Sachsenring Trabant P50
Car-ID: XT0129
Vehicle Description
Are you suffering from eastalgia? Here’s your remedy! A 1960 Trabant as a solid basis for a restoration is seeking a new owner. As documented by the east German registration papers, this car has gone through three ownerships in the GDR. After the reunification, the current owner bought the vehicle and drove it occasionally until 1994. Since it’s been decommissioned, the Trabi has been kept in a dry garage. It is now being offered because the premises are being sold, and the consignor had to admit he would not be able to carve out enough time for the restoration he once had in mind for this car.
The documentation informs us that in 1979, the original 500 cc engine was replaced with a 600 cc version. The general condition of this 56-year old car is quite good, making a full restoration appear worthwhile, though the car can of course be displayed “as is” in any collection, owing to its great number of original parts, among them the curved chrome trim lines which were characteristic for Trabants from the early period. The pastel green and alabaster colour scheme is apparently not the original paint, but it is certainly period-correct. Numerous handbooks and an assortment of spare parts is sold together with the car – but not only that: A complete 1962 Trabant 500 is included in the package, either as salvage car, or as a resto project of its own!
It has become a symbol of East Germany’s economy of scarcity: The Trabant. In fairness, the car was completely on a par with its West German counterparts at the time of its release. With its front engine and front wheel drive, it was even a rather modern vehicle. The main problem was that modifications and modernisations were scarce until 1964, and virtually non-existing after that. The original Trabant, the P50, was built from 1957 until 1962 with its 500 cc two-stroke engine producing 13 kW (18 hp) of power. As of 1963, the engine was upgraded to 600 cc and a power output of 17 kW (23 hp). 1964 brought a facelifted bodywork with straighter lines – which then remained unchanged until the end of production in 1991. For the last year, a licenced version of a 1.0 litre VW 4-stroke engine from the Polo was implanted.
Body shapes included the 2-door sedan and a 2-door station wagon, called Kombi or Universal.
Despite its nickname, “racing cardboard”, the Trabant body panels were made of Duroplast, a hard plastic made of cotton waste and phenol resins – not cardboard.
A total of 3.7 million “Trabis” were built – and many of them carelessly discarded after “the turn” of 1990. The survivors are now lovingly cared for by their old or new owners.
