Trabant Models
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The history of the Trabant brand
Trabant (full name of Sachsenring Trabant) is a brand of East German minicar produced by the national enterprise Sachsenring Automobilwerke. Trabant (from German "Sputnik") became one of the symbols of the GDR. After the war, the territory of Germany, where the city of Zwickau was located, became part of the GDR. The former Horch plant was nationalized and merged with the Audi plant. In 1948, these enterprises became part of the Industrieverband Fahrzeugbau, abbreviated as IFA. Soon the production of passenger cars was resumed - the IFA F8 model, a simple and well-developed design, which was a minimal modernization of the pre-war DKW F8 small car with a 2-stroke engine and a wooden body frame. Due to the shortage of rolled steel in the post-war years, soon some of the body panels began to be made of a material based on phenol-formaldehyde resin and cotton waste - "duroplast". Unpainted Duroplastic panels gave these machines a very specific look due to their brown color and similar surface to Bakelite.
In 1949-1953, a larger and more modern model with a three-cylinder engine (also two-stroke) and an all-metal body was produced in relatively small quantities. IFA F9 was based on pre-war experimental developments of DKW, after which the production of this line of cars was moved to the factory in Eisenach (formerly BMW). Since 1955, the Sachsenring P240 model of the "Volga" class went into series, as well as a small car with a 0.7 liter motorcycle engine, which replaced the outdated F8 AWZ P70 "Zwickau". It was the direct ancestor of the Trabant and also had a partially plastic body.
Development of Trabant started in the early fifties. The prototype was built in 1954. On November 8, 1957, at the plant in Zwickau, the production of cars of a new brand began, named "Trabant" in honor of the space satellite launched in the same year by the Soviet Union. The emblem was composed of the stylized letter "S" ("Sachsenring"). In 1963, the production of a mass model was mastered. About three million Trabants were manufactured, which puts it on a par with such symbols of mass motorization as the Ford T (although there were five times more of them), the Volkswagen Beetle or MINI. Trabant was exported both to socialist countries (mainly Czechoslovakia, Poland and Hungary) and to a number of capitalist countries - for example, Greece, the Netherlands, Belgium, South Africa and even Great Britain. It is curious that only a few copies of cars of this model got to the USSR. The Trabant was completely discontinued in 1991. Today Trabant is a cult car with fans not only in the former East Germany, but also in many other countries of the world, including the USA.
Trabant is one of the most famous vehicles in the history of the global automotive industry. This is the only car in the world that has become a symbol of the state and an entire era in the history of Germany. Images and models of "trabby", as the Germans affectionately dubbed the car, today make up a significant share of the sales of souvenir shops in Berlin, Dresden and other tourist cities in eastern Germany. And on the streets of German cities, thousands of legendary plastic small cars are still running in a very different state: from workhorses worn over the years, to tuned and shiny with fresh lacquer copies that can become an adornment of any car show. The Trabi is loved by East Germans like no other car.
Today, in a cozy bunker, there is a detailed history of the legend with six dozen original photographs.
The history of the legendary car dates back to the post-war period. After the end of World War II, the territory of Germany was divided between the victorious powers into four zones of occupation, and its eastern part came under the control of the Soviet military administration. The automobile factories of the Auto Union concern, located in Saxony, were nationalized and in 1948, on the basis of 18 West Saxon factories that produced vehicles, the transport manufacturer Industrieverband Fahrzeugbau, abbreviated IFA, was created.
In 1949, at the former Audi plant in Zwickau, which was transformed into the national enterprise VEB Automobilwerk Zwickau, the production of the pre-war small car DKW F8, produced at the same plant in 1939-1942, was resumed. The car is now called IFA F8 and differs from the DKW only in details. The car was based on a spindle-shaped frame, had a wooden body frame and a two-cylinder two-stroke, with a capacity of 20 hp, which allowed it to reach a speed of 85 km / h. Several bodywork options were offered for the buyer's choice, including a convertible and a van. In the 1950s, due to a shortage of rolled steel in the GDR, individual body parts of the IFA F8 were made from a material based on phenol-formaldehyde resin and cotton waste - duroplast. Production of the IFA F8 continued until 1955, after which it was replaced by a new model on the assembly line.
