Trabant 601 - 1969

Downhill with tailwind 150 km / h can be reached. But alas, the Trabbi-pedal luffed in fast corners the gas pedal. Then it comes across, the small plastic car, whose exhaust does not even filter a Kat. No, it will not work anymore. On April 30, 1991, the production of the Trabant 1.1 ends. Top pieces are rare today and cost as much as then as a new car. Has not changed so much - compared to old GDR times.
1954: The GDR Politburo decides to build a new small car modeled after the West German Lloyd 400. 1957: The Trabant P 50 makes its debut. Its two-stroke rotary vane engine, which is based on a DKW motorcycle engine, makes 18 hp from 500 cc displacement. 1959: new designation Trabant 500. 1963: Increasing the cubic capacity to 599 ccm. Designation now Trabant 600, power 23 hp. 1964: new body and designation Trabant 601, also available as a universal baptized variant, 26 hp; Development of the hydraulic semi-automatic clutch Hycomat. 1966: open Trabbi variant for the NVA ("Grenz-Trabant" or "Stoffhund"), from 1978 also as a civilian model Tramp. 1990: Trabant 1.1 with 40 hp. 1991: End of production on April 30th.
Even die-hard Trabbi fans are a little scared when they talk about the condition of their favorite cars. Aggressive and successfully proliferating corrosion on the load-bearing steel structure is the coarsest enemy of the East Volkswagen, which was not preserved in the factory cavity. Added to this are damaged and bad to no longer switching gears - synchronizer rings are the Trabbi wearing parts. Not funny, right? But: fun makes a well-preserved or restored four-stroke Trabant on the left highway lane and on the highway. As a well-motorized featherweight, he can move surprisingly committed.
Trabant 1.1 prices are manageable, good copies are available for 1500 to 3000 euros, mediocre vehicles even for three-digit amounts. In restored specimens there is usually so much love, time and money that they are not even offered on the market. If they do, they reach their former factory price. The days when only a few whimsical Americans bought a Trabbi 1.1 are over. The prices have settled.
The spare part situation is very differentiated. Rubber bushes, body parts, brake pads are available at any time, new transverse and wishbone handlebars, however, are difficult to get. The specially developed for the 1.1 console is difficult to obtain, but benefit dealers like "The late brakes" of the scrapping phase in Hungary or Poland, where many of the unsellable in Germany 1.1 were delivered.
You do not buy a used Trabant 1.1 - and if you do, only for spare parts or you re a masochist. Who would like to have the German-German hermaphrodite, should fall back on cultivated specimens. But they are rare and usually already in lovers hands.