I just saw a Trabant
I just saw a Trabant
we went to the store for some late-night cigarettes and ice cream
snacks. While waiting for the light to turn, saw this little thing go
by. “What was that?” Obviously not from these shores. We saw the thing
turn into the same gas station we were going to, so i drove around the
parking lot until I found it. I didn’t get a picture, but the owner of
the car, a very nice man named John with a british accent was near by.
He told me it was a Trabant, and when I pegged it as an East German car
(he made it easy by putting a DDR sticker on the back window) he was
impressed that I knew a little about it. The was the people’s car of
post-war communist Germany. It’s got a 2 cylinder engine that is roughly
equivalent to a snowmobile engine. 6 volt system, he had to use a 6-12
DC converter to get enough juice for his radio. (can anyone explain how
that works to me?) The gas gauge is a dip stick, the dash had nothing
but an odometer/speedometer. Neither of us had a camera or I’d have
taken pics of this one, he had it painted turquoise, but fortunately
google images had something for me.