This unusual car is a slightly modified 1978 Trabant 601-Z “Tramp”. This oddball is listed on eBay with an unmet opening bid of $7,499 and a buy it now price of $12,000. It’s located in St. Louis, Missouri. According to the Trabant Technik page: ” “Z” is the “Sachsenringer-internal” designation for civil. Tramp is the sales name for the civilian version of the Sachsenringer bucket.” Got that? Good, let’s check out this Z.
I know, it’s unfortunate that such a rare car has been modified and it has a really unfortunate name for 2018. A few decades ago that name didn’t have the same meaning that it does now. We just ask that you remember that this is a family show with both females and young folks reading so let’s keep those comments clean.
These really are rare cars and I always hate to see rarely-seen cars being modified, even if it’s “just” paint and interior materials. It isn’t just paint, of course, in order to give this car a proper restoration everything will have to be taken out, it isn’t just a matter of a quick Maaco respray job on the exterior. It should have originally been white, gray, light blue, or green. The Tramp was a non-military version of Trabant’s Kübel, which was sort of their version of a Jeep, or as close as as this East German company could come up with. It’s more like a Fiat Jolly than anything but with even more unusual status and unfortunately just a fraction of the value.
The engine is Trabant’s standard 305 V8.. ha, no, it’s their 595cc 26-hp two-stroke two-cylinder with a top speed of around 65 mph. I need to get a Trabant someday, have any of you owned one? Have you seen this “Jolly” type version before?
The ‘Tramp’ started life as a military vehicle for the DDR Armed Forces and were not the best piece of war materiel that one would want to be riding in to protect the Soviet Workers’ Paradise from invading capitalist swine. In other words, like all Trabants, they were junk!
Looking at the seller’s comment about these particular vehicles no longer existing – well, that may be true in the USA, but I saw a number of ads for them on European auction sites, last year.
Frankly, if I were to buy a Trabbie, it would be one of the last of the production models, which has a 1.1 litre Polo engine and driveline, up front. At least, I could then drive at the legal speed limit (100 kph/62 mph) and still stand a chance of arriving at my destination..!
Trabants were like THE car of East Germany until the wall came down in 1990. Noisy, smoky, and slow is all I’ve ever heard about them.
I visited Budapest and Sopron, Hungary, in 2003 and there were Trabants, Wartburgs, Polski Fiats, Barkas vans and trucks (not so common) and various Russian cars all over the place. They weren’t collectors’ cars, just transportation. Went back two weeks ago, and they are gone. Saw one Trabant in Budapest, quite restored with the logo and website of a business. That’s it.
Remember the toy cars that would fly apart when they crashed into each other? I believe East Germany stole that design and based the Trabant on that. The idea that they had a “military” version is even more hilarious. Worse than the Yugo of which I have a personal experience with. I was driving in DFW metro back in the late 80’s in my 3/4 ton Chevy 4×4 when a Yugo ran a stop light and into my passenger side. It folded up like an aluminum beer can. Later, I opened up the door panel of my Chevy and popped out the dent with my hand.
From my time spent over there when the Wall was still up, I recall the government-issue Trabant with the sides cut down like that were used by the border guards. I don’t remember seeing any conventional military with that design; they usually had UAZ or GAZ little Jeep-type vehicles.
Thanks, but no thanks. What a pile of junk. 12K? I wouldn’t give $12.00 for it.
I agree. While this trabant body style is the rarest. Very nice reastored ones bring decent money in germany. I feel this one is way 2 far moddied. From the front bar tbat looks home made to the p50 snorkel in takes some one added.
The trabant is a good car for what it is. It is simple, easy to work on and realiably. Yes it is slow. How do i know so much i have 2 here in arizona
In the usa we have about 150 or so 601s and of that about 3 are the tramp style. They dont show up much. They are fun cars that will drive on city streets with no issues.
I have the Trabant 1.1 for sale on Hemmings for 8,800.00
My parents had one of these, in blue, as a hire car whilst on holiday in Corfu back in 1983 – our first family holiday abroad. Have seen plenty of ‘ordinary’ Trabbies since but never another one of these!
What is it with Americans and ratchet straps ??
In my opinion, the correct paint and interior are whatever make the owner happy. I find it especially ludicrous to be snobbishly anal about “original” paint and upholstery on a crappy car like this one.
You are correct, Robert, it’s whatever makes the current owner happy. But, to counter that point, referring to this car as “crappy” is your opinion just like my original-paint thoughts were my opinion. Which one is worse?
The American equivalent to this would not be a jeep but a MUTT (m151 if I remember correctly)
Also this car was actually quite good when it came out, you folks keep forgetting that at the same time BMWs in West Germany had a single door for the whole car and a 0.35l motorcycle engine possibly with no reverse gear….