solarbird | hee hee hee hee "trabani" ^

The Trabant was the two-cycle-engine tiny family sedan of East German make that came in many ways to symbolise Soviet Communism in Eastern Europe: small, dumpy, underpowered even for their size, deeply out of date, and not even designed to be actual cars, but instead intended as kind of a temporary half-step above the motorcycle but ossified into an inadequate long-term solution. They're not being made anymore, of course, and haven't been for quite a while - new production went away not very long after the collapse of the Eastern economic bloc.

A decade and a half later, left to their own devices, the members of the various Trabant Enthusiast Clubs in Hungary are restoring them - which, in this case, generally means "building them correctly for the first time" - or, often, are turning them into little racers. See these for examples:

http://twk.lusteenet.hu/twk/pics2/006/032.jpg
(I really like this one)

http://twk.lusteenet.hu/twk/pics2/006/037.jpg
and under the hood:
http://twk.lusteenet.hu/twk/pics2/006/048.jpg

http://twk.lusteenet.hu/twk/pics2/006/051.jpg
TRABANT MOTORSPORTS ZOMG

http://twk.lusteenet.hu/twk/pics2/006/055.jpg
(this is not a standard engine)

http://twk.lusteenet.hu/twk/pics2/006/057.jpg
d00d spoilers are cool

http://twk.lusteenet.hu/twk/pics2/006/059.jpg
two cycle power!

http://twk.lusteenet.hu/twk/pics2/006/062.jpg
ha HA - racing stripes

http://twk.lusteenet.hu/twk/pics2/006/063.jpg
"trabani" hee hee hee hee hee

http://twk.lusteenet.hu/twk/pics2/006/069.jpg
(NOX? You have to be shitting me. NOX?!)

http://twk.lusteenet.hu/twk/pics2/006/080.jpg
zomg roll bar!

http://twk.lusteenet.hu/twk/pics2/006/103.jpg
hee hee hee hee "NO FEAR" hee hee hee hee

http://twk.lusteenet.hu/twk/pics2/006/075.jpg
and a good time was had by all!

I dunno about you, but as someone who doesn't even like cars (they smell bad and they're very noisy), I find something kind of heartening about this. There's a metaphor in all this that I kind of like. Plus, all shiny and cleaned up, the way Trabants never really were in their day? They're actually pretty cute.

I bet they'd make great testbeds for electric engines.