How will it turn out when a thirty-year-old Trabant is sensitively renovated, gets a tuned turbo engine from Audi and all-wheel drive from the same brand under the hood? Absolutely great.
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You don’t have to be an eyewitness to say the name “Trabant” to think of that cute car from the GDR, which was accompanied by the unmistakable sound of the two-stroke engine when driving. And also the odor, emanating from the exhaust and created by burning a mixture of gasoline and oil. In short, a bit of a motorcycle on four wheels, an engine volume of 600 “cubes” and a body made of Duroplast. The comrades from the GDR did not make a mistake here, corrosion had no chance. Read on, this will entertain you.
Inspiration from the best restomods
We found a slightly “tuned” Trabant. A certain good man from Poland probably thought one day that 600cc and two cylinders was nothing to satisfy his the idea of transportation from point A to point B. One can only agree with that. Those of you who happen to remember traveling with a Trabant will tell me that it was a combination of a certain desperation and masochism. Especially in winter. The Trabant did not heat. Here the comrades from the GDR obviously made a mistake.
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And since the effort to improve the original two-stroke engine would be a similar masochism as traveling in the Bakelite miracle of East German engineering was, the engine was the first to “fly” out of the car. The four-cylinder 1.8T from the Audi TT appeared to be a capable substitute. which in tuned form offered a considerable 368 hp and 425 Nm. Taking into account that the vehicle itself is perhaps lighter than the engine, one could expect truly dynamic experiences.
Guide to the socialist miracle
And you also showed up. In the meantime, however, a complete chassis, taken for a change from the Audi RS3, moved under the hood. Quattro of course. I dare say that about such a reconstruction its creators did not dream of a highly socialist vehicle not even in the most revolutionary and proletarian dreams. I understand, they worked with what was available in the GDR at the time. And there really wasn’t much of it. Nevertheless, Trabants were put on the waiting list and waited for years. Does anyone still believe this today?
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After the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989, quite a few remained in the Czech Republic, where our East German friends left them. Of course, in what was then still West Germany, a Polo was waiting for them, triple BMW or Kadett, if we stay with the more affordable models “to start”. And the Trabant could not be compared to them in any way, it was not a different league, it was a different sport and a different universe. Back then you could also get a Trabant basically for free. Today? Prepare a six-figure sum if you want a really well-preserved piece.
Even that, however, will not come close to what Artur Owsiany from Poland was able to create from the originally folk cart. His “Quattro Trabi” on BBS alloy wheels and with almost four hundred horses under the hood it arouses legitimate interest and attention wherever it appears. And more thumbs up than any other vehicle. Evidently, a bit of nostalgia for the old days remained in the Poles as well. Although they have completely contemporary “bourgeois capitalist technology” under the bodywork. And they don’t give anyone a chance at traffic lights.
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