Friday 11 September 2009

Does Anyone Remember A Car Called A Trabant?

it had a one litre, three-cylinder Wartburg engine, it was rumoured to belch smoke, putter like a lawnmower, stall at traffic lights and worse resemble a mangled sardine can, but not this one, Heinz Melkus cannibalised parts from the Trabant and the box-like Wartburg and turned them into the RS1000, the Ferrari of the East, His son Peter, 55, and grandson Sepp, 28, have now constructed a successor, the RS2000, which will be displayed at the Frankfurt International Motor Show next week, “The cars will be hand-made, just like grandad’s,” said Sepp Melkus, “and we will be making 25 a year on the basis of the Frankfurt prototype, naturally, we have borrowed historical design features from the original, including the distinctive wing doors, but we have interpreted them in the light of modern motoring needs.” only 101 of the original RS1000s were made, the car allowed Mr Melkus to transform himself into a sports car racer, winning 80 Formula 3 rallies and becoming the champion driver of East Germany six years in a row, the original East German model was sold for 28,000 East German marks; the reborn car, which has more than 300 horsepower, will go for €75,000 (£65,000), roughly the price of a Porsche, now there is a decision, what would you go for the Porsche or the Trabant?

No comments: