The Trabant is back - in electric green

[depakid]

THE Trabant - polluting, joke-inspiring and the enduring symbol of the imploding nation that made it - is being reborn as an electric car for a greener world. A new model debuts at the Frankfurt Motor Show next month - two months short of 20 years since the country that made them went out of business. The Trabant - its name meant ''foot soldier'' in old German - was the mass-produced car for the masses of communist East Germany.

Three million of them were manufactured and the noise of their clattery, two-stroke engines as they flooded west when the Berlin Wall fell in November 1989 became the death knell of the regime. Although they couldn't compete with the muscle cars of Audi, BMW and Mercedes, the Trabant wormed its way into the hearts of westerners and some 50,000 are still running across the country and beyond.

Now Son of Trabant - the Trabant nT - is looking to make the bone-shaker into a retro hit for green-conscious drivers.

Motor parts maker IndiKar has teamed up with a model manufacturer to create a consortium looking to attract investors when the nT - New Trabant - is unveiled on September 17. They are looking for investment of about $A197.3 million to get the new Trabant rolling off the production lines in Zwickau, the site of the original's manufacturer.

The old version, for which people had to wait up to 10 years, was a study in basics. The petrol gauge was a dipstick and extra heating came from a rug under the back seat. The new one comes with solar panels on the roof and a petrol tank in case of emergencies and will have a range of a little over 240 kilometres.

More: http://www.theage.com.au/world/the-trabant-is-back--in-electric-green-20090814-el61.html

[Greyskye]

1. You can't beat that classic look...

Oh, wait, you can! Hope the new one has a little better design sense! :D

[depakid]

2. Apparently they're keeping some of the "classis" lines

[excess_3]

3. does the original tooling for the body , still exist? .nt

[pscot]

4. Are they going to continue the tradition

of building the bodies out of recycled wool or cardboard or whatever the hell they used? And what about that noxious blue smoke. It won't be a Trabi without the smoke.

[kristopher]

5. History repeats...

http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1658545_1658533_1658529,00.html
The 50 Worst Cars of All Time
The Yugo
Malcolm Bricklin, he of the Bricklin SV1, wouldn't be satisfied until he had forced every American to walk to work. To that end, in 1985, he began importing the Yugo GV, which turned out to be the Mona Lisa of bad cars. Built in Soviet-bloc Yugoslavia, the Yugo had the distinct feeling of something assembled at gunpoint. Interestingly, in a car where "carpet" was listed as a standard feature, the Yugo had a rear-window defroster — reportedly to keep your hands warm while you pushed it. The engines went ka-blooey, the electrical system — such as it was — would sizzle, and things would just fall off. Yugo. Or not.
http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1658545_1658533_1658529,00.html


A friend worked at one of the first dealerships to handle these cars. Among other things like windows falling out, mirrors falling off when you colsed the door, he said the first 50 cars they got were shipped with no rings. The cars would run enough for short rides, but when you opened the hood there was oil everywhere.

Hope this new group does better with their version of the Trabant.

[Greyskye]

6. I knew a woman once that had a Yugo...

I remember her telling me that about the cardboard door panels that dissolved when it rained. Don't remember anything else, it had died on her and she was car-less at the time.