I Drive a 1990 Wartburg: The "Other" East German Car

[@JayEmmOnCars]

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[@chandlerbing7570]

Yay another sponsored video. just what we want 🙄

[@JayEmmOnCars]

@@chandlerbing7570 Your TV has sponsors. Your magazines have sponsors. Your sports teams have sponsors. It's the way of the world.

[@16jan1986]

Just be sure that i have made a point of not buying from sponsors

[@PJ-om2wq]

James. Your videos are brilliant. More entertaining than anything on the TV.

[@youxkio]

Why does this remind me of the Renault 12?

[@spavatch]

A ‘real’ Wartburg is always a 2-stroke. This one, a late VW 1.3 4-stroke example, is what we called a Wartburghini 😅

[@C.Fecteau-AU-MJ13]

Jesus commie jokes are just as depressing as their cars... Funny, but oh so very depressing.

[@wacholder5690]

Or "Wolfsburg". Or "Golfburg". They even reworked the Trabant to use the 1.0 Liter Polo engine. Which were up-to-date engines by that time ... but the 40 year old running gear could not keep pace with that. The Wartburg undercarriage is largely derived from the DKW "Reichsklasse" of the 1930s - the Trabant was evenly simple and poor. My uncle Walther was an independent taxi owner in the GDR and he drove a 2-stroke 353. He lost his left arm shortly after the war and the original 353 had a column shifter. See him drive was a one-man-show of its own glory.

[@EndeavorsDnB]

I believe u.

[@bluegamer308]

That explains why the motor sounds so refined for an East German car

[@philippehendrickx1109]

Indeed. My brother in law used to have one of those. It sounded like a moped. And you had to use 2 stroke moped fuel .

[@Mickhanic-garage]

Thanks for featuring my car James... glad you like it 😀

[@adzy166]

I used to see these being imported at Sheerness Docks

[@R-Tap]

There was a Skoda 100 or Rapid sold in Europe when I was young that doesn't look unlike this.

[@Mickhanic-garage]

@@R-Tap similar front lights yes, I have 2 Estelles as well as this Wartburg 😁

[@peoplehavetherights]

This car reminds me of a BMW 1600 from 1965.

[@Mickhanic-garage]

@@peoplehavetherights there were ties between the 2 companies back then if I remember rightly

[@PurchenZuPoden]

Sidefact: Wartburg is in Germany a very famous and beautiful middleage castle in my hometown Eisenach. The cars where also build in this city. Martin Luther took refuge from the roman church in this castle and translated the bible from latin to german in 1521.

[@Mickhanic-garage]

I intend to drive this car back to Eisenach, back to the museum at some point.. a long way from the north of the UK

[@hagenkleemann7309]

After 16 years(!) on the waiting list for a Lada my parents were "convinced" to get this then all new Wartburg 1.3. And so they handed over 31.000 Marks in April '89... y'all know what happened later that year. But I will never forget the first trip in the Wartburg with the "west engine" when my father turned to me in awe: "It's revving even uphill!" 😂

[@stevecooper7883]

Were fuel pumps not pressurized in other eastern cars??

[@hagenkleemann7309]

@@stevecooper7883 The Trabant for example had 26hp. It was constantly slowing down uphill.

[@carlarthur4442]

Or was that the clutch sliping

[@hagenkleemann7309]

@@carlarthur4442 😄

[@mihaimihai9254]

Well, Wartburgs and Trabants haven't been perfect cars but during my childhood I've seen them for a lot of times climbing on Transfagarashan (The Romanian highest mountain road at that time), full of people and carring smal trailers without facing any kind of failures. On the other hand many Romanian drivers had to stop their old Dacias and wait for the engines to cool.

[@johnrayner3940]

A dear departed friend of mine had an estate in the 90s. He won an award, from the Wartburg owners' club, for best modification. He'd modded the 3 cyl two stroke engine to run on a combination of petrol and diesel, with no loss of performance. Confused the heck out of fuel forecourts.

[@florianlassnig9769]

I assume the Diesel was used for lubrication?

[@marguskiis7711]

2 stroker works easily with mix of petrol and diesel, even with 70% diesel.

[@davidblake1663]

It's a great idea!

[@AntoniusTyas]

Wait what?

[@Kandisz_nora]

My family had exactly this kind of Wartburg, the four stroke one. We got it after 5 years of waiting in 1989 if I remember correctly. It was a real family car back then.

[@Stoo48]

I'd have to disconnect the air horn, the temptation to be silly with it would be too great!

[@Tourist1967]

Take a look at the Skoda Estelle Rapid. It was a modern classic. That is to say a 1950s car that was still being made in 1990. It had a certain charm.

[@tompettersson3814]

I want one, i have had 3.

[@spavatch]

That’s a bit of a stretch really, there’s nothing 1950s in Estelle and Rapid. They are loosely based, especially mechanical wise, on 1964 Skoda 1000 MB which was a clean sheet design.

[@Tourist1967]

@@spavatch Yeah. 50s.

[@Mickhanic-garage]

I have 2 Estelles as well as this Wartburg 😀

[@jakekaywell5972]

@@Tourist1967 No, 1960s. From the Skoda 1000 MB which used no parts from the previous generation of sedan (Octavia).

[@nicktheobald3128]

My mum had a Wartburg estate, bought new from a dealership in Aldershot in around 1972/3. It was a fabulous shade of 1970’s orange - reg # MOU222L. She used it as a daily driver, plus my dad used it at weekends to take us kids and our bikes to places, or half the under 8’s football team to an away match. A few times a year we would go down to Devon to meet up with my cousins. Often there would be 7 people in the car - a couple of us kids in the very spacious rear area of the estate hatch, legs outstretched waving through the big rear windscreen. Sure, it wasn’t fast, but managed to keep up with the traffic in 1970’s rural Devon as we criss-crossed Exmoor and Dartmoor. Mum kept in until about 1984/5 when she got a Panda. I’m pretty sure that it never let her down at all in more than a decade of ownership, and only had one minor scrape from a multi-storey car park (the Butts Centre in Reading?) on the front bumper corner, so compared to the average Ford or Leyland offering of the time, it was amazing, and had no rust (no sunroof in the estate). I remember the distinctive smell of the soft vinyl interior, plus the two-stroke fug, which dad had set up in such a way that there was minimal smoke and also no burnt odour. Very fond memories of that car - especially the huge engine bay with so much space around the compact engine!

[@thatcheapguy525]

did your dad ever use castor oil/Castrol R? a exhaust aroma from the Gods 😁

[@AnnatarTheMaia]

I'm blown away by your story; would have never dreamed that anyone in England would know what a Wartburg is, let alone own one, let alone knew about the station wagon! The 353 station wagon is the reason why I love station wagons to this day, although I've never owned a Wartburg myself.

[@Dave5843-d9m]

My friend had a Wartburg. I should have bought one instead of the rusty (and smoky) MG Midget that I did find.

[@MrDuncl]

@@AnnatarTheMaia All the East European cars started disappearing from the U.K. after about 1990. Before then they were quite heavily advertised, always as being bargains compared to anything else on the market. Probably 2/3rd of the price of the Mazdas that got mentioned.

[@andyyu5973]

wow it looks like it survived until the 90s, tax expired in 1994

[@syedmrzaidi0]

As a graduate, I ended up working for the Former Quality Director and Plant Manager for Wartburg a certain Dr Wolfram Liedtke! He was here to help launch the LEVC electric taxi. I spent around a year working for him and slowly realised his history in the industry. Wartburg, GM , Opel and then JLR. He was a great man and so glad the show has a Wartburg on now!

[@jamesengland7461]

That air horn is quite a hoot! 😂

[@Corkoth55]

South Africans would agree

[@hendrikrupp3985]

Never EVER heard a Brit pronounce “Ostalgie” with such an impeccable German accent. Impressive! Keep up the good work!

[@Knaeckebrotsaege]

Have to say that caught me entirely off-guard... and that was only 15 secs into the video lol edit: the wartburg pronounciation a bit later on too. someone really did their homework 👍

[@barbarusbloodshed6347]

Yeah. Curious he keeps saying "Porsch" :D

[@GrandTheftChris]

He even knew the brands of the four OOOO. Mad respect.

[@mosmarb]

Eisenach was also the first site to resume building BMWs after WWII too, on what was formerly a BMW factory site. When BMW proper issued the 1950s equivalent of a cease and desist letter, they changed the name to EMW and used a red and white roundel instead of the classic blue and white.

[@jimmeltonbradley1497]

You may remember that in the past, a lot of pop groups named themselves after trendy cars, like The Cortinas or the Fabulous Thunderbirds. In the 1980s I was in a band called The Wartburgs which, we felt, perfectly reflected our image and our capabilities. I've always had a soft spot for this lesser known Eastern Bloc product.

[@MeYou-yz2yz]

I was in a heavy metal band call MZ250 ETZ deluxe but couldn't get anyone else to join because everyone said it was a stupid name for a band.

[@lonely_ocelot]

@@jimmeltonbradley1497 Also reminds me of IFA WARTBURG!!!!!

[@tesznye6992]

I'd like to make a correction, James, you said most of these were exportes to Soviet states, but what you probably meant was communist block countries. Hungary for example was such, but not a Soviet state. A soviet state would be something like Ukraine, or Kazahstan, which are now known as post Soviet states.

[@mdbaewy]

There were also imported to Greece, which was neither Soviet or communist. But the country needed cheap transportation and Ladas, FSOs and Yugos sold very well and can still be seen, along with some rare Wartburgs.

[@kallekas8551]

Also these travesties along with Ladas and Volga’s were sold in Democratic Capitalist Finland.😂

[@tesznye6992]

@@mdbaewy Yeah, I've been to Greece many times, I've always found the cars there fascinating. There are old cars from Western Europe, Japan, Eastern Europe, and the US. Though I don't think I've seen any Wartburgs in particular. They used to be very common here in Hungary up to around the mid to late 2000's when I was a kid.

[@Tourist1967]

That would be "bloc" not "block". And "Warsaw Pact" was the usual description for Soviet satellite states.

[@AnnatarTheMaia]

@@mdbaewy you had Yugos in Greece? That surprises me.

[@hunchanchoc8418]

A neighbour had a Wartburg Knight, 2 stroke. The cabin had a flat floor and was very roomy compared to our Cortina mk2. The boot was massive. The engine had a great sound and was beautifully smooth. The ride was fantastically smooth and absorbent (though if I remember rightly, the AA's magazine warned to be careful with the handling due to the swing axle rear suspension). And they were cheap to buy. Not a bad combination! The Lada felt rugged but crude in comparison.

[@Adam_T]

Wow, you learn something every day , I didn`t know they existed past the mid 70s let alone in 4 stroke form and Moderned up ..

[@judih.8754]

I think this is a good looking car. The front 3/4 view and rear view are particularly nice to the eyes. It goes to show you don't need a gazillion cc's or hp to be enjoyable.

[@damirzanne]

It’s awesome car , way bigger than Ford Fiesta , I owned 353 Wartburgs and Fiesta , and in no way it’s Fiesta as big as Wartburg

[@GrandTheftChris]

The older ones with the chrome were even better looking imo.

[@jsz2619]

My dad bought a 1988 MY Wartburg new. Brown with sunroof and 4 speed floor shifter. I remember walking to the garage complex in Feb. with my sister where he had/has a garage to take a look at it.

[@davidmwood560]

Brilliant! I think that "musical" air horn is, in fact, an East German police horn/siren... What fun!

[@Kommisar_Lutter]

The thing about combloc cars is that they were pretty decent at introduction - they just stayed in production for way too long without much changes.

[@jakekaywell5972]

An actually reasonable comment about ComBloc cars? Refreshing! Your criticism of "[staying] in production for way too long without much changes" would also be applicable to Western cars you could still buy new in 1990 such as the VW Type 1 and the Citroen 2CV.

[@NorceCodine]

Fun fact, Lamborghini in the 70-s and 80-s sourced the small parts from Fiat, for example rear lights, signal lights, or the circular air-intake on the dash, and when Fiat became Lada in the Soviet Union under license, Lada's had these same parts as the Lamborghinis of the era.

[@Shady-Shane]

I was waiting at a hot sausage van in east germany in 1990 the guy in front was ordering in dutch but the sausage man spoke east german, it was funny when they both then spoke english as a common language.

[@photosbyernesto9621]

Love it - very cool! That horn is like the ones you hear on the Tour de France race convoy vehicles!

