Weekly Meeting

12 July 2018Trabbi Travels – Steve Moses & Barbara Hastings

Steve started the presentation with Trabbi World, in Central Berlin, where he was first smitten to buy one, although Graham, an eccentric friend from the village of Youlgrave, Derbyshire had owned fifty of them!

His first purchase was acquired on eBay & he spent £500 on parts getting it roadworthy.  He’s now on number 4, buying & selling along the way.

Trabant means ‘satellite or companion’ in German and was built from 1957 to 1990 in Zwickau, East Germany at the VEB Sachsenring Automobilewerke and 3 million have been manufactured over 3 decades.  It has a steel unibody frame with panels made from recycled cotton waste, called Duroplast (which apparently appeals to the appetite of pigs and goats!)

However, the purpose of their presentation was about a charity John O’Groats to Land’s End journey they endured in what is classed by some as one of the world’s most unreliable, cramped & uncomfortable vehicles.(although one of our members compared it to the model T Ford, considering its time of production and durability)

They managed the journey of over 2000 miles (double distance: home>JOG; JOG >LE; LE > home) in 12 days, breaking their journey at  Newcastle, Perth, J O’G, Fort William, Alloa, Bingham (home), Worcester, Bridgwater & Land’s End.  They met a number of Trabant owners along the way (including ‘Swiss Phillip and his family, who camped in their tent, on top of their Trabant) and also had several Geocaching meetings. They raised £2200 for their 2 charities: Prostate Cancer UK & Asthma UK.

President Trevor presented them with additional cheques for their respective charities.                                                                                                                                                   AR