The Rally Driver:

On my recent trip to Germany, Feb 2011, I met up with Trabant rally driver and owner
Lars Lorenz. By day Lars works in the VW plant in Mosel, near Zwickau where he works
in Planning and Design.
By weekend, he can often be found in any part of Germany, but predominantly in the Eastern
parts, rallying his Trabant.
I met up with Lars over a couple of beers in a very nice little bar, close to my hotel in
Crossen, about 5 miles from Zwickau.

Lars on the right.

Lars hails from Glauchau, a small town about 7 miles from Zwickau and 13 from Chemnitz.
He has lived in this area all of his life and remembers a little about life under Communist
times. He is 33 years old now and lives with his girlfriend and baby son.
He says money was very tight, but nobody really was any better off than anybody else, so
it seemed normal. He told me that the waiting list to get a new Trabant, for his parents was
about 12 years, so they always bought used cars.
Their family cars were always a Trabant, Wartburg or Skoda.
Like many East Germans they holidayed in their car and he remembers trips to other
parts of East Germany, he and his brother squashed in the back of their Trabant, but
good memories and happy times nonetheless.
Although, he certainly doesn't miss the Communist times, he acknowledges that everyone
in the Gdr had a job. Now there's huge unemployment all over the former Gdr and
the populations of many towns are declining every year.

Lars has been rallying Trabants since 1996 and has been fairly successful.
He told me there are between 40-50 racing Trabants in the whole of Germany, with
usually 10-15 cars per race.
He races sometimes as the driver and alternately as co-pilot and often finishes in the
first 3. Competition is fierce and races are extremely hard to win.

He has had a couple of different cars over the years.
His current car he started to build in 2000, from a 1984 standard Trabant 601.
He has two engines for his car, a 600cc one and an 800cc one, which he uses
alternately in different races.

Interestingly the 800cc engine is the same one as used by the Trabant factory
team that rallied so successfully with many wins over many years.
It was still a two cylinder engine as before but made bigger with larger cylinders and
a different carburettor amongst other changes.
They had a lot of wins with their 600cc cars too, even though they were competing
in the 850cc class and regularly beat Bmw among others.

The Trabant team officially had 3 competition cars with this engine fitted and
raced between 1986 and 1988. This factory engine produced 60 Hp at 6000 rpm,
( standard car 26 hp @ 4000rpm) and had greatly improved acceleration and a top
speed of 93 mph. Some of the rally trabants had a fifth gear fitted.
There were only 6 of these 800cc engines officially made for the factory. 3 for each
car and a spare one for each.
The man who designed and built this engine was Gernot Sammet, who still lives
in the Zwickau area.
Lars got the component parts he needed from Sammet to build his 800cc engine
and reckons with the aid of modern electronic igniton his engine has an extra
 5-10 hp over the original factory versions.
Sammet still has some replacement parts for these engines, but are now in
very short supply.

The 600cc engine that Lars has for his car is extremely fast, benefitted by the use
of modern technology in tuning it to maximum levels of performance.
His 600cc engine has a power output of 60 Hp, is frighteningly fast and will top
100mph. This sort of power from a two cylinder, two stroke engine is nothing short
of amazing and shows how tunable trabants are.
This car uses a Japanese 'Mikuni' carburettor and a special exhaust system that
recycles spent emissions into extra power. The electronic ignition has also been
remapped.

He told me that that racing guidelines are strict in each class and the major components
of the car must conform to originality to a large degree.
 Modifications are strictly limited and regulated.
Similarly, the cylinders cannot be substituted for bigger or non-original ones, any
changes must be made within the original specifications of each major component.

There is more leeway in allowed safety modifications  particularly in the brakes and
suspension areas where improvements and upgrades are necessary to deal with the extra
speed and hardships that rallying inflicts on a car and on its driver!

His car has two-way adjustable suspension and front disc brakes (Volkswagen).
The body of the car has been strengthened and has a roll cage, plexiglass windows,
OMP bucket seats, a nightface, 6 point seatbelts and a number of different wheels to
suit varying road surfaces and driving conditions.
He has two gearboxes for his car, a short 4 speed box and also a 5 speed box
operated by column change.

His car is in perfect condition and as he's now a recent Father, he feels now is the
time to stop racing. Therefore  the car, the engines, gearboxes and all that goes with
 them is for sale.
The price is not cheap, but this is a highly unusual, rare and authentic rally car that
has been maintained regardless of cost.
It can be raced or ideally put in a museum somewhere with that unique and rare 800cc
engine fitted. There are only two of the Factory rally Trabants with this engine left in
existence. One is in the Horch Museum in Zwickau and the other is owned by the
engine creator himself, also resident in Zwickau.

Lars will sell the car with both or just one of the engines, with or without the massive
range of spare and interchangeable parts.
I would buy this car myself for the rarity of it, to keep and cherish for occasional show use
only, but it's beyond my means unfortunately.
It's not cheap by any means but I feel it's a superb collectors item.
Someone will buy it and realise the uniqueness of it with the 800cc engine.
Or maybe someone will buy it and race it, I don't know.
It would be a shame to race the car ( I think) and possibly damage it as it has been
 systematically maintained and updated to ensure its remarkable condition.

If you are interested in this car, contact me directly and I will`put you in touch with
Lars, or contact him on your behalf if you wish.

I can confirm the car is a cracker.