[@sandorfuleki5060]

James, let me tell you, late 80s, early 90s here in Hungary the roads were full of these and Trabants. When you got into a traffic jam with all of these 2 stroke engines puffing out smoke at alarming rates, the air literally turned grey and you had to concentrate hard not to throw up from all the gas poisoning :) Nice one!

[@damirzanne]

I don’t care for this new VW Wartburg , I owned several 2 stroke 353 models as a kid back in Yugoslavia , and had tons of fun with them , loud, stinky, clunky , but we still had lots of fun , and made lots of very dear memories with it … I owned many Mercedes and BMW’s throughout my life , matter of fact, I own S550 w222 , and GLK350 right now , but I’ll never forget all the fun and good times I had with my Wartburgs … if you go little further back in history , before DDR days, you’ll find out Wartburg goes way back before then , and they built some awesome vehicles … we didn’t need ABS or traction control, to have a ball and tons of fun rolling down the road in an old Wartburg 353 … most people miss the whole point of life , and think more of everything you have , happier you’ll be , I feel sorry for them , because they’ll never be fulfilled and happy , there will always be something else to buy, something more to own , which they think will make them finally complete and happy , sad truth is , it’s not , and they will never be happy … not even close as happy as I was in my old Wartburg

[@BeesKneesBenjamin]

I can completely see where you're coming from hahaha. I still use a Trabant 601 for most of my commute nowadays except for in the winter or really long distances (except when its a sunny weekend of course and it's for leisure). People considered me an idiot for buying one and trading in luxury for a pain in the ass, but for as long as I had it, I can't sit behind the wheel and not have fun with a big smile on my face. There's something magic about a car that's nothing else except a car. It just wants to drive, it's you, an engine, and nothing else in-between :-). Cars like these are a bit uncomfortable at first, but you get used to everything and then it becomes a big joy to drive. I can confidently say this is one of the best things I've spent money on in my life, endless fun haha

[@BelfastMurf]

Nice to see such a rare car being taken care of. Mick has some great videos on his channel. Though there were lots of Ladas, Skodas, & Polski Fiats over here, I only remember seeing a couple of Wartburgs. They were certainly the previous model. I well remember them being referenced in the Unipart advert… “spark plugs for me Wartburg”!

[@GeneralGayJay]

My dad had one in Yugoslavia. It was a pick-up-truck version built for delivery tasks. A luxurious car back then.

[@wilfamos7314]

Amazing car, brilliant review! Possibly your best ever. - I visited the old Wartbury factory in Eisenach, which is now a museum. Lovely stuff.

[@johanjonsson]

The review we've all been waiting for.

[@mcstaal]

I simply love the stickers on that car.

[@syedhassan3263]

Had a Skoda 1000MB for a few years, well designed, comfortable, good suspension--but that engine at the back gave a lot of trouble

[@Mickhanic-garage]

I also have 2 Skoda Estelles in the UK, one standard, one a 1.8 16V 140BHP sleeper, the Wartburg is my rare car for shows

[@ComeJesusChrist]

My family and I went to visit East Germany in the summer of 1989, visiting several places around the country, but mainly staying in the wonderful Meissen, near Dresden. These four-stroke Wartburgs and the VW-engined Trabant just came out and provided quite the contrast to cars from the thirties, forties and fifties that were still used, due to the 15 years long waiting list for a car. It was still such a wonderful country. It was clean, comfortable, they’ve had a lot of high quality products and the historical, but beautifully maintained architecture in Germany was everywhere, apart from Dresden and the area of the Pergamon Museum in Berlin, where they still kept certain buildings in the state they were left after the British bombed them.

[@GrandTheftChris]

Apart from Dresden? What do you mean. There were still a lot of old buildings restored in GDR times. And the Elbe river was a mess, it's better now.

[@ComeJesusChrist]

@@GrandTheftChris I was referring to Frauenkirche, the Cathedral in Dresden that was intentionally left in ruins for fifty years, only recently renovated.

[@GrandTheftChris]

@@ComeJesusChrist I see. You are right about the church but other important buildings were reconstructed in GDR times. Like Semper opera and the Zwinger, which are at least as famous as the church.

[@peterwilson5528]

In the 1980s up in the West Highlands, my friend who lives in Onich near Fort William and I met some East Germans in a Trabant Estate that had come all the way from East Germany. So that was a long journey.

