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Posted

Well, this is me popping my GB cherry! The title of this GB immediately took me to the late 80s and the fall of the Berlin Wall: giving my 18 year old self hope for a brighter future. If I remember correctly, it was a classic car show at the Oulton Park Circuit - I'm guessing in 1990 - where I first saw a Trabant and, to be honest, I haven't seen many more since. The kit I've chosen is the 1:24 scale Revell offering in 'Builders' Choice' guise but, ironically, I'll be ditching all the doves, peace signs and related text :rofl:

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This is actually a pretty comprehensive kit, straight out of the box, with opening bonnet and boot and even seat belts! Even so, I can't just build it straight. So I'm going for a car whose owner made it past the wall and to either Spain or Belgium (not sure which yet: I like the Belgian reg plate better, but Spain makes more sense because I'll be ditching all the cold start/heating guff in the engine bay) and was inducted into the local modding scene.

 

Initially, I'd considered doing a Mazda 13B rotary swap because, from what I understand, the 601 was supposed to be a rotary when it was launched but the engine development stalled. On closer inspection, this would be a massive undertaking, so I decided to tune what I have!

 

I'll warn you now, it's going to be obnoxious! :rofl:

 

My plan is to lower it 4-5 inches with, maybe, -3º front and -5º rear camber on banded original wheels with a very stretched tyre, and the wheels will be wider front than rear, 'cos the rears don't really do anything. It's also going to get a turbo! This will sit where all the heater gubbins currently lives and my plan is an induction trumpet poking out of the leading edge of the bonnet and the exhaust exiting through a 'hater pipe' about two thirds of the way up. Basically straight into the driver's line of sight. I'm thinking I'll cut the grille out and use mesh, so you can see the intercooler sat behind it.

 

Here's a photo of what's in the box along with a spare Sparco seat and steering wheel (left over from my MX5 build), a ZoomOn harness in black for the driver and the paint scheme: ProScale Dodge Ivory with a blue roof - like the estate that was in IWM North (and may still be?) The Ford Engine Blue is way too dark, but it was a by product of trying to find a suitable representation of Mazda Mariner Blue for the MX5, so I'll lighten it with a bit of the Ivory or some such.

 

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First thing I need to do is fire up Fusion360 and start modelling a turbo, induction trumpet, exhaust manifold, hater pipe, intercooler and plumbing and some blanking plates to fill holes in the engine cooling shroud left by the removal of the original induction and exhaust. Also some wheels and tyres and a lowering/camber system (design to be confirmed).

 

Looking at that photo, I hope that seat will fit! :rofl:

 

Excited for my first GB! Thanks for looking

 

Martin

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Posted

I've just remembered, I took a load of photos of the Trabant 601S de luxe at IWM North in 2005. So here are a couple of reference photos. If the kit ride height is anything like this car, I might have to revise my 4-5 inch drop! :rofl:

 

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  • SnøMotion changed the title to Trabant 601S: Beyond the Fall of the Wall ​☮️​​ 🕊️​
Posted
1 minute ago, Mjwomack said:

Bonus points for the pun🤣

I hadn’t even noticed! :rofl:

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Posted (edited)

Turbo on the original 2-stroke might be even more outlandish than a rotary swap. At least in reality:D the very last trabants came with 1.1l VW polo engines iirc. So maybe a gti engine would be possible choice too.

 

Edit: somewhere in my area 2 trabants with dramatic rear camber and stretched tires can be seen from time to time. Although I`m certain these modifications aren't actually street legal in Germany.

 

 

Edited by raider of the lost part
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Posted
24 minutes ago, raider of the lost part said:

Turbo on the original 2-stroke might be even more outlandish than a rotary swap. At least in reality:D the very last trabants came with 1.1l VW polo engines iirc. So maybe a gti engine would be possible choice too.

Yes, I think we can say the turbo 2-stroke would be fragile at best :rofl: Maybe this is the vehicle that should live on the trailer I’m currently building 🤔

 

Yes, I think the later cars did have Polo engines, but that wouldn’t be as much fun as an induction trumpet and hater pipe, would it?

 

36 minutes ago, raider of the lost part said:

Edit: somewhere in my area 2 trabants with dramatic rear camber and stretched can be seen from time to time. Although I`m certain these modifications aren't actually street legal in Germany.

I’ve seen photos of the like, but never the real thing. I’m guessing, with the original 2-stroke and a body made from recycled clothes, the authorities aren’t too worried about the amount of damage they might inflict :rofl:

 

Martin

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Posted
17 minutes ago, raider of the lost part said:

I remember seeing a 601 used in rallys before the fall of the iron curtain sitting in a small museum in Prague. 2 stroke iirc.

 

A bit of research brought up this. Seems tricked out trabants were a thing back then.

 

https://www.trabantrallyearchiv.de/1980er-jahre/

Wow! Thanks for this. What an amazing resource!

 

There’s a photo of Lothar Liebau and Hartmut Krüger in car no. 45 on page one of 1980. That jump must have been terrifying in that car!! :clap:
 

I'll spend some time having a proper look through that site but already I can see that some of those Trabants had fantastic liveries :yes:

 

Martin

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Posted

Welcome aboard! I was lucky enough to have a student exchange in Germany in 1991, just months after the unification. I went to Berlin towards the end of that year and from memory there were still Trabis clunking around. I was a bit too young to really make the most of the opportunity but even then I could tell it was a wild place, Berlin in that time period. 

 

A great nostalgia trip - looking forward to seeing your model! 

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Posted

Happy New Year to all!

 

Thanks, @bianfuxia! Yeah, I can imagine there was quite a buzz about the place back then!

 

Well, after saying I would lighten the Ford Engine Blue to be similar to the colour in the IWM photos, a delivery arrived yesterday from ProScale paints... Firstly, it contained some ZoomOn honeycomb mesh intended for the front grille and also various paints for other projects. Looking at the mesh, initially, it seemed way too coarse... but then, I thought, it'll look like chicken wire! And maybe chicken wire is exactly what is required, we'll see 🤔

 

Amongst the paints I'd ordered was a bottle of Lamborghini Blu Glauco, intended to be added to BMW Laguna Seca Blue in a small quantity to replicate the Tuscan Blue of the original Range Rover. But looking at it, it's pretty much perfect for the roof of this car, too!

 

So, now I have 11 days to model the various additions and modifications for this build (assuming that's allowed? If it isn't, I'm definitely NOT going to be modelling components over the next 11 days :whistle:), as I want to get the body painted pretty early on and I'll need to cut some holes in the bonnet before I can do that.

 

Martin

 

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Posted

A turbo Trabby? This is going to be quite mad. I'm breaking out the currywurst pretzels for this one :popcorn:

 

 

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Posted
On 30/12/2024 at 22:33, bianfuxia said:

I went to Berlin towards the end of that year and from memory there were still Trabis clunking around.

 

They're still clunking around Berlin today as a novelty sight-seeing tour. From about 1.40 here:

 

 

"I just want death to come quick" :rofl:

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Posted
43 minutes ago, Bobby No Mac said:

A turbo Trabby? This is going to be quite mad. I'm breaking out the currywurst pretzels for this one :popcorn:

Ooh, they sound nice! Well, I hope I can do them justice 😊

 

Martin

Posted

I'm not sure a Trabant can ever be cool, but you might change my mind...   I went Interrailing around Europe in 1990.  Got thrown off a train by armed guards on entering Czechoslovakia, so didn't get to see anything there, but Hungary and Yugoslavia were interesting.  Quite a contrast even between those two.

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Posted
4 hours ago, Six97s said:

Got thrown off a train by armed guards on entering Czechoslovakia,

That would be an interesting story to hear! :popcorn:

 

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Posted
12 hours ago, Six97s said:

I'm not sure a Trabant can ever be cool, but you might change my mind...

I’m not sure this one will be cool! :rofl:
 

I've been ‘collecting parts’ for the turbo system and mocked them up. All the hard pipes, induction trumpet, hater pipe and intercooler position are just approximations and can easily be adjusted. It looks like the trumpet might poke through the grille, which I’m happy with.

