I finally found one. Do you have any actual numbers on failure rates? At this point, I could say it was a sprocket and a bicycle chain. The Trabant had something you could call a transmission, but it’s a bit more complicated than that. That sweet eco-touchy-feely recycled duroplast? I would still argue, when on a bicycle, your survival chances when crashing into a bicycle are higher than when crashing into a car. So, what’s the deal with this ugly little car, and why was it so awful? The East German Trabant, which was widely ridiculed for having a body made of recycled cotton and wood chippings, has resurfaced in Cheltenham and … http://jalopnik.com/these-were-your-car-options-in-hungary-u... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenol_formaldehyde_resin, https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenoplast#Verwendung, http://store.steampowered.com/app/446020/, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wartburg_353, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhpIgM6TpwA, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yiOPgUs1lA, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ynxQF3pd-I, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=No1-4GsQa-g. Even North Korea was doing well for a while. "Is it really important, in 10 years time?" But they made the doors, hood, and fenders of Duroplast. Also, you couldn’t decelerate in every gear. Here’s a hint: it’s not made of steel. Oh I was just saying that the Verso is probably closer to simplest. Actually, it was rather brilliant. The hungarian joke was: 'When I grow up, I'll be a Mercedes'. There’s no shortage of awful vehicles. The wire brush, usually used to restore rusted bodywork on steel built cars, will worsen the condition of the bodywork on a Trabant. The Delorean is remembered fondly today because of Back to the Future, but it’s easy to forget that its poor design—it was notoriously heavy and had a weak engine—left its creatorbroken and bankrupt. Do you have some concrete evidence that Trabant does worse here (i.e. They stamped the unibody structure in steel. asks the surprised salesman. While it has a steel frame, the Trabi car body was … It’s the best that the worst ideas have to offer, and it’s the best they’ll ever get. The Nissan Verso undercuts it, selling in the US for $13,000 (including delivery fees and such). Back then all cars were death traps. East Germany in the 1950s was short of everything―food, cement, clothing, steel. Turns out you can't really dispose of it. http://www.businessinsider.com/low-oil-prices-hurt-plastics-... Sure, I can use fabric shopping bags. design issues that prevented people from getting out or that turn some parts into lethal weapons when involved in a "minor city crash")? They stamped the unibody structure in steel. Could it be a Trabant? It is a resin plastic reinforced with fibers (either cotton or wool) making it a fiber-reinforced plastic similar to fiberglass. Same goes for Trabant vs Trabant. They leak everything everywhere. Here's a pic I took years ago: When visiting East Germany I always preferred the. The Trabant was to the East what the VW Beetle was to the West — a vehicle for the masses. There was a soviet joke about this. Modern engines require unimaginable tolerances. Trabant 601S (1981) review. Built in East Germany, the Trabant 601 was notorious for its many faults – not the least of which was a body made out of Duroplast, a hard plastic made of cotton … A long waiting list Unfortunately, those major exterior parts were made of plastic reinforced with cotton scraps or other fibers. You can't make a clean, 4-stroke engine without high fuel pressure. The cars are often referred to as "Trabbi" or "Trabi". The steering wheel might take your head off. That thing literally folds on itself. Dacia is probably a car you want to investigate as a more car like specimen. But no. The Gremlin, a car produced by American Motors Corporation, a company that went belly up in the Reagan era, looked like it was … Jason Torchinsky. They had all the elements from the periodic table at their disposal, large reserves of oil and natural gas, endless fields of nutrient rich soil. The Ford Edsel, which debuted in 1955, was famously ugly. The carcirogenic part was just highlight one problem. This means that you can’t have any rust on them! There’s something much more sinister under the hood. when you consider garbage disposal costs, * less moving parts and parts than can be repaired by amateurs mean less parts overall which means less costs and waste. Do you really think it was inert and harmless? The Trabant had a steel unibody frame, with the roof, trunk lid, hood, fenders and doors made of Duroplast, a hard plastic made from recycled cotton waste from the Soviet Union and phenol resins from the East German dye industry. Some say Trabant owners simply kept a spare engine in the trunk in case they blew it up. Well, right, the engine arrangement is pretty much out of the question for a variety of reasons. I'm not sure how much less likely it would have been to be maimed in a low speed crash in an American car. > Those cars are constantly broken. 25. Some friends visit him- asking him how he is satisfied with his car. Before there was this joke in Western Germany: "How do you spot someone from Eastern Germany? As an example of working within the constraints of the time while preserving the core functions of a car it was a good example, yes from the point of view of western equivalents of the same era they are laughable but western cars didn't have the same constraints. The body was made out of a material called It's more utilitarian than Smart and costs less (in the US at least). Do you really think that waste from a soviet plant is harmless? The Trabant Is The Best Commie Car Made Of Cotton We've Ever Driven. It's also considerably more spacious without sacrificing too much fuel mileage. Serviceability by amateurs goes directly against low emissions. The problem with those socialist countries is that they failed to evolve. The Trabant Body Isn’t Made of Steel or Iron. The roof, trunk, hood, doors and bumpers were made from Duroplast, which was cotton waste and resin – so basically recycled materials. A man goes to the car dealer, and asks for an appointment to buy a car. (Note: the only way to get rid of a Duroplast car is to shred or burn it; some municipalities use the shavings as a cement additive). As a result, clouds of blue smoke dominated the horizon in East Berlin for much of the 20th century. You can't make a clean, 4-stroke engine without high fuel pressure. Except the shifter looked like a bent aluminum broom handle. It's so bad it's good. You need high fuel pressure for good atomization and efficient burn, you need precise tolerances, you need high-grade materials for the engine to not burn fuel like crazy and not produce all kinds of nasty shit. I don't doubt that they would fail modern crash tests but even that is relative: If everyone is driving a slow "deathtrap" your chances of getting into a high speed crash with a fast moving tank are pretty low. The Trabant did have some steel components. by Laura Kiniry ... and an exterior made of Duroplast—a rust-resistant, cotton … Because the Trabant 601 wasn’t made of iron. The constraints the soviets had were all self made, as the article also mentions. Manual transmission is the norm here anyway and crank windows are just an annoyance, but AC is possibly better for your health than open windows when used carefully. And instead of pivoting on a hinge (like three-speed column transmissions), you had to physically slide the handle forward and back when shifting between gears on the H pattern. Instead, the Trabant was made of Duroplast, a special kind of plastic, made by mixing formica and bakelite, and made stronger with fibres of cotton. The engine is just a scaled up version of the motorcycles my brothers and I drove as kids in the late 70s / early 80s. The body panels of the old Trabby were made of COTTON. You could summarize it by saying small cars are friendlier to the environment. But since 2-stroke engines benefit greatly from direct injection I'll let that pass and just notice that I was not talking about the engine specifically but the overall design and that I even pointed out that the engine they used was "antiquated". Your chances of being maimed in that cardboard box even in a minor city crash are high, it literally is a deathtrap. It isn't speed that kills you but being crushed into a funny looking ball. It has become quite popular as a secondary car where I live (EU) when an additional parking place is a concern, but it definitely is not appealing as a primary car. Another point of gravity fuel feed: guess where the tank is - directly above an aircooled engine. Just to buy trash bags instead, but whatever makes you feel nice. For e.g. After the war and the separation of Germany, there was little left of the East German auto industry; those factories that weren’t damaged by bombs had been pillaged of parts and machinery by the Soviets. This Youtube channel, Aging Wheels, showcases the Trabant: The license plate "OT 92-27" on the picture should be license plate of the of Ostrava district, if i am not mistaken :), The Trabant Is the Best Commie Car Made of Cotton We've Ever Driven. East Germany is gone, but the Trabant lives on. You won. If so, consider how not having a fuel pump effects the engineering of everything that comes after it. The Trabant’s body was made of a toxic material that couldn’t be safely disposed of. The comment If not for the antiquated 2-stroke engine and lack of exhaust filters, it could still be an example for very good, cost efficient and environment friendly engineering. But the body panels weren’t the only cut corners on the Cotton Car. And here I'd like to have a breakdown to see where the costs are coming from. The Trabant had a steel unibody frame, with the roof, trunk lid, hood, fenders and doors made of duroplast, a hard plastic made from recycled cotton waste from the Soviet Union and phenol resins from the East