Most of the AWZ P70 in the coupe version had a two-tone paint job, a sporty appearance and a genuine leather interior. But the sporty appearance of the car was deceiving, since the engine was installed the same as that of the base model with a capacity of 22 hp, and due to the greater weight of the body, the dynamic qualities of the coupe were even worse. The coupe was produced from 1957 to 1959, during this period about 1500 cars with this type of body rolled off the assembly line.
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The design of the AWZ P70 was based on the chassis from the IFA F8, created back in the late 1930s: like the F8, the car was built around a spindle-shaped frame with suspensions on transverse springs - independent at the front and dependent at the rear, and mechanical brakes. The body frame was wooden and body panels made of Duroplast were attached to it. Unlike fiberglass, parts from which at that time could only be made manually by laborious contact molding, duroplast was obtained by stamping on pressing equipment. The use of duroplast was caused by the constant shortage of rolled steel in the GDR (Western countries imposed an embargo on steel imports, and Soviet rolled products were of poor quality). Thus, the AWZ P70 became the second production car in the world after the Chevrolet Corvette, whose body was made of composite materials.
04. AWZ P70 station wagon at the Dresden Museum of the GDR.
The engine was the same two-cylinder two-stroke from the DKW F8, built in the late 1930s. Due to the use of an aluminum block head and a central location of the spark plugs, its power was increased to 22 hp. The car had front-wheel drive, three gears and could reach a speed of 90 km / h (the coupe accelerated to 100 km / h).
05. It is noteworthy that the gear shift thrust passed right through the radiator of the cooling system, which was located behind the engine. The selection of gears was carried out by a lever passing through the instrument panel.
06. In the spring of 1956, the station wagon version of the P70 Kombi entered the market. A feature of the station wagon was a roof made of artificial leather with an insulating substrate, stretched over a wooden frame. Thus, they saved on stamping equipment. There was no question of any safety of the car, the body of which consisted of wood, duroplastic and leather. Even the car floor was plywood.
07. Nevertheless, the station wagon was popular in the market, including in Western Europe, thanks to the voluminous trunk and easy access to it through the large single-leaf tailgate.
The official premiere of the new compact car took place at the Leipzig Fair in October 1955, the international debut took place three months later at the Brussels Motor Show. The basic version of the AWZ P70 with a two-door sedan body went into series in a simplified version - the side windows did not open, and the trunk did not have a door - access to the luggage was carried out through the folding back of the rear seat. This caused a negative reaction from consumers, but the inhabitants of the German Democratic Republic did not have much choice, so they bought these cars in this form. Six months after entering the market, the car acquired sliding windows in the side doors, but the trunk lid appeared only in the last series at the very end of the release.
08. Base AWZ P70 sedan at the Dresden Museum of the GDR.
Despite the fact that frame-panel technology is not suitable for large-scale production, the employees of AWZ (formerly DKW plant), who had vast experience in the design and production of wooden bodies, managed to ensure significant production volumes: 36,151 cars were assembled in 4 years, of which more than 30 000 sedans, about 4000 combis and 1500 coupes.
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The AWZ P70 car became only an intermediate link in the mass motorization of eastern Germany. The technology was tested on it, which formed the basis of a new machine - Trabant, whose development was started in the early 1950s and went in parallel with the development of the P70. As for the AWZ, this car did not manage to become a mass car due to its high cost and imperfect production technology, not suitable for solving the issue of mass motorization of the population. But the experience gained in the development and production of the P70 became the basis for the creation of a truly massive people's car - the Trabant.
Since at that time the GDR industry did not have experience in the production of cars with composite bodies, the prototype widely used rolled steel for body cladding. In addition, there was very little room in the rear seats to position the car as a family car. The prototype was transferred to the former Audi plant in Zwickau for revision, and a year later, the AWZ P70 appeared on its basis, in the production of which a wealth of experience was gained in creating a large-scale car with a duroplastic body, which formed the basis of the first model of the mass car Trabant P50, zero a series of which left the assembly line on November 7, 1957 and was timed to coincide with the anniversary of the October Revolution. The car was named Trabant (Trabant in German - satellite) in honor of the first earth satellite launched by the Soviet Union in the same year.
