5k: Glasnostic: 1989 Trabant 601S
The Trabant 601 was a small passenger sedan from the Soviet side of the Berlin Wall. It was the Deutsche Demokratische Republik (East Germany) equivalent of the Volkswagen Beetle and produced in staggering numbers. This next feature is one of the almost 3,000,000 Trabis to leave the production line in Zwickau, Germany. Find this 1989 Trabant 601S offered for $6,000 in Santa Cruz, CA via craigslist. Tip from Kaibeezy.
The seller describes this Trabi as being in great mechanical and fair cosmetic shape, which sounds like the perfect kind of car to pickup for cheap and just cruise around. However, you’ve got to wonder how often you have to fiddle with fiddly stuff to get to your destination.
Power under the hood…at least I think that is the engine, it doesn’t look very enginish…comes from a 600 cc two-stroke twin-cylinder weedeater engine rated at 27 horsepower and 38 ft-lbs of torque mated to the front wheels via a 4-speed manual gearbox. With some luck you might be able to hit a gear limited 62 mph in 4th gear, but don’t bet anything valuable on it.
See another East German classic? tips@dailyturismo.com
I love two-stroke Tuesdays!
Our first car,nostalgic,cool looking.
Just tragic what kind of nonsense one has to deal with to get something like this on the road in California.
I was going to ask you why then I realized…..1989?! I'm surprised that this is that young! There should be some kind of exemption for old cars that were made for 20+ years or something.
Yeah, 1989. Presumably bare weeks before the end of the Wall, the end of Honecker, the end of the DDR.
Interesting car based (loosely) on the DKW Junior from the 1960's and is now part of the Audi Group! 🙂