German dye industry. You can use a sponge or polish to make it glossy/shiny. I have no idea why, but Trabis were covered in stickers. Recycled material is almost always more expensive than non-recycled one, why do you think recycling needs to be forced by law? It is made of cotton waste and resin, and it can actually be pressed into shape in a mold, pretty well the same as metal panels. Okay, I lied. By combining cotton fibers and a special resin, engineers created a hard fiberglass-like material called Duroplast. The cheap material earned the Trabi, among myriad other nicknames, the … An example of something doesn't necessarily mean an exact example. The manufacturer practically had the automotive monopoly in Soviet-ruled Germany. The Trabant has a two-cylinder motor and its body is made of resin mixed with cotton and although it was far from being a stable car, it became one of the most coveted cars capable of transporting four adults and their luggage. Ask any group of old car guys what car is … (dirty as sin, though). The material itself is actually a clever invention. Trabant It’s made from cotton waste and phenol resins. He is carrying a fabric shopping bag!". The phenol came from the distillation of domestic brown coal tar. They used waste from dye production. The Trabant body is made out of a material called Duraplast. The Trabant was a simple, humble, little toy built with the philosophy “what doesn’t exist, can’t break”. The salesman replies sure, come in 10 years. Never mind the shift gear and lack of power steering. I'm not sure whether the eco in econonsense refers to economy or ecology but in both possible meanings I would like to hear your math behind the "nonsense". 1984 Trabant P601. The Trabant is the ultra hipster statement. We used to joke that they were to keep the Trabis from falling apart. is quite mad, however. Now people carry proper fabric shopping bags "because of the environment1!!!1!". I was just trying to go with the parent comment. Saved from youtube.com. Do you know how a modern ICE works? 11/11/16 4:41PM. This is perhaps because of lack of competition (there wasn't much common market even between different Warsaw Pact countries) and overspending on military preparing for wars which never came. Last year, I stopped at a cafe near Reykjavik, Iceland. Sure as fuck I'd personally prefer that if it was compared to motorbike + clothes. > Recycled material is almost always more expensive than non-recycled one, Do you have any numbers to back that up? It’s … The Trabant 601 car body is made of Duroplast Duroplast is a composite thermosetting plastic, a close relative of Formica and Bakelite. The Trabant is a physical manifestation of failed utopian ideologies. It has a two-cylinder two-stroke engine that produces thick smoke out of the exhaust pipe. The duroplast wis made o recycled material, cotton waste frae Soviet Union an phenol resins frae the East German dye industry, makin the Trabant the first caur wi a body made o recycled material. Smart indeed works as a minimal car. The Trabant was given a self-supporting skeleton body made of sheet steel, the outer paneling of which was largely made of cotton- reinforced phenoplast. In a planned economy it is much easier and cheaper to source recycled or scrapped material (i.e: You know you need 10ton of cotton wool to make X goods in a factory and you also know that you have to scrap 0.5tons. (They ground it up and mixed it as aggregate in cement for pavement construction), About recycling: I meant it has to be required because it usually isn't worth it (especially for normal people, not buisnesses that happen to have it by the tonne). The cars had to be lightweight because they didn't make much power. Eastern Germany had shortages of materials so they literally used anything they could. Yes. Wikipedia claims: The engine produced very smoky exhaust and significant air pollution – nine times the hydrocarbons and five times the carbon monoxide emissions of the average European car of 2007. Nov 11, 2019 - Take a spin in the classic east German Trabant with it's 1950's style and 600cc 2 stroke engine. You literally seem to have no idea how any of this works. The Delorean is remembered fondly today because of Back to the Future, but it’s easy to forget that its poor design—it was notoriously heavy and had a weak engine—left its creatorbroken and bankrupt. "Oh, its going to be great- they already send me a paper-model.". I don't discount the elegance of the solution in its own context. The body is plastic (Duroplast) which makes it very light we... .. > Serviceability by amateurs goes directly against low emissions. I wish they hadn't broken their images — they require JavaScript for functioning tags(!). The Trabant wis the seicont caur tae uise Duroplast, efter the "pre-Trabant" P70 model (1954–1959). http://jalopnik.com/these-were-your-car-options-in-hungary-u... this article makes the point that there was some competition. So they did. On the topic of safety: Yes, being hit by a modern car might actually be