12. Trabant P50 (right) in the Dresden Museum of the GDR.
The production capacity of the VEB Automobilwerk Zwickau plant was not enough for the production of a mass car and on May 1, 1958, the plant was merged with the former Horch plant, which produced the Horch H3 and IFA H3A trucks in the 1950s. The production of trucks was moved to the Kraftfahrzeugwerk "Ernst Grube" plant in Werdau, and the production facilities of both plants were turned over to the production of the people's car, which started in July 1958. The merged factories became VEB Sachsenring Automobilwerke Zwickau, and Trabant received a stylized "S" on the bonnet, which became its emblem until production ended in 1991.
13. "Sachsenring" emblem on the hood of the Trabant P50.
Unlike its predecessor, the AWZ P70, based on the pre-war DKW F8, the new P50 Trabant was a vehicle developed from the ground up. It was a full-fledged car with an iron body frame, on which Duroplast panels were hung. The two-stroke two-cylinder engine of the car, unlike the P70, was air-cooled, but structurally derived from the pre-war DKW models. The engine power was 18 hp, which allowed the 620-kilogram car to accelerate to a maximum speed of 90 km / h. Two years later, the engine power was increased to 20 hp.
14. Raised Trabant P50 in the Dresden Museum of the GDR.
The fuel tank in the car did not have a gas pump and was located under the hood above the engine, thus fuel entered the engine by gravity. But such a design was very fire hazardous both during refueling and in the event of an accident. In addition, the car did not have a fuel level sensor in the tank; the fuel level was checked by lowering a plastic stick into the tank. If the fuel ran out on the road, a special lever was provided, which opened access to a 5-liter reservoir at the bottom of the tank, which made it possible to drive about 80 km more.
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In 1959, the zero series of the P50 station wagon was released, whose mass production began the following year. In the same year, the production range was replenished with a luxury version of the Trabant in a two-tone design with decorative moldings on the body. If desired, a sun visor could be ordered as an option. All this was offered for extra money, but apart from decorative elements, the luxury model was no different from the base one.
16. Luxury model Trabant P50 in the Dresden Museum of the GDR.
In 1962, a new Trabant model, the P600, entered the market. Of the new, there was, however, only the engine, whose power was increased to 23 hp, which allowed the car to reach a speed of 100 km / h. The shape of the moldings in the luxury version has also changed. Otherwise, the new car had no differences from its predecessor.
17. Trabant P600 at the Dresden tram depot.
18. The only thing that externally differed from the P600 P50 - a sticker with the model name on the trunk lid.
If we evaluate the Trabant P50 as a whole, then it was a very successful car in all respects, unpretentious in operation and quite reliable. The construction and design of the car were at the level of Western counterparts of the late 1950s. The price of the car was 7,650 marks, which corresponded to ten average salaries in the GDR. In the period from 1957 to 1962, 131,450 P50 cars were produced and in the next three years more than a hundred thousand P600 models were produced, which by the beginning of the 1960s no longer corresponded to the times, primarily due to outdated design.
In 1963, the Zwickau automobile plant produces the zero series (a batch of cars produced before the official start of the conveyor) of 150 cars of the new model Trabant 601. The car was based on the same chassis as the P600 and was equipped with the same 23-horsepower two-stroke. The body of the car was completely new, which looked much more modern than that of its predecessor.
19. Trabant 601 "zero" series at the Saxon Automobile Museum in Chemnitz. This copy is one of the oldest Trabants of the 601st model that has survived to this day and differs from the production model in many small details.
In March 1964, the new car was presented to the public, and in June its serial assembly began. From 1964 until the end of production in 1991, the design of the car did not change at all, with the exception of minor cosmetic changes in the 1989 model. Technical changes to the design were gradually introduced during the 27 years of the model's production, but they could not compensate for the fact that the car was hopelessly obsolete by the end of the 1960s. Not only was the design of the car obsolete, but the dirty and noisy two-stroke engine no longer corresponded to the trends in the automotive industry of the late 1960s, and in the 1970s it became an anachronism altogether.
