The Trabi. It Lives

Hilarity yes, but not as much demand for a ride as the Mangusta at the last track day I went to. That thing was violence in vehicle form, you just knew it wanted to kill all humans.

The trabant is too tame to be anything other than humourous, rather like when you get to use a Bond Bug.

But it never rusts away, as those light glass fibre panels amplifies the chainsaw noise from the rattlely two-stoke and the fumes choke you. Oh joy.

Try telling my MOT tester it won't rust!

Plenty of metal in the structure to rust away to nothing...

And they'r enot glass fibre - they're cotton fibres in a phenol resin.

They were once sold in Denmark as new cars. Due to the severe Tax regime in Denmark on car purchases, anything with 4 wheels would do.

I used to go Kart racing there in the 1960's with my mate who owned it.

Dragon chassis (made by a bloke in Rumney above his garage).

Class IV standard with a 197cc Villiers 9E engine. Went like a bat out of hell even though it only had a partially tuned engine.

The class IV supers had 250cc Bultaco engines or Arial twins and they really motored. Would out accelerate anything.

No pesky silencer regs in those days.

The cart track is separate to the motor racing track - although the full circuit is small enough to be a cart track anyway!

Trabbies are a bit like old Harleys. If you have to explain the attraction, the other person won't understand anyway.

Sorry, that was the one I meant, over the road from the main track.

And the remains of the airfield next to the Kart track were beloved by learner drivers making their first foray behind the wheel before being let loose on the road.

I well remember a 105E Anglia hitting a large concrete block while the owner (in the passenger seat) was yelling at the the driver :-).

It was amazing how much rust ended up on the ground in the 60's in that part of the world (humid South Wales coastal zone) when an apparently 'immaculate' Anglia/1100/dolomite/Jaguar had a prang.