Re: [Amc-list] Remember when?

[Keleigh Hardie <keleigh3000@xxxxxxxxx>]

"thought I wanted to BUY the Trabbie (not sure it would fit in checked 
baggage for the return flight).

It could almost BE checked baggage. :)

Tom Jennings wrote:
> On Wed, 28 Mar 2007, Keleigh Hardie wrote:
>
>   
>> That orange Trabant is interesting. I didn't know cardboard could rust...
>>     
>
> Most? All? of them are made of that composite gunk.
>
> I know little of them. I made a very serious effort to locate
> anyone I was around that had access to one to lift the hood
> so I could photo it.  At a big flea market (where I got a nice
> Tesla (Czechoslovakian) (Czech Repulic these days) car radio)
> a vendor was offloadin his wares from one, I tried to locate
> someone who spoke english to be intermediary, but they guy
> thought I wanted to BUY the Trabbie (not sure it would fit in
> checked baggage for the return flight).
>
> This is what I know of them technically:
>
> 600cc twin air-cooled premix ported two-stroke motor up front,
> front wheel drive, single transverse leaf in front. The motor
> looks pretty decent design, in the cutaway drawing poster I
> bought at said flea market. (One of those high-quality things
> from a dealer showroom, circa 1968.)
>
> Has dual point distributor, possibly one contact/coil per
> cylinder; my drawing doesn't show what the two points are doing
> or the coil(s). A little RTFM would probably find me a TSM.
>
> Interior looks generic 60's low-end-euro (think Volvo). Basic
> gauges, plain seats. Good use of space, didn't get to sit in
> one but looks roomy enough. This car was made for Russians,
> not Japanese, remember.
>
> I never saw a crumpled one. Possibly impact takes them off the
> road, but there must be a non-fatal failure mode, but I never
> saw one.
>
> Laugh all you want (while you keep in mind how Gremlins get
> laughed at) there are many of these 20 - 30 years old still in
> regular use. They are by no means rare; they are very common.
> This is not Cuba; there are plenty of cars around.
>
> In that list of photos are two or three that I took by sticking
> my camera under the front of the car while walkin down the
> street, from the front bumper back. Hard to decipher.
>
> There's even a wagon, which is really great.
>
>
> This is what I know of them culturally:
>
> They are very well respected, considered very reliable, well made
> and repairable as hell. There is no love for the ex-USSR here,
> this isn't some displaced paternal fuzzies for the old days.
>
> They're all old now and I guess that owning one is out of love,
> habit or necessity for an old cheap car. Hungary is not rich,
> but it's no 3rd-world country.
>
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>   
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