20. Three hundred and first in the Dresden Museum of the GDR.
However, the production capacity of the factories in Zwickau could not meet the huge demand for the car in eastern Germany. In the first years of car production, the queue for it was about three years, and by the end of the 1970s it reached 15 years. Cars were distributed as follows: those who wanted to buy a car placed an order in an auto house assigned to their district, and then there was a long, long wait. As in the USSR, the presence of connections could greatly reduce the waiting time.
It's not that the Trabant was such a popular car, it's just that the inhabitants of the GDR did not have an alternative, especially for this price. The same Wartburg cost twice as much and there were also long-term queues there.
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The 601st Trabant has undergone minor improvements during its long life on the assembly line. Among the most significant are: the introduction of an automatic clutch “Hycomat” (1965) as an option, an increase in engine power up to 26 hp. (1969) and the transfer of car electrics from 6-volt to 12-volt voltage (1983). The fuel level indicator on the front panel appears only in 1983 and only in the improved version "de luxe". Also, over time, a number of cosmetic changes and options have been introduced to improve comfort. True, all these options were standard on cars of this class back in the 1960s in the West.
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23. The interior of the Trabant 1980s.
24. In 1965, the production range was expanded with the 601 station wagon version.
25. Many options for Trabant have been invented by craftsmen, such as a rooftop tent for travel enthusiasts.
26. This invention by Gerhard Müller became widely known in 1981 after appearing on the television program "Außenseiter - Spitzenreiter". After the transfer, there was no end to those wishing to purchase a similar tent for their "trabi".
27. The tent was set up on Trabant in 20 minutes and on the way it was folded and unfolded in three minutes. This is what the GDR budget camper looked like.
28. In 1966, the production range was expanded with another body version of the Trabant - the Kübel P601 A, which was specially created for border guards guarding the western border of the country, as a replacement for patrol motorcycles. The car was produced practically unchanged until 1990.
29.Since 1967, a special modification of the P601 F has also been supplied to the forestry and the Society for Sports and Technology (the GDR analogue of the Soviet DOSAAF).
30. Trabant Kübelwagen P601 A in the French military museum.
31. Initially, the Trabant Kübelwagen was supposed to have a body made entirely of Duroplastic. But given the small volume of production of this version of the body (300-500 cars per year), it was cheaper to make a body out of metal than to make production equipment for stamping Duroplastic body panels. As a result, the front part was taken from the usual 601 Trabant and was made of duroplastic, the rest of the body was metal.
32. Kübelwagen P601 A on the streets of Moritzburg, a suburb of Dresden.
Since 1978, the civilian version of the Kübelwagen, which was marketed as a beach car, began to be produced. This version was called the "Tramp" and was made exclusively for export, mainly to Greece.
33. Trabant Tramp based on the latest modification of the Trabant 1.1, created for the domestic market in the late 1980s. It was one of the last attempts to save a hopelessly obsolete car, which was unsuccessful. There was no demand for Fun Car, as it was positioned in the market. After the fall of the wall, a stream of modern and affordable European cars poured into the GDR, and there were no people willing to buy modernized old stuff.
34. As you can see from the photographs, the Trabant 1.1 Fun car was nothing more than a slightly modified version of the border Kübelwagen. Only under the hood was a four-cylinder, four-stroke from VW Polo, licensed in 1984 by the IFA vehicle manufacturers association.
35. The Dresden Museum of the GDR generally has a fairly rich collection of Trabants, including very interesting specimens, such as this 1967 Trabant, in which one adventurous German traveler Ulrich Kummer traveled 21,000 km across the African continent.
36. Trabant was also active in motorsport. In the Dresden Museum of the GDR, you can see a racing copy of the 601st Trabant.
37. And also a buggy, assembled from components and assemblies of the people's car.
38. There was even a version of the rail Trabant, which I recently dedicated to this car.
39. Some time after the unification of Germany, Trabant began to gain popularity again as a cult car. And with the acquisition of the status of a legendary car, it became an object of various kinds of tuning.
40. Many owners of their old Trabi try to give their car individuality, not limiting themselves in the flight of imagination.
41. These several tuned Trabants met me in the Dresden suburb of Moritzburg. Apparently there was a meeting of the Trabi fans club.
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44. Trabant 601, converted into a convertible, I met in a provincial Saxon town.
