Sunday, January 10, 2016

Boys and their automotive toys


I'm sure many readers know of the Trabant, widely derided as one of the world's worst cars.  A product of Communist-era East German engineering, it smoked, wheezed and rattled its way around Eastern Europe for many years.  When the Berlin Wall fell, many Trabant owners drove them into West Germany, then abandoned them at the roadside when they broke down, because they were finally in a country where they could buy something more reliable.

Since then the Trabant has become something of a cult item among sports car fans.  For example, here's one that's been fitted with a 1300cc engine from a Suzuki Hayabusa superbike.  Presumably they updated the suspension system as well!





This has to be the ultimate, though.  According to the video blurb:

Polish petrol-head Arek Winiarski has long been a fan of the cars, but decided he wanted to taken his own model up a few gears. Using parts from an Audi TT, Arek heavily customised his Trabant to turn it into a car any speed freak would be proud of.

He claims that top speed has been improved by over 60 mph.  Judge for yourselves.





I don't think I'd want either of them, but both videos show that boys will still be boys as far as their toys are concerned . . .

Peter

4 comments:

drjim said...

Ah, the Trabant!

The butt of uncounted jokes in "Car and Driver" magazine........

Old NFO said...

Yep, boys and their toys... sigh

Phil said...

As bad as the Travant was,let's not forget the Yugo.
The ultimate POS car.
I can remember seeing one of those that still had the window sticker in it and you could hear it coming before you saw it. The top end was hammering like it had no oil pressure to the valve train and the transmission sounded like a mobile rock crusher.

Will said...

People have swapped that Suzuki engine into Smart Cars, and the result moves like a go kart on steroids. IIRC, that engine makes near 200 HP, stock.