Trabi/IFA Chat Forum

Thank you Mark. While it’s mechanically sound now, this is how it looked a lot of days on the trip

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For us, it was a great experience driving in Europe. At a gas station in Tallinn, Estonia a pair of fairly buzzed homeless gentlemen came up when I was fueling. They were smiling and laughing and asked me start the engine. I obliged them since they were so friendly, then they asked me to pop the hood and proceeded to take my distributor apart and clean it, began pulling and checking my plug wires, opened up my air filter housing and on and on. My wife and I just sort of looked at each other in total surprise not sure if this was a scam or a joke or what.

One was speaking Russian, and said he was a "car professor". The other spoke broken English and gave me his cell number to call if there were any problems and translated his friends more animated statements. Afterwards, they had me start the car and it started much stronger and sounded a lot nicer I have to say. Without them prompting, I gave them 10 euros and they went inside and bought some beer and brought me one as well(!) for being kind to them.

It was like this for me all over the place. People would pull over and without saying a word of English and refusing any payment would give us a spontaneous tow to the next gas station with a rope they just happened to magically have. Total strangers gave my wife an orange safety vest (since I only had one and we were going to Belarus which is uhh, strict to say the least), offered us jump starts, rides, rooms for the night, told us to keep their tools, etc. It was like what I imagine driving in the 1940-50's in America was like. One guy even pulled over and flipped out his phone to let his mechanic friend "listen" to the motor and give us advice. When we told them what we were doing (through pantomime most of the time: "Drive, Boat, America”) it was like the whole continent wanted to help us to get this car home.

I like this pic of the Mosky at our hotel Suwalki, Poland:
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Some more oddities: In Latvia on country roads, the middle of the highway becomes a third passing lane in practice but not with any signage or painted lines. This scared me to death the first time it happened, but it seems to be just understood since the shoulders were not wide enough to accommodate passing on them in places.

In Lithuania, I bought some oil that was hand pumped out of a barrel into a tea pitcher. This was at a nice automotive store that looked like an Autozone/O’reilly and not some fly by night place too!

I didn’t drive in Russia since I am not that brave, but we did visit there via train. Here are a few interesting vehicles they had on display at a military museum. The truck is a wood burning GAZ that must be from the 30’s if not earlier. The last pic is the most Russian picture I could think up just for fun



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All in all, the whole trip that was about 60 days long and had us visit 30 countries and the Vatican. I am an aspiring travel author, and a bit eccentric (if you couldn't tell) but to me driving overseas was a really positive experience. As they say though, your mileage may vary.

welcome to the show ..... =)

i sure like those russian car tags =)

There's no better way to experience different cultures and to learn about a nation than by driving through it. I've driven through a fair bit of Poland and former East Germany, where no English was spoken, so I know where you're coming from. If you show an interest and respect for other people's culture, they really warm to you and welcome you, even if you don't speak their language.

I visited the Barkas/Framo museum in Frankenburg (near Chemnitz) in 2011 and had emailed ahead in German to say I was coming on that day and could they possibly open a bit longer than was usual for that day. They replied in the affirmative, stating they would remain open, which they did far beyond what I anticipated as I was late! Not only did they open longer, they had an ex-factory employee on hand to show me around and answer any questions. This turned out farcical due to the fact that my German amounts to a handful of words and his English amounted to nothing, but it was a lovely gesture. They also gave me a history book of the factory (free) and the factory guy opened up all the engine bays and doors of all the vehicles so I could really see everything.

They really seemed so excited that someone from Ireland wanted to write about their vehicles and visit them.

Hi Phil. nice Moskvitch! After seeying your pictures, I am urged to post what I just restored for my 3 y/o. son: Looks like exactly the same color!
The plastic windshield is mising, but it´ s already on the way, steering wheel is not original, and the aluminium bumpers were banged up beyond repair, but I still tried to fix them, because there is no easy replacement. Besides, this is not a display car, but my son´s toy...

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..and here is a proof that Trabants and Moskvitches have definitely something common! :cool: (not my pics)

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I don't see the Fiat fuel pump you are talking about but the coolant overflow tank and radiator cap are Fiat (or Lada) parts.

In South Carolina, the breakdown lane becomes a secondary passing lane on the interstates. Not legal but seems a lot of drivers in SC like to use it as such.

Some people don't believe me when I say the lime green is an original color. Now I have some proof with you awesome pedal car, thanks for that! Very cool and in great shape!

Turbo, I had no idea on the engine parts being off a lada/fiat, thank you. If you look at the bottom left in the engine pic, that black cylinder strapped to the fender well is the pump that they pulled out of a box and tried. They took a clear hose from the fuel line and put another one into the top of the carb. That orange wire you see to the left was ran and wired directly into the fuse box, block, not sure what to call it. It made my horn stop working but it sure sprayed the fuel into the motor It would rev with the battery surging the pump hehe. So I was fuel injected for about about 20 miles until it flooded out. The carb was just not set up for the trip or the higher octane Polish gasoline.

But we got it all sorted out now, though you can still stall the motor if you brake real hard multiple times in a row and the gasoline sloshes around in the tank away from the fuel line

I see it now. That fuel pump looks more like a Bosch fuel injection pump. Like what would go on my Fiat 124 Spider. In an "open loop" that thing should be pumping 40# of fuel pressure!!

Very nice looking car.

Thanks for the compliment, and you are right about the pressure, that pump was shooting gas at least as far as the car is long heh