45. Trabant is not only a cult car, but also one of the objects of ostalgia - nostalgia for the bygone socialist past in the countries of the socialist camp. Therefore, in the East German province, Trabants in perfect condition are quite common. From an object of ridicule, Trabant turned into a favorite of the East Germans.
46. Another way to change the appearance of your "Trabi" is presented in the Dresden Museum of the GDR.
47. For a sum of 980 euros, each owner of his Trabant can turn his pet into such a freak.
48. You can buy a new front end for Trabant right there in the GDR museum. I don’t know what taste a person should have in order to take such a step. For me, it's just creepy.
In general, the topic of tuning Trabant is very extensive. To see how limitless the imagination of the owners of these cars is sometimes, it is enough just to enter "Trabant tuning" in Google pictures.
But back to history. The Trabant 601, launched in 1964, was planned to be replaced with a new model in 1968, and even a new car was being developed with might and main, but by government decision the project was rejected. Also in the 1970s, attempts were made to create a modern heir to Trabant, but the government did not give the green light to these concepts either. There were various reasons for this: first, it was necessary to build new modern production facilities, re-equip outdated equipment - for such purposes the impoverished socialist economy of the GDR did not have the funds. Secondly, the government of the GDR did not have economic incentives to start production of a new model, because the old queue was 10 years old. Demand in the country of perpetual deficit greatly exceeded supply, so the Trabant 601, launched in 1964 with minor modifications, was produced until 1990.
In the 1980s, the GDR auto industry was still producing cars created in the first half of the 1960s and equipped with dirty and noisy two-stroke engines, which already looked anachronistic in the early 1970s. In order to modernize the automotive industry, the IFA in 1984 buys licenses from Volkswagen for the production of two four-stroke four-cylinder engines, with volumes of 1.1 and 1.3 liters. The first was intended for the modernization of Trabant, the second for the Wartburg and Barkas.
The German government has invested about eight billion marks in the equipment of the line for the production of new motors, so there is very little money left to update the exterior of the car. Developed by engineers from Zwickau, a modern prototype of a new compact car was rejected by the government and instead of a new body, the Trabant received only minor cosmetic updates: a steel hood, a new radiator grille, new plastic bumpers and new taillights. Otherwise, the appearance of the new Trabant did not differ from the 1964 model. The new car received an index of 1.1, which traditionally displayed engine displacement, and was presented to the public in the fall of 1989.
49. Trabant 1.1 station wagon in the Dresden Museum of the GDR.
The new Trabant was greeted very coldly by buyers, because by that time the car was a complete anachronism, which, moreover, had become more expensive by 6,000 marks and which, after the purchase, had to wait about ten years. Production of the serial version of the Trabant 1.1 began in May 1990, and on June 1, the West German currency was introduced, which was changed at a one-to-one rate, so Western cars at once became available to East Germans and the demand for the new Trabant was catastrophically low. Large consignments of this car were sent only to Poland and Hungary under contracts within the framework of the organization "Council for Mutual Economic Assistance" - the Soviet counterpart of the European Economic Community.
The production of the new machine lasted exactly one year and on April 20, 1991, the assembly line of the Zwickau plant was stopped after 33 years of production of Trabants. A total of 39,474 model "1.1" cars were produced, and the total number of Trabants produced was more than three million.
50. Trabant 1.1 on the streets of Dresden.
On May 21, the production of VW Polo II began at the production facilities of the plant where the new Trabant was assembled. The plant was bought out by the VW concern and today such models of the concern as the VW Golf and VW Passat are produced here. In 2010, VW's Zwickau plant set a production record of 250,000 vehicles produced per year. In addition to the production of finished cars, Zwickau also produces bodies for the luxury cars of the concern - VW Phaeton and Bentley Continental.
51. Grandfather and grandson in the Dresden Museum of the GDR. Trabant's ancestor is IFA F8 and Trabant 1.1 from the last batch of "Edition 444".
"Edition 444" - this is the name of a batch of 444 Trabant 1.1 station wagons that were exported to Turkey in 1991, but due to the bankruptcy of the importing company, all the cars stood for several years in the port under the open sky and then returned back in Zwickau. After a little revision, they tried to sell them to collectors in 1994 as the last batch of a legendary car. Initially, the price was set at 20,000 marks, but there were no people willing to buy the rarity at the price of a new Western car, then the price was reduced to 10,000 marks, which still did not contribute to the revival of demand. One car from this series is now on display in the Dresden Museum of the GDR.