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I’ve also ’sorted’ some wheels that attach using Revell’s wheel ‘hub’ that sandwiches between the inner and outer rims. I’ve not followed the kit wheel design and gone for the same pattern as the IMW car. This render shows (left to right) the stock width, +1 inch, +2 inches and +3 inches. I’ll see which work best once I’ve started building.

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I’ve been spending a lot of time consulting @Neddy’s ‘Beast from the East’ WiP to see where everything fits in the engine bay.

 

This is going to be a long week :rofl:

 

Martin

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Posted
15 hours ago, Six97s said:

I'm not sure a Trabant can ever be cool, but you might change my mind...  

Oh yes it can... :evil_laugh:

 

There's a difference between cool and lunatic however!  @SnøMotion, I'm just itching to see how this one pans out.  A turbo Trabbie... :yikes:

 

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Posted

Thanks, @Neddy, I’m really looking forward to getting stuck into this! (As you might be able to tell by the fact that I’ll have been 3D modelling for a couple of weeks by the time the GB actually starts :rofl:)

Posted
16 hours ago, flyboy2610 said:

That would be an interesting story to hear! :popcorn:

 

 

Not as exciting as it sounds.  We'd been told that we could enter Czechoslovakia without a visa, but - obviously, with hindsight -  that turned out not to be the case...  just over the border, soldiers boarded the train and checked passports.  Those without a visa (not just our group, around 40 - 50 altogether) were escorted off the train.  Some time later a ratty DMU type thing appeared and took us back into Austria and stopped at the next station.  Everybody off, and a chilly night spent at an unmanned railway station with no facilities, waiting for the first westbound train in the morning.

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Posted

I hope you had a "word" with the person that told you that! :rant:

Posted

I definitely haven't been doing a bit more 3D modelling... As it turns out, putting a 145/R13 tyre on a 7 inch wide rim doesn't create as much stretch as I imagined. I've modelled a standard fit tyre for the boot and then three stretched versions for the wider rims. Buuuut... I've also created tapered versions of the stretched tyres to allow for -3º of camber. I'm planning -5º at the rear, but I'm happy for the outer shoulder of the tyre to be off the ground, as I think that's how it would be 1:1. I'll probably add tyre valves, too. Just the lowered suspension to model and then ready to go!

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Posted

I've been furiously printing for the last couple of days and now I have (hopefully) one print left! I got a bit carried away when modelling the induction trumpet and made the wall thickness 0.2mm. I thought this was what I'd used for the spoke thickness on the Sparco R215D steering wheel I modelled for the MX5, but I think that was the first attempt and the one I used was actually 0.3mm. Anyway, the resulting trumpet was somewhat fragile and tore whilst I was cleaning it!

 

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So I thickened the wall up to 0.35mm and that has done the job. :yes: So far, I have the turbo system and the wheels printed. I've printed two of each rim width (except the standard rim) as I'm planning on a staggered set up. I've also modelled a standard width spare that has reverse detail. The various hard pipes for the intercooler plumbing are all printed too long (I hope) so I can tweak the fitment in the engine bay.

 

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I modelled the hot and cold sides of the turbo as separate components for two reasons: 1, I can easily paint the cold side aluminium and the hot side cast iron 2, I can rotate the cold side to align with the intercooler pipework. It's funny, when I'm modelling this stuff full screen on a 27" monitor the detail seems important, but then I print the components out and some of them I can't even see! :rofl: Here's a close up of both halves of the turbo. The hot side (left) is 3.5mm diameter.

 

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Tonight I'll run the final print for what I've already modelled, which is the tyres and three small blanking plates for the engine cooling shroud - where various bits of ducting helped with cold start/running by the looks of it. Left to model is the lowered suspension and possibly new induction and exhaust depending on how these bits fit. Again, I went a bit thin on the exhaust tip wall thickness and it's a bit wobbly, so I'll probably end up re-doing this anyway.

 

Next thing on the list, though, is gluing some original kit bits together and painting them, I reckon.

 

Thanks for looking and stay tuned!

 

Martin

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