safer on a bike than in that thing. Apart from being a deathtrap and making you deaf. And because it was so simple, he could put it in in half an hour without any prior training as a car mechanic. And they relied on centralized mechanized agriculture. There's a couple of places in town that will buy metal. I'd personally like to see what a modern car would look like if you went in the same direction, given the constraints of it must be a functional car and must pass crash test/emission standards whats the most pared back/reliable car we can build. The car's name was inspired by the Soviet Sputnik satellite. What you’re looking at is the infamously awful East German Trabant 601. But thankfully, Trabby parts were plentiful. Manual trans, crank windows, with AC. They'll still be making the same car in '85 which was succesfully launched in '65, and nobody would want it any more. Yes—indeed, it is. inquires the man. That's a good point. But Smart, or even Renault Elektro is following the spirit of Trabant more closely. They said that Trabant bodies are made of some sort of plant fiber material with resin similar to fiberglass. It was cheap to produce, with an outer body made of hard plastic. The vehicle parked out front required a double-take. Trabant. I'm completely traumatized by ~"carcinogens in preschools and hospitals". Or steel. 141. The steering column might impale you. The AWZ P70 "Zwickau" was the first East-German car to enjoy the benefits of that. Do you really think it was inert and harmless? I don't care why we use resources as efficient as possible as long as we do it. The Trabant Is The Best Commie Car Made Of Cotton We've Ever Driven > why do you think recycling needs to be forced by law? Therefore they don't rust. The car and body panels are made from a cotton-based plastic known as "Duroplast" in german. Because the elected representatives think that the majority wants to protect the environment. This is an east german car magazine episode from 1982, introducing the new model's features: I never got the answer to that question. Don't need it. Modern engines require unimaginable tolerances. Do you think anyone even bothered to check how toxic it is? I’ve always wanted to drive a Trabant… The last mentioned made building a car difficult, so the Trabant engineers improvised. > Your chances of being maimed in that cardboard box even in a minor city crash are high, it literally is a deathtrap. The Trabant did have some steel components. Since it’s a two-stroke, if you starve the engine of fuel, you ALSO starve it of oil. I was looking at it and thought of Smart as a candidate. It came to symbolize the country during the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, as images of East Germans crossing the border into West Germanywere broadcast around the gl… As the New York Times put it, "While (Swedish) Saabs were 'born from jets,' and Jaguars were 'born to perform,' Trabants were born out of desperation." There’s no shortage of awful vehicles. It seems East Germany used up all the iron making the curtain. Primarily because the Duroplast body panels are toxic, won’t decompose, and are impossible to dispose of. The material which made up the Trabant's body was ingenious. They leak everything everywhere. Sure, you can drop bells and whistles like electric windshields, infotaiment and the like. Or any metal for that matter. Produced without major changes for nearly 30 years, the Trabant became the most common automobile in East Germany. For e.g. Eastern Germany wasn't doing that bad in the 50s but somehow they got stuck. Trabant owners had to mix oil with the gas. I guess there were no longer any USSR to supply them with fertilizer and other stuff for free, and China retracted some of their support too. Of course, 500cc is a little bigger than 250, 100 or 80 cc :-). Therefore you just plan on having 0.5tons for further use and collect that with a truck once a month.). My local recycling center doesn't accept glass (because it isn't worth anything). The advantage of this is that the panels don’t rust. It’s the predictable result of a system that promised the world but delivered something… worse. Only a handful of car plants escaped unscathed, and in 1946 the East German government nationalised the ravaged motor industry, including cars, motorcycles, trucks and tractors, under a governing body called the IFA (Industrieverband Fahrzeugbau, which translates as the Industrial Association for Vehicle Cons… Car Culture/Getty Images. There was a soviet joke about this. At least that’s what the designers at Trabant would’ve had you believe. You said "it is ecological at heart concept", 1)can't be ecological with 2 stroke engine, EVER, You said "it is great to be serviceable by amateurs". "Right, but in the morning or the afternoon?" The outside of the Trabant was not made with steel or iron, because the German Democratic Republic did not want to import steel and iron for the cars, because that would have been too expensive.

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