The Neighbor from H--- : He has 49 Trabants collected in backyard. Neighbors said to be "annoyed"

New.Com.AU ^ | March 5, 2004 | staff writer

[yankeedame]

Trabant collection annoys neighbours

From correspondents in London
March 5, 2004

(Article didn't have any pics w/ it so I went ahead as added this one I googled.)</>

FORTY-NINE Trabants - the homely little East German car that symbolised the demise of communism in Eastern Europe - have found a new home in a genteel English village but the neighbours are up in arms.

Graham Goodall, 58, a retired auto engineer, collects "Trabbies" and parks them in the yard behind his listed stone farmhouse in postcard-pretty Middleton-by-Youlgreave, Derbyshire, in the English Midlands.

"I think they are beautiful cars ... a part of world heritage," Goodall, who's also president of the Friends of the Trabant UK club, was quoted as saying in the Daily Mail newspaper.

But the Peak District National Park Authority thinks otherwise, and has sent Goodall an enforcement order telling him to get rid of at least 40 of the cheap-and-cheerful cars.

Goodall is refusing to budge, however, vowing to go all the way to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg to defend his right to keep all the Trabants he wants.

"Maybe there's some kind of underlying animosity against the Germans," he said. "I bet no-one would complain if they were Rolls-Royces or Jaguars."

Some 3.5 million Trabants, powered by a noisy 595-cc engine, were built in East Germany between 1957 and 1991, and for many years the waiting list to buy one was up to 14 years.

They captured the imagination of Westerns when the Berlin Wall came down, with East Germans driving them into West Germany and dumping them for better-built Volkswagens, Opels and other models. Worth £1800 ($4385) new in 1991, a Trabant in good condition can now fetch £7000 ($17,052), the Daily Mail said.

Agence France-Presse

[battlegearboat]

Do they smell as bad as the neighbor's 87 cats?

[alloysteel]

Somebody collects those noisy little self-propelled roller skates?

About 1950, there was a similar little vehicle built in West Germany, called the Lloyd. The East Germans weren't even original in their design, they just copied the West German design (which had been abandoned much earlier).

The two-stroke cycle engine, which ran on a gas-oil mixture, is perhaps one of the most polluting power units per horsepower, and per hour of running, on the planet.

Let this fellow keep them for lawn ornaments, but he must never, ever, be allowed to start up even one of them.

[Paradox]

The Trabant is considered by auto-experts to be the WORST car of all time. Yes, it makes the AMC Pacer look good.

[EvaClement]

If the Mr. Bean Show ever needs replacement cars, it can contact this guy.

[Tijeras_Slim]

Wouldn't this guy's collection melt in the British climate?

[Wilhelm Tell]

He needs 49 Trabbies to have enough usable spare parts on hand to make one car run!

Think of all the pollution the Trabants made over the years -- and yet many evnironmentalists assure us that the way to stop pollution is to adopt socialism/communism.

One of the "achievements" of communism is that it caused Germans to make really bad cars. A country of Germans and all the average people had was that unreliable, dangerous, and super-polluting car. And yet some "consumer advocates" tell us that socialism is consumer-friendly because everyone's choices are limited to that which is poorly-made and substandard.

[11th Earl of Mar]

Sounds like England needs Home Owner Associations.

[SamAdams76]

Looks like the back cover of the next U2 album.

[Glenn]

About 1950, there was a similar little vehicle built in West Germany, called the Lloyd. The East Germans weren't even original in their design, they just copied the West German design (which had been abandoned much earlier).

I'm always amazed at the expertise of Freepers. Just WHERE did you pick up this information?

And I mean that question in the nicest and most sincere way.

[baltodog]

That blue one looks kinda cool....check out the spoiler.

Silk stockings on a pig?

[cloud8]

"The two-stroke cycle engine, which ran on a gas-oil mixture, is perhaps one of the most polluting power units per horsepower, and per hour of running, on the planet."

Car & Driver Magazine tried to import a Trabbi into the States a few years ago. The EPA would only let them run it on a private track, and at other times it had to be kept disassembled.

[steplock]

Hey now! I loved my AMC PACER!

THe problem with the Pacer? People with no imagination, no motivation, no intelligence. They didn't like it.

It is similar to the reaction you'll get from 90% of Americans wneh you tell them of the wonders of Hubble and Space Travel!


http://imgsrc.hubblesite.org/hu/db/2004/10/images/b/formats/web_print.jpg

in the US - ignorance has ruled

[AnAmericanMother]

Yeah, they smell rotten.

That's why, when I was in W Germany, the nickname for them was "Trabbifurz". Furz = what Mark Twain called "the fundamental sigh."

[AnAmericanMother]

The blue one looks very sharp. Matches the blue cloud of oily exhaust smoke that emanates from its engine.

Must have been repainted -- no rust!

[cloud8]

"The two-stroke cycle engine, which ran on a gas-oil mixture, is perhaps one of the most polluting power units per horsepower, and per hour of running, on the planet."

Car & Driver Magazine tried to import a Trabbi into the States a few years ago. The EPA would only let them run it on a private track, and at other times it had to be kept disassembled.

[Hildy]

I have a neighbor like this...in his backyard he has two cars, a HUGE boat, and other assorted non-working mechanical apparatus..oh yea..TWO golf carts. Why do people collect things like this. It's so annoying. Thank God my best friends are buying his house and fixing it up. This is the reason for Home Owners' Associations.

[LizardQueen]

I think they actually look kind of cute, kind of like larger Minis, but mechanically... ick....

What would be fun is to keep the body but gut the mechanicals and replace them with something like a Porsche engine, suspension, etc.

I can see keeping a few as a novelty, but 49? That's a lot. Kind of an odd obsession, like collecting Yugos.

LQ

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Looks like a Minicooper!

[tacticalogic]

Must have been repainted -- no rust!

The body panels don't rust because there isn't any steel in them. They're made out of some kind of phenol resin impregnated fiber board. It extremely damp weather it tends to de-laminate and swell up.