As regular readers will know, our mantra here at ViaRETRO is that “Any classic is better than no classic”. Of course, the definition of a classic is fairly broad – at it’s simplest, it’s generally considered to be any car that is more than 30 years old – in the UK, the official demarcation is 40 years, after which no taxes are applicable, nor is an annual roadworthiness test required.
For many, a classic has to be something extraordinary, but in recent years it’s also encompassed the everyday road warriors of yesteryear, and the recently introduced Festival of the Unexceptional was created precisely to celebrate the ordinary cars that used to roam our roads in their hundreds of thousands and yet now are the motoring equivalent of an endangered species.
This week’s Prime Find is possibly as ordinary a car as you can find, and until the 1990’s was almost never seen outside East Germany
VEB Sachsenring Automobilwerke in Zwickau began building the Trabant in what were previously the Auto-Union DKW factory and initially made cars based on earlier DKW models. When Auto-Union (later Audi) established itself in the West, VEB Sachsenring were left with the two-stroke engine from DKW.
Trabant manufacture began in 1957 and the car remained pretty much unchanged until production ceased in 1991. With a transverse-mounted engine, front wheel drive, independent suspension and a unitary body, the “Trabi”, as it was nicknamed, was on the face of it fairly advanced, and that’s not all that was sophisticated about the Trabant.
The body was also unusual – the roof, boot lid, bonnet, wings and doors were made of something called duroplast, itself made from recycled cotton waste, which was surprisingly durable – apparently the average Trabant lasted 28 years. In this respect, in an era where there is huge focus on sustainability, the Trabant was decades ahead of its time.
Body styles were 2-door saloon, 3-door estate or Kombi, a van, and even a convertible, winningly named Tramp, which was basically a civilian version of the Kübelwagen or jeep, most of which found their way to Greece.
The engine was a major drawback, however. The first Trabant, the P50, came with the 500cc two stroke from DKW that produced 17PS, so of course performance was very limited. There were also some aspects of the design that were very problematic, such as the fuel tank that fed the carburettor via gravity – no fuel pump – so was situated above the engine, the kind of design that increased the risk of fire in accidents – Ralph Nader would have had conniptions.
The Trabant was cramped, very basic – there wasn’t even a fuel gauge in the earlier cars – noisy and slow, reliability was poor and build quality shoddy, and if you were an East German resident you would still have to wait up to thirteen years, with a demand to supply ratio of 43:1. It helped if you lived nearer to Berlin, unless you were able to afford to pay double for a used one. The company was a state monopoly, don’t forget.
Over time, engine sizes were increased, first to 600c and 20PS, used in the Trabant 600 from 1962 to ’65, and the 601 from 1964 to the end of production in 1991, by which time the engine pumped out 26PS and the car could reach 100kmh/62mph if you were patient. These engines were notorious polluters, and not all that economical, achieving between 34 and 40mpg.
For the final production year, a 1.043cc VW unit from the Polo was installed in the Trabant 1.1, but very few were built it’s estimated that about 50,000 left the factory. They did however at least give the Trabant – a very light car thanks to its construction materials – pretty much contemporary performance.
In total, 3,096,999 Trabants were made, which on the face of it seems a lot, although when you consider this took 34 years, it’s somewhat less impressive. The Trabi has become a bit of a cult car – there’s even a museum dedicated to the car in Berlin, called Trabi World. That cult has spread well beyond Germany – I’ve seen Trabants in Poland, Hungary, Czech and Slovak Republics and across Central and Eastern Europe.
After the reunification of Germany, it was obvious that the Trabant had no future in a country where the VW Golf and Opel Kadett ruled the small car sector, and the Zwickau factory was converted by VW to produce engines plus some Golfs and Passats. Many thousands of Trabants were abandoned, given away or scrapped, yet despite this there are still said to be some 250,000 left.
Our Prime find is a fairly late example, from 1986, and is also one of the relatively rare estate, or Kombi, versions, of which about half a million were made. It was driven from Germany to Cork, Ireland, sometime after the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the owner recommissioned the car, overhauling brakes, suspension and starter motor. It’s a 601S the S meaning you got an odometer, fog lamp, and white reversing light, and it’s finished in blue with a brown and beige interior – very standard for a Trabi.
Although the odometer reads just 55,598km, there’s no way of knowing how genuine that is, but what is known is that it has only covered some 500km since 2016 when it was acquired by the current owner, and is a good example of a Cold War-era classic.
Historics’ auctioneers are offering it as part of their Windsorview Lakes auction on July 16th, with no reserve. I can only find one other Kombi for sale in the UK, and that with the Polo engine, so not like-for-like. The asking price for that one is £1,950, and it needs work, so I would guess that this one – in decent condition, judging by the photographs we have borrowed from the auctioneer’s lot entry – which you can see here – so I would hazard that somewhere between £3,000 and £4,000 would secure this little piece of Cold War history.
As always, should this unusual classic tempt one of you, we recommend arranging prior inspection if possible before you make your offer.
With our Saturday instalment of Prime Find of the Week, we’re offering our services to the classic car community, by passing on our favourite classic car for sale from the week that passed. This top-tip might help a first-time-buyer to own his first classic, or it could even be the perfect motivation for a multiple-classic-car-owner to expand his garage with something different. We’ll let us be inspired by anything from a cheap project to a stunning concours exotic, and hope that you will do the same.
Just remember – Any Classic is Better than No Classic! We obviously invite our readers to help prospective buyers with your views and maybe even experiences of any given model we feature. Further to that, if you stumble across a classic which you feel we ought to feature as Prime Find of the Week, then please send us a link to primefindoftheweek@viaretro.co.uk