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Helen Betts | all galleries >> Budapest Adventure >> Memento Park: Budapest's Communist-era Monuments > Trabant: not too many frills
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17-NOV-2012

Trabant: not too many frills

This car was just inside the gate of the memorial park. The sign on the window said it took between six and eight years to receive a Trabant that had been ordered from East Germany. See the previous picture for the exterior of this plastic car http://www.pbase.com/image/147504795.

"The Trabant (or Trabi) was a series of cars built in the German Democratic Republic. When the first cars were released, people saw them as being innovative. The cars were also easy on fuel, they did not need much fuel. Trabant had a two-stroke engine. Trabants were 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. 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. After the Berlin Wall was opened the Trabant did not sell as much as before, because the people wanted bigger cars that they could get after the wall was opened. Trabants can still be found in East Europe, for example in Hungary.

"The Trabant was a small car, good for driving in the city. Because it was made of plastic it was not very safe in a crash, and the two-stroke engine created lots of air pollution. Between 1957 and 1990, about 3 million Trabants were built. As of January 2005, about 67.000 such cars were still registered."

(from Wikipedia)

Nikon D700 ,Nikkor AF-S 24-70mm f/2.8G ED
1/80s f/4.5 at 38.0mm iso1000 full exif

other sizes: small medium original auto
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John Reynolds LRPS24-Nov-2012 07:29
Must be the basic model. V.
joseantonio24-Nov-2012 05:02
What as find.I don´t think this could do many kms. day...v.
bill friedlander24-Nov-2012 01:08
A nice peek at very basic transportation. The seat covers look in fairly good shape, I wonder how many there were before this set. V
Graeme24-Nov-2012 00:54
A very, very basic interior!BV
woody3424-Nov-2012 00:40
Wow, a great find but don't think I would like to drive one..V
Tomasz Dziubinski - Photography24-Nov-2012 00:38
Not a Rolls-Royce.Phanton for sure:)
Goog capture, Voted.
janescottcumming24-Nov-2012 00:31
Interesting how it still has a cover on the steering wheel.
pkocinski24-Nov-2012 00:21
If you left that car around here you'd never have to worry about someone stealing it :-)
J S Quesada23-Nov-2012 23:16
Very nice capture of this old car interior. Fantastic textures and tones. V
Isabel Cutler23-Nov-2012 23:14
I recently watch two documentaries about East Germany - the first about the wall coming down and the second about developments since that time. The Trabant was discussed. We were in East Berlin in 1975. It was scary! Bill was making a video at Checkpoint Charlie and East German guards came over to tell him he wasn't able to do that. We were afraid he'd have to give up the camera. Giving up our passports when we crossed into E. Germany was scary enough.
Karen Stuebing23-Nov-2012 22:50
Nothing wrong with a no frills car. Great find and capture of this older vehicle. It doesn't sound very safe at all though. V.
Bill Miller23-Nov-2012 22:09
Is that 120 mph or kph on the speedo? Either way, I would be a bit nervous at speed !