[@piotrmalewski8178]

Funny thing about this car is that when in the 80s Polish rally team came in for a Wartburg Rally, they were surprised that a two stroke, totally obsolete (even for East Block standards) Wartuburgs were scoring much better stage times than FSO (which happened to make the most powerful rally cars in the whole of Warsaw Pact countries). So, our boys discovered that Wartburg team had a set of shortcuts on the stages, and put our service cars to stand across them, so all Wartburgs got stuck in a car jam on illegal rally stage shortcut.

[@RichieRouge206]

I know the owner and car well. He’s got a few rather interesting Eastern Bloc beauties and the Wartburg is very appealing. Loved your reaction to the musical horn too!. The K-series engined Skoda Estelle he has is amazing! Love quirky cars like this. Great video James.

[@allareasindex7984]

Best advert for a musical air horn I’ve ever seen.

[@arthurdardalis]

I had a late model 353 two stroke, on a separate chassis, free revving engine, freewheel on the gearbox, separate coil for each plug. Very reliable, it never broke down & if the petrol/oil mixture was correct, ran without smoking

[@Kolcobrzuch]

I can smell yout comment:)

[@arthurdardalis]

@@KolcobrzuchThank you for your comment

[@MartijnMcFly]

I just love the colours on older cars, way snappier and endearing.

[@enwins]

My father owned a Wartburg Estate in the 1970's/80's. Pillaried by the British road testers it has an incredible ride. Not good on corners but the most comfortable thing going. The 1 litre 2 stroke very torquey. That came before the 1.3. Separate chassis thicker steel made it last well. Freewheeling saved a bit of fuel and adjustable grille a boon in winter. Hoping to get my hands on a Marklin someday. Mid-engined with the 2 stroke engine and full winged doors. Dad saw an indicated 80 and I well remember occasions out-pulling 2-litre Ford Cortinas up the Ffestiniog pass in North Wales. The ride in the 2 stroke had a better ride than your 1.3.

[@tileng.5186]

By Marklin...you mean the Melkus??

[@GrandTheftChris]

You can still order a new RS1000 at Melkus in Dresden. If you have the spare money. ;)

[@refusist]

Back in the day we had a Lada 2102 Wagon. Neighbor had a Wartburg 353 wagon. Our Lada was indestructible, always ran! Neighbors was always under repair lol

[@Yorkshiremadmick]

In the early 70’s (73) my then Maths Lecturer had a Wartburg then a Skoda Rapide. Bless him he’s 87 now and still going.

[@PenryMMJ]

It could be argued that Franconian Bratwurst are the original ones but Thuringer are very tasty. I'm quite partial to a Currywurst myself, especially the ones made by Volkswagen.

[@HeavyMetalNerd]

Okay... Try other currywurst. Curry, Burger, Beer in Berlin has some nice currywurst.

[@C.game0]

The exact car you drive in this video I found in an issue of practical classics on page 44, issue January 2024 lol. Same license plate and everything

[@Mickhanic-garage]

Yes thats my car, also my Skoda Estelle was featured too, the Green 16V one 😀

[@C.game0]

@@Mickhanic-garage nicee

[@O1Richard]

It’s a really nice car. I remember the Wartburg knight in estate and saloon, it definitely looks like a late 1980’s Skoda Estelle.

[@Mickhanic-garage]

I have 2 Estelles as well as this 😀

[@drummingriffin]

I can still hear the Wartburg Knight in my mind. The only one I think I ever saw in the flesh, was when I was walking to school in the late 60's. I could hear the 2 stroke motor long before I saw the car. Someone a few years later at work called it a 'Knightburg Wart'. Funny, if a tad unkind. Thanks for reviewing this car, but I so wish it had been the 'stroker' engine.

[@davidhipperson448]

I was in East Germany 87 and 89 and will never forget the aroma of the smoke of wartburg and trabants. A small village outside magdeburg, we in my great uncles princess 1700hl were looked upon smashed in a true sports car it was a joke to me, but fond memories orlf the place, cars sbd people. Still can't look at a princess in a serious light since

[@dodgydruid]

The only two cars I would trade my MK2 Robin 3 wheel van for is a Wartburg or a Lada, I'm a Soviet collector and just luv the fugly stuff from behind the iron curtain hehehe

[@TheVinnie369]

Just brilliant, so refreshing to see something that doