My '77 Trabant 601 Univeral and my Fiat 126P '92

[Raticon]

Hello.

I thought i should post up some pictures of my two adorable 2-cylinder friends!

This is my 1977 Trabant 601 Universal. Bought it here in Sweden with registration and all that allready done, so i didn't have to go trough that dreadful process with paperwork, typing, inspections and all that. Runs great and sounds like a snowmobile or tuned up moped. Gotta be sure you mix that 2-stroke fuel-to-oil correctly though if you don't want to experience major engine damage though...

Trabant601U.jpg (1.16 MiB) Viewed 6891 times

And here for the other little buddy...

This is my Polish-made 1992 Fiat 126P 650E, and it's the funniest car i've ever had the chance to own. Bought it in mint condition from a Polish family who drove it all those 2000km's from poland to northern Sweden for a good price. Had it registered, inspected and taxed during the summer and autumn this year and planning to get it out on the roads next summer as the winters up here are pretty nasty to a car with only fan-cooling for the engine, plus the fact that the interior turns into a right fridge with no heaters... Great running and good looking!

Fiat126P.jpg (1.22 MiB) Viewed 6891 times

Will post some more on these later .

[Kubboz]

126p looks great. My family used to own two (not both at once) in 90's and early 2000's. The first was from earlier run, it was greyish blue and had metal bumpers yet. The other one was from late run, was green, and was sold after a year or something like that. It had problems with carburettor, IIRC.

[Raticon]

Yeah i reckon they will have carburetor problems both of them during hot summer days as a fan-cooled engine + severe outdoors heat can make some nasty problems with fuel outgassing from the carburetor, preventing it from actually reaching the cylinders. Nice to hear about them metal-bumpers on the earlier models, this one has some really flimsy plastic ones glued to an equally flimsy piece of metal underneath, i doubt it will protect against anything at even walking pace...

The trabbi had such an issue just this summer, ironically as i stopped at the gas-station to fill it up. it's a pretty long drive down to the fuel station and it was really hot out that day, after filling up it simply wouldn't start, so i gave it some rest and then checked out the spark-plugs after a few starting attempts and found them completely dry. I then went mad, pulled the choke to the max and cranked it like no tomorrow and then it fired up, producing a smoke-cloud visible to all in the area as i sputtered away in a haze of gray and blue...

[Daffyflyer]

I love your spectacularly random taste in cars, IMO those kind of cars are like bad horror B movies, yes they're awful but they have so much charm that you love them for it

[Raticon]

Thank you! I must say that my spectacularly random taste is quite the fun when you get into it, and being an all-out car lover that i am i love most things on 4 wheels (or 3) as in "if it speaks to the heart, it's a good car!" as far as i concern .

In some ways i love the power and comfort that an US V8 gives me, but at the same time i find attraction to miniscule underpowered cars for their low fuel drinking habits and their ability to always find a parking spot that fits

I thought i should take my time and show some of the other rides i have, and cars i have recently sold, so here goes:

MORE BIZARRE CARS FROM MY BIZARRE COLLECTION!

1989 Ford Thunderbird LX

This beauty was my daily driver for almost 4 years. Bought it from my boss(!) and it had only about 85.000km's on it, when i was done driving it i had driven it tp 120.000km's, every single one of them was wonderful. However, it had only about 150HP out of it's 3.8L N/A V6, and coupled to a rather dull 4 speed automatic it was more of a comfort ride than a sport ride. nevertheless, automatic seatbelts and a ton of other tech-goodies kept me occupied, and the girls liked it!
Sold it this summer because...well.. Altered relationship status made a 2 door coupé useless in the long run . Sold the T-bird with a big tear in my eye.

1977 Vaz 1500S - I apologize for the huge picture.

This one is a bit of a wildcard for me. It's not in the greatest condition but runs well, it's nice and fun on the winters with good heating, robust construction and a slightly light tail making snow-drifting nice and fun despite being severely underpowered at about 75hp out of its rather rowdy and noisy primitive 1,5L engine. Has been running up here in Northern Sweden it's entire life so rust is no issue. This particular example sporting a huge, street-racing-tuning-drifting-Xtreme-style roofrack which makes all riders deaf due to severe wind-flutter at all speeds over 80Km/h... Oh and it's got a vintage 1980's casette deck complete with a few lousy tapes to play loud music from 2 speakers .