The story about the history of the legendary car would not be complete without mentioning the prototypes, which were supposed to replace the outdated 601st model on the assembly line.
52. The photo shows one of the versions of the new appearance of Trabant, created in 1979 by the most famous industrial designers of the GDR Klaus Dieter and Lutz Rudolph. Exhibited at the Chemnitz Industrial Museum.
As I already mentioned, the 601st trabant was planned to be produced for only four years, after which in 1968 it was to be replaced by a new car, the development of which was in full swing at the VEB Sachsenring Automobilwerke Zwickau design bureau. The car received the index 603 and had a progressive appearance for its time. Several prototypes were built and tested with various motors, including rotary piston motors, which were then viewed as the technology of the future, due to their compactness combined with power.
In 1966, by decision of the Politburo, development was discontinued, and all prototypes were destroyed.
53. Only a few photographs have survived to this day, giving an idea of what a new generation of Trabants might have looked like as early as 1968. The photo shows the prototype P603.
In 1973, in cooperation with the factories Automobilwerk Eisenach and Škoda, the development of a new prototype of a compact family car, indexed P610, was started, later renamed P 1100/1300. The prototype was equipped with a 4-cylinder four-stroke, developing 45 hp, which allowed the light car to accelerate to a speed of 125 km / h. 35 million marks were invested in the development of the project, several prototypes built successfully passed road tests. Production of the car was planned for 1984, but in 1979, by the decision of the party, the project was closed.
54. One of the surviving prototypes of the Trabant P1100 in a German museum.
Photo: Rudolf Stricker
55. P670 - another of the options for the appearance of the future family car, developed in conjunction with Skoda in 1975.
The history of Trabant completely repeats the history of other automakers of the GDR, whose new car projects in the 1970s were blocked by a party decision, and prototypes, which took decades and a lot of money to develop, were simply destroyed. If it were not for the socialist economic model imposed on the East Germans by the occupying power, today the East German car industry would have had a completely different look and would not have disappeared along with the GDR in 1991.
But in this case, everyone would have forgotten about the 1964 Trabant long ago and it would not have found a new life as a cult car and a favorite of collectors and tuning shops.
Trabant is the only car in history that has become a symbol of a whole state, just as archaic, ineffective, but in which the youth of millions of people passed and therefore the memory of those times is dear to them, like the familiar appearance of a mass popular small car, which still does not disappear from the roads of the eastern Germany.
At the end of this post, a dozen photos with Trabants, which I met on the roads of Saxony.
56. 601th with still GDR-ovsky numbers on the streets of Dresden.
57. As if just off the assembly line. 601st Trabant in perfect factory condition, which I met in Moritzburg.
58. This workhorse met me in the Saxon province in one of the Dresden suburbs.
59. A similar picture can often be seen in the courtyards of private farms in the East German province.
60. In eastern Germany Trabants installed on garage roofs are often used to indicate the location of garages.
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63. Used as decorative elements in design.
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65. Trabant 601 near a student residence in Dresden.
66. Trabants look especially harmonious in parking lots next to GDR-ovsky panel houses.
67. Most of the Trabants used by the Germans as their everyday car show that cars are truly loved by their owners. The owner of this 601 even locked the steering wheel with an anti-theft system.
68. Despite the fact that the number of Trabants on German roads has been steadily decreasing every year (32,311 vehicles of this brand were registered in 2014), they will delight the eyes of retro and rest lovers with their appearance on the roads of eastern Germany for many years to come.
