!!!

The Euro-spec 535i was a beast of a car compared to the US model, largely due to the lack of exhaust restrictions imposed on the Euro models back then. I think the 535i top end was as fast as an M5 (because of the governor) but it took quite a bit longer to get to top speed.

Of course, neither of those speeds factor in spedo-error. Driving that fast is a rush!


As for the Trabi movies, I need to get ahold of some of those. Maybe ebay!

Ich finde den Saechischen Dialekt (u. Thomas Gottschalk) verdammt lustig!

Thanks for the details,I really enjoy working on and researching cars so reading raw data like that makes me smile. I agree,Euro-spec cars are far superior than their wheezy American counterparts. My dad and I own a Euro-spec 1985 Mercedes Benz 500SEL which has the 5L SOHC V8 with something in the neighborhood of 240hp and 300lb of torque and I remember going up about a 20 degree incline and hitting ~130mph with a little less than 4,000rpm on the tach with the redline being 6,000rpm and it still accelerating like crazy. I'm pretty sure given a little more room it'd be a genuine 155mph car.

I really do adore German cars,especially those from the 80's.

Do anyone of our German, Dutch or Austrian members know the name of the movie that Walkgirl was referring to...? The one with Thomas Gottschalk and a Trabi?

On ebay.de I found DVD sets for Go Trabi Go I & II.

I want to get that Gottschalk movie too.

quote:

Thanks for the details,I really enjoy working on and researching cars so reading raw data like that makes me smile. I agree,Euro-spec cars are far superior than their wheezy American counterparts. My dad and I own a Euro-spec 1985 Mercedes Benz 500SEL which has the 5L SOHC V8 with something in the neighborhood of 240hp and 300lb of torque and I remember going up about a 20 degree incline and hitting ~130mph with a little less than 4,000rpm on the tach with the redline being 6,000rpm and it still accelerating like crazy. I'm pretty sure given a little more room it'd be a genuine 155mph car.

I really do adore German cars,especially those from the 80's.

That's a seriously nice ride!

hey, I drove a 1993 V-12 600SL on the autobahn once... When my cousin was living in Germany she had one. Governed at 155mph. That thing was crazy fast!