1979 Oldsmobile Delta 88 Royale (Diesel)

This one is my pearl, albeit not right now since the engine broke down for me this summer . It wasn't really a rocket if i might say... 115 hp and a 3-speed automatic used to move about 2,5 tonnes around doesn't exactly makes the heartrate go up, but still, a classy, nice comfortable drive trough the countryside in this is very nice indeed. I have a spare engine lying about here i plan to lift down into the engine bay sometimes this winter if i feel like it... It truly deserves better, i know, but as i have a metric freakton of spare parts for the diesel i might just keep it that way. This one, being a 1979 is pretty peculiar as it was those years after the oil-crisis in the US and they though "How do we make lighter cars?"... The result!? Half of the front and rear is plastic! Taillights, plate behind the registry plate... rear part of the rear fenders... grill, the panels in the front in general and around the grill plus much much much more all plastic, it feels very flimsy really... But still, it looks good if the pain isn't cracked!

1968 Volvo P210 "Duett"

This picture was taken last winter while i was refurbishing some parts in the front, hence the grille is gone for the moment. This car is a Swedish legend, used by all the big power-companies, railroad-companies, heavy industry, the Defence-forces and last but not least, the Telephone-agency (The cars then sported a nice bright orange paintjob!). This particular example is almost absolutely rust-free, was driven by a local office of the "Vattenfall" power company at one of their power-dams for many years until retired, then i bought it, refurbished it and uses it very sparsely during the summer months. It has a 1.8 Litre gasoline engine at about 70hp and handles like a barge with it's leafsprings and ungodly high centre of gravity. I really just have it because these cars are worth a LOT of money around here in Sweden if they are in good condition, so it's something of a retirement fund even though i am just 25 now... A nice car still, albeit boring and slow.

And as a bonus:
Me, starting up the trabant after a long winters sleep this spring. A LOT of 2-stroke oil was consumed in this process!
To the right in this picture you can barely see the left side and left front tyre from my Jeep grand Cherokee, the daily driver and monstrous gas-guzzler (5.2L V8, 13L/100km highway driving...)

[Daffyflyer]

http://youtu.be/nznJTaiqZMo - This guy reminds me of you.

[Raticon]

Hahaha! I seriously think about if i should take that as a compliment or as an insult... But nevertheless the guy got some really awesome cars there, cars you'll NEVER see anywhere else in the world. Truly something to preserve and maintain for the future.

I'm thinking about taking some photos of my 2 Snowmobiles too but since they're both covered in snow right now and they are really just some pieces of clumsy, slow pieces of **** i give you an image from the companys old sales brochure instead:

For those who wonders, it's an Ockelbo 6000 from 1986, they were making snowmobiles in all kinds of sizes and styles, in the beginning they were all orange with black details, but later black with orange details from the late '50s until the very early '90s in the town of Ockelbo in southern Sweden, it's basically Swedens answer to USA's John Deere snowmobiles - Slow, ugly and clumsy, but durable and sturdy nonetheless. Powered by a 503cc 2-cyl 2-stroke engine coupled to a 2-speed gearbox with reverse and neutral and a variator-drive, it drives like a tractor. A very high-revving tractor. On snow. Yeah.

Hey, a man's gotta do his driving even in the winter, right?

[adamd]

You sir, have a fantastic collection of cars there. Love the Trabant.

[Raticon]

Thank you! . Earlier i had a huge fascination for really large american V8's and high powered V6'es, but in the recent 1 or 2 years i have developed a growing interest in very small cars like the trabbi and that fiat, but the Trabant always was a kind of special car i wanted to have, especially the combi-version which i was really lucky to find because they are very rare here in Sweden.

You just gotta love the sound the "smattering" high-revving 2-stroker in the Trabant when accelerating . Maybe i'll put up a small driving-video next summer?