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Trabant 601 0.6 MT
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Trabant 601 owner reviews
Trabant 601, 1989
This miracle of German production fell into my hands almost by accident. Used Trabants appeared on the roads of the former USSR only after the withdrawal of Soviet troops from the united Germany. The officers carried their belongings to them, but some firms received the last new cars on barter. And it soon became clear that the Trabant 601 was not a car for our rough roads and not for our climate. But in Germany, despite the fiercest competition, about 100 thousand Trabant 601 remain on the move to this day. The half plastic body is tenacious like a weed. Cheap and cheerful. Under the hood there is a "beastly monster" - a 2-stroke, 2-cylinder engine with separate carburetors and coils, with a volume of as much as 600 ml, there is no gas pump, a tank under the hood, oil is mixed with gasoline. The on-board network voltage is 6 volts. Created by the pedantic German people under the watchful eye of the USSR and the NKVD, in connection with the ban on heavy industry. The supporting body and door frames are steel, the outer body kit is a prototype of carbon - cellulose and resin. The machine is funny, as many as two million eight hundred and eighty and a half were produced. The Trabant 601 has a lot of design flaws, but I prefer to close my eyes to all this, since the car is a legend.
Advantages : charisma. Compact. Interesting. Funny.
disadvantages : it is worth turning a blind eye to the shortcomings of such cars.
A German car brand that manufactures small cars in Saxony at Sachsenring Automobilwerke. "Trabant" is considered one of the symbols of East Germany (GDR).
Trabant cars were uncomfortable, slow, noisy and dirty. Instead of the Trabant, a three-wheeled motorcycle was originally designed. Despite this, they were in great demand in East Germany before the fall of the Berlin Wall.
In just 30 years, just over 3 million different Trabant models have been produced, all of which have been produced with minor significant changes to the basic design. Older car models later became popular with collectors in the United States due to their low cost and fewer restrictions on the import of vintage cars. Trabant has also gained demand from car tuning enthusiasts and for use in racing.
The name "Trabant" means "satellite" or "companion" in German. The cars were often called Trabbi or Trabi. Produced without significant changes for nearly three decades, the Trabant has become the most widely used car in East Germany. The car became a symbol of the country during the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, when images of East Germans crossing the border into West Germany were broadcast around the world.
The Trabant had a solid steel frame with a roof, boot lid, hood, fenders and doors made from a hard plastic called Duroplast that was made from recycled materials. This made the Trabant the first car with a recycled body. The material was very durable, so the average lifespan of Trabant was 28 years. The Trabant was not the first car to use Duroplast.
There were four main options for Trabant:
The P50, also known as the Trabant 500, was released between 1957-1962.
Trabant 600, released 1962-1964
Trabant 601, released 1963-1991
Trabant 1.1 from 1990-1991 with a 1.043cc VW engine
Trabant two-stroke engine
The engine for the 500, 600, and the original 601 was a small two-stroke engine with two cylinders, giving the car modest performance. Curb weight was around 600 kg - 1,100 lbs. At the end of production in 1989, the Trabant engine output was 19 kW - 26 horsepower on a 600 cc displacement. It took 21 seconds to accelerate from a stop to 100 km / h (62 mph).
The engine had a very smoky exhaust, which created significant air pollution. Fuel consumption was 7 liters per 100 km. Since the engine did not have an oil injection system, it was necessary to add oil to the 24 liter fuel tank each time the vehicle was refueled. Since the car did not have a fuel pump, the fuel tank had to be mounted above the engine in the engine compartment so that fuel could be fed into the carburetor by gravity. This fuel delivery increased the risk of a fire under the hood. The first models did not have a fuel gauge, and a dipstick was installed in the gas tank to determine how much fuel was left.
Best known for its boring color scheme and cramped, uncomfortable ride, the car is the subject of "playful ridicule" for many in Germany and today.
Trabant is the automobile symbol of the GDR. After the war, when Germany was divided between two warring ideologically and economically countries, and East Germany came under the control of the USSR, a car manufacturing enterprise was organized in the German city of Zwickau based on the nationalized Horch and Audi factories. Later, a joint venture was organized under the name Industrieverband Fahrzeugbau (1948).
The government of the GDR decided on the basis of this enterprise to start producing a mass people's car (although at first it was used to produce consumer goods). The first socialist car, produced in the vastness of controlled Germany in the era of the USSR's conquest of space, was named Trabant ("Sputnik"). A competition was announced for the best name for a new car, and all 6 thousand workers of the plant, which produced a new car, voluntarily and compulsorily took part in it.
In the fall of 1957, the first Trabant rolled off the assembly lines. Outwardly, this car looked like a kind of miniature copy of its relatives outside the Iron Curtain. A short body, a high roof, funny rear fenders - all this made the Trabant a memorable and interesting vehicle. This car had modest dimensions (only 3.37 meters in length) four people could easily fit in it, and there was also a quite roomy trunk. This small car weighed only 620 kg, and the body did not corrode, since it was not metal.
In addition to the unusual appearance, the body of this car deserves special attention. In post-war Germany, in its socialist part, there was simply a catastrophic lack of metal, but despite this, the Soviets made a car. In the Trabant, only the body frame was made of steel, and everything else from cotton waste, which was impregnated with glue.
As a result, a material (duroplast) was obtained, which partly resembled plastic, but if you knock on it, you get the feeling that it is cardboard. Duroplast was considered an innovative technology. It was a very cheap material, so the car stood a little and anyone who worked could buy it.
As it is not surprising, the Vietnamese did most of the work on assembling the car, and the technology itself has not changed for 30 years. It is also worth noting that the Trabant car was developed on the basis of the then famous car from the manufacturer DKW and post-war IFA cars. The Trabant was offered in two versions - sedan and station wagon, there was also a luxury version that had heated rear windows, front and rear fog lights. It was also made in the form of a convertible, a tractor, a limousine and even a military jeep. Under the hood was an engine with a volume of approximately 0.6 liters and a capacity of 18 liters. s (front-wheel drive and four-speed manual transmission). Such a weak engine did not interfere with accelerating the car up to 90 km / h (Trabant consumes 6 liters per 100 km.).
The suspension on transverse springs coped well with road defects, but you can't really call it a comfortable ride if the asphalt surface needs repair. Everything is austere in the interior of this car. As for the security system or something else similar in Trabant, it was not there and in the event of an accident at any speed, the car literally broke down before our eyes. At one time this car was very popular, then everyone forgot it. Despite the fact that Trabant had a number of shortcomings, in the West this car was taken seriously and so that it would not suddenly become popular with them, they released the Austin Mini and Renault 4.
Despite this, the Trabant car, unlike its competitors, was inexpensive, just over 7 thousand marks (the average salary is 400 marks a month). Despite its plasticity, when properly operated, Trabant was distinguished by its special vitality. As in all socialist countries, a queue lined up for affordable cars, the same fate touched Trabant.
For special socialist achievements, the party could out of turn give out or contribute to the purchase of a new Trabant car. An interesting fact is that people who dreamed of Trabant set up garages, acquired tools for repairs and could stand in line for about 13 years. The supported Trabant was sold (it was impossible to sell, so they issued a power of attorney for very big money) at a speculative price that exceeded the factory price, while the state fought against speculators. It was also not very easy to buy parts for this car, since the car itself was produced at the maximum limits and there was absolutely no time left for the release of parts, so whoever had the opportunity to buy at least some detail, they bought a few in reserve, and then exchanged for missing parts. Trabant was exported to social countries. camp.
As for modernization, it was thought back in the mid-60s, but it was only a slight increase in engine power. In the midst of the thaw, it was decided to change the engine again, it was planned to order an engine from the Federal Republic of Germany, but these attempts were unsuccessful. With the fall of the Berlin Wall, the demand for the Trabant car fell, people were no longer interested in this car, they were interested in high-quality European cars. By that time, just over 3 million Trabant had rolled off the assembly lines.
In the mid-90s, the Zwickau plant stopped, the production of cars was discontinued. After a while, the plant was returned to the possession of the descendants of Horch and Audi, and the entire staff was fired.
Now Trabant can be found rarely, in Germany it is used to entertain tourists. Now in Germany (and in some other countries of the world) there are auto clubs dedicated to this car. Once a year, true fans of this car gather in Zwickau to celebrate its next anniversary and remember their youth.
In the 2000s, social services were held in Germany. poll among former Trabant owners and among them, just over half agreed to purchase the updated Trabant if it was released. As a result, a group of enthusiasts bought the rights to the Trabant car brand and in 2009 at the Frankfurt Motor Show the concept of the Trabant NT electric car was demonstrated (body parts were made of the same, but more advanced plastic).
Alas, this car did not go into production due to lack of money. On this, most likely, the history of the people's socialist car in Germany is not yet over, because in Africa they are thinking about releasing a revived Trabant for poor African families, while the price will not exceed 3 thousand dollars.
