"Cé hé sin" (michael-m-mouse)
07/25/2017 at 15:45 • Filed to: Trabant
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"Cé hé sin" (michael-m-mouse)
07/25/2017 at 15:45 • Filed to: Trabant | 0
| 10 |
I’ve been carrying out a thought experiment.
Could I, rather than buying something newer and shinier designed and made in this century, go back instead? Specifically, back to something like this.
There are pros and cons.
Pros:
Exempt from emissions requirements (by way of a concession made on German reunification)
Duroplast body panels, so no rust
Engine has only five moving parts, so not much to go wrong. The five parts are two pistons, two rods and one crank. No pumps because no water pump (no water), no fuel pump (gravity is your friend) and no oil pump (because total loss lubrication)
It’s never going to need antifreeze
Most things can be fixed with a hammer, a screwdriver or a vice grip
You can change the engine with the above tools and you won’t need a hoist. Back in the day carrying a spare (or two!) around with you was a thing
Most parts still available
Unaffected by airbag recall
Doesn’t use much fuel
Not going to fall in value if you look after it
Cons:
Quite a few, sadly
Outer panels don’t rust, but everything structural is steel. Steel rusts away happily
Maximum recommended speed is 80 kmh. You get a bit more but at the cost of engine life
Not the safest thing to crash in, although somebody did a crash test and found it not much worse than other cars of the era
The fuel tank sits on top of the engine. Frontal impacts are contra indicated
It’s a two stroke. You need to calculate and add oil whenever you buy fuel
It’s a tad noisy under what passes for acceleration
So there you have it. Forwards may be backwards.
RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
> Cé hé sin
07/25/2017 at 15:58 |
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Adding a slide to make the seat adjustable might be recommended, unless one has exactly the right length of leg...
At any rate, I’ve been daily driving a car no newer than that (1963) for a month, with far more moving parts. It can certainly be done.
Daily Drives a Dragon - One Last Lap
> Cé hé sin
07/25/2017 at 16:00 |
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Maybe a Beetle is a little bit better of an option.
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RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
> Daily Drives a Dragon - One Last Lap
07/25/2017 at 16:11 |
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You’d think that, but an original Beetle is (at least engine-wise) much more involved for maintenance. If nothing else, one that’s operated in a warm clime has to have the cooling ducting changed or you have to constantly readjust the valves on cylinder #3... and that’s not even counting some of the fueling problems they can have, and oil leaks and other issues.
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Daily Drives a Dragon - One Last Lap
> RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
07/25/2017 at 16:50 |
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Fair points.
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Cé hé sin
> RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
07/25/2017 at 17:52 |
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Adjustable seats? What decadence are you talking about? The proletariat of the
Socialist Workers Paradise
had no need of such fripperies.
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Cé hé sin
> RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
07/25/2017 at 17:55 |
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No oil leaks on a Trabi.
No need to adjust the valves for hot, cold or any other climates. No need to fit valves in the first place, indeed.
Method behind it all.
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RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
> Cé hé sin
07/25/2017 at 18:10 |
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Quite right. The superiority of simple lawn-implement engineering.
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RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
> Cé hé sin
07/25/2017 at 18:17 |
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The seat slide is something I’d not have thought to look for, but it was mentioned to me by my German teacher. If I’m recalling this right, she said a friend had visited a member of the family by marriage in the former DDR and was mystified as to why this woman had not adjusted the seat in her VW to fit. When the question was raised, the reaction was mostly shock. “It adjusts?”
Of course, the 4wd products of the Rover company in the Workers Paradise of Warwickshire in the ‘60s only saw fit to provide an *optional*2“ or so. Quite perverse, frankly, as the geometry of a Land Rover makes the option nearly useless.
Also, it’s worth note that the first generation VW Caddy, at least as produced in the Workers Paradise of Westmoreland, Pennsylvania, could not use more than half or so of the seat’s normal range of movement. A short cab, and the standard seat from the standard Golf...
RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars
> Cé hé sin
07/25/2017 at 18:29 |
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I would love a Trabi in my stable! :D
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Cé hé sin
> RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
07/25/2017 at 18:39 |
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(Google, Google)
The later ones at least had succumbed to capitalist choice of seating positions, judging by the slots under this seat:
That one of course even has a floor gearlever, thus letting us know that it has the later four stroke VW engine which VEB Sachsenring spent vast amounts of time and money on rather than producing a modern car. The idea was that they would pay VW in engines. In the event VW took over the engine plant in Chemnitz and still use it.