Model Trabant Car

About this “Trabant” Model Car:

• Purchased at Berlin Tegel airport in the mid-late 1990’s, but alas did not keep the box.
• No noticeable scratches as its mostly been sitting on shelves as an ornament
• Approximately 1/30^th scale
• Size: 12 cm long x 5cm wide x 5cm high or 4.7 x 2.0 x 2.0 inches
• Weight: 140 g or 5 ounces or 0.31 lb
• The two front side doors open up just like with the real Trabant
• Some interior detail and the windows have good visibility
• The friction drive works, but unlike the real car’s engine, the friction engine is located at the rear of the vehicle.
• This model car can travel at least 4.1 metres (13.5 feet) at a speed of 1.1 metres/sec (3.6 ft/sec) or 4.0 km/h (2.5 mph). Scaled up by 30x this is only slightly faster than the real car
• The underside of this model car says that it was made in China, unlike the real-life ones which were made in Zwickau, Germany.
• The last image is in 3D. To view in 3D wear stereo anaglyph glasses with the red filter over the left eye and the blue green filter over the right eye.
• The buyer is responsible for any customs duty or import tax.
• For returns the buyer is responsible for the cost of repackaging and postage

A Brief Summary of the Trabant:

• The “Trabant”, a former German Democratic Republic (DDR) peoples’ car. They started to build them in 1957, the same year the first satellite was launched – Sputnik 1. Although state of the art back then,  with a transverse engine mount, and front wheel drive, the design pretty much remained unchanged and fell behind all other car manufacturers. During the Soviet era, these two stroke engine cars were all the rage in East Germany and in such short supply that there were very lengthy waiting lists of years. These vehicles were very noisy, bone shakers for the drivers and passengers alike, and heavily polluting. The Trabant production run ceased a couple of years after the reunification of the two Germany’s. You will notice the number plate on the back of this car is “DDR-1989” which is the year that the Berlin Wall came down. There are quite a few jokes about Trabant’s, but it’s not appropriate to divulge these here, you can Google them on the Internet if you are curious.
• To operate the friction drive, put the car of a flat floor (avoid carpets and dirty/dusty/wet environments) and push the car backwards. Then release the car and it should shoot forwards. The further you push the car back the faster/further it will travel. Do not push back on the wheels any further if there is a very loud click, as the winding mechanism will have reached its maximum extent. It is probably not a good idea to excessively use the friction drive especially at full extent - as with the real Trabant the engine may wear out faster than on other vehicles if overly used.

Enjoy!