When it comes to the question of tuning communist cars
The Commies Were Serious About Selling Trabants To The West
In the summer of 2011, I was having a breakfast with my English friends at a posh restaurant on the bank of the Danube, and we started an argument about cars. That wasn't surprising, since after finishing our coffees, we were about to go on short road trip to Etyek, a wine region not far from Budapest. Two cars were …
Show Us The Weirdest And Best Communist Sports Cars
For some reason, the commies weren't really into sports cars. Maybe driving for something other than to transport political prisoners around seemed like a waste of precious resources. No matter, this didn't stop the engineers of the nationalized factories from creating beautiful machines from the bits and pieces they…
When Trabants Were Like Ferraris
Think cars and waiting lists and what comes to mind is the months ticking away after the down payment on a 458 Italia—or Horacio Pagani’s little black book. But for communist Eastern Europe’s motoring not-quite-masses, waiting list meant waiting and waiting for your apportioned Trabi. And waiting. But if you didn’t…
Hungarian photographer documents supercars under Communism
The golden age of supercars were heady days in the West, where there were actual people who could comprehend and buy them. But what was it like to look at the Ferrari 512 and the Lamborghini Countach in a world of planned economies and Trabant futures? An ongoing project explores the automotive dreams of Communist…
This Ferrari has left the American sector
Now here’s some parallel parking with a heavy political vibe. A Ferrari 612 Scaglietti, rendered gray and graceless by the German tuning company Hamann, parked on the East Berlin side of Checkpoint Charlie, the famous fortified hole which used to connect the two sides of Berlin across the Wall. Things have certainly…
The Army Trabi: Somewhere Between Awesome and Pathetic
Theoretical American invasion of Eastern Europe in three easy steps: 1) Humvee crunches plastic Trabant. 2) Commie soldier unstraps axe from wreckage, charges at Humvee. 3) Swift death. Thank you, America, for never invading while you had the chance.
Schnell! Trabant 601 Coming Through, Comrades!
Given that East German Trabant shoppers probably had to sit on a 10-year waiting list to buy one of the plastic two-strokers, it doesn't seem sensible to advertise the thing.
