This site is dedicated to the great little East German car, otherwise known as the Trabant or "Trabi". At the moment I've mostly got photos of my Trabant but hopefully this site will expand more quickly than my waistline.

So, what is a Trabant? Should you have come across this page by accident you may not exactly know what it is I am foaming on about. A Trabant is a car that was produced in East Germany during cold war times. At a time when people in the UK thought that the Mini was the "in thing", the East Germans and other Eastern Block countries had the Trabant to pose around in, or not as the case was. Like the mini, the Trabant had a long production line which ceased in the 1990s, with the end(?) of the cold war, and consequently people got wise to more superior cars. Being built by a state run factory also had its drawbacks resulting in a realisation of "Strewth, we can't produce that, at that price, in that style, for that money. Let's surrender to capitalism and drive Mercedes instead."

The Trabant has a massive power unit under its bonnet. Okay, I was being sarcastic, the engine is a two cylinder, 600cc two-stroke engine. Such was the design of the Trabant, the spacious engine compartment was large enough to fit a fuel tank above the power unit. This is all well and good apart from the fact that you have to open the bonnet to put fuel into it. After a run to the petrol station you can guarantee that the engine will be hot so therefore "ENGINE + FUEL VAPOUR = BANG". Who needs the rush of a sports car when you can watch your life flash before your eyes every time you fill up?

There is a four speed gearbox in the 601S version, five including reverse, operated by a column mounted gear change which takes some getting used to. The brakes are all state-of-the-art drum technology without servo assistance. This is probably to give you the same effect as when you put petrol into the tank but using a different equation, "BRICK WALL + PRESS PEDAL + PAUSE + PAUSE = STOP EVENTUALLY".

Rust? Pah, get thee behind me Satan. The majority of the body panels are made from a plastic type substance formed in moulds. As you can imagine the protection offered by such panels is quite minimal, okay let's face it, non-existent. However, it does mean that they don't rust and the only thing you really need to look after is the chassis.

Why have I got a Trabant? God knows. There's something about these little cars which attracts me to them. Eastern Europe wouldn't be the same if it wasn't for the good old Trabi. Even now there are thousands of them bombing around in places like the Czech Republic, Poland etc. 

During the cold war, Eastern Block citizens who owned Trabants had one aim in life - TO GET A LADA!!!!! At least now they can aspire to other things.

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