Dec 15 2008
pimp my trabant
Bad car analogy: this is what a Government-funded luxury car programme would come up with. This is a moderately famous stretch Trabant commonly seen in the streets of Prague. Of course, stretch Trabis anywhere can’t be seen without a flock of photographers.
The stretch conversion wouldn’t be that hard — the Trabant’s body is made of phenolic wood-fibre sheets and is quite light and almost completely recyclable. Here are some videos of them being made.
Running it is another matter: “The engine, a tiny two-stroke model similar to a moped engine, made up for its pitiful weakness by spewing such an astounding quantity of foul-smelling exhaust that West Germany forbade ownership of the Trabant, and when Car and Driver magazine imported one into the United States to test it, the Environmental Protection Agency wouldn’t let them operate it on public streets.” (Mark Frauenfelder, World’s Worst.)
Getting a job promoting a tacky strip club is probably a step up in the world.
Photo: “Stretch Trabant” by Jean & Nathalie, taken with a Pentax Optio WPi on 16 November 2008. CC by 2.0.
