(By Greg Rourke) –Oh sure, we’ve seen plenty of fast stuff on these hallowed pages. Perhaps a nice leisurely stroll down the dragstrip is what we need.
Even seen or heard of a Trabant? It was manufactured in the former East Germany from 1957 until 1991. It had a plastic body, front wheel drive, and for most of the run a two stroke engine. At first it was 500 cc, but in 1963 they really upped their game by 20 percent to 600 cc. Creature comforts were zero, if it wasn’t absolutely necessary to make it go it didn’t have it. It seated no one comfortably.
Here we have some cat who did a rebuild of a Trabant which is covered on some of his other videos, and decided he needed to take it down the dragstrip. Pulling into the water box resulted in no tire spin, just a blue cloud of oil smoke. Listen to the announcer…”I don’t know what it is, but I love it.” Unless the Mustang in the other lane red lighted we have a reaction time of about 2 seconds. Down the track our hero hammers the little box, killing all the mosquitoes along the way. Finally, the finish line, just a shade under half a minute and at a speed just above your average school zone.
Some say he still hasn’t reached the end of the track.
The victory is in that the Trabant even runs, let alone that it made it down the strip!
People laughed when they started running Beetles down drag strips too, but they turned out to be easy and fun to hot rod. Maybe the Trabi’s owner wants to try the same thing?
Reminds me of an all stock Model A I saw one day, had a front license plate that said “Zero to Sixty……same day !” lol
My new favorite race car.
Twenty six seconds in the quarter! Not bad!
Guy shows up to bracket race his Trabant. His dial-in is “Tuesday. Afternoon.”
Fun to watch! Seeing that Trabant makes me think the same thing I thought when I first saw a Smart Car in the early 2000s– it needs a radically-cammed big block and zoomies!
I’ve been following Aging Wheels for a while. The dude is HILARIOUS! Go back and watch his stuff. I never thought I would be entertained watching someone rebuild a 2 stroke Communist sedan engine, but there I was… He’s currently building a car hauler out of an old school bus.
But imagine if it was bracket elims and he dialed 26.18 and won his round Dead-on with a 2? The other lane would never show their face at the track again… Everyone would be scared to go against him… lol