“I’m not a mechanic, this video is made for entertainment, not instruction.” That’s one of the best lines from this great video that shows a guy (an American guy) disassembling the engine in his project Trabant. He pulls the motor and tears the whole thing down to the block on his workbench for our viewing pleasure. This is, of course the little two-cylinder, two-stroke mill that powered the sad little Communist car from the former East Germany.

While these cars are sad in terms of their performance, they are awesome in terms of their freaky nature and low buck technology. Parts are readily available and as we’ll see, the engines are pretty easy to work on. The host of the video is great. He’s like a lot of us in the world. He has tools and knows enough to be dangerous but there are parts of this where is makes mistakes, doesn’t know the name of some parts, but is never deterred from the task at hand. The guy is the right mix of funny, kind of dorky, and enthusiastic. This is not an overly serious video, either.

If you want to learn about a little, basic, and weirdly fascinating engine in a little, basic, and weirdly fascinating little car, this is a perfect watch. He uses an English translated Trabant service manual, basic tools, and his own creativity to take this sucker apart. Hell, wait until you see what the combustion chambers look like!

This is a lot of fun and a good reminder as to the basic joys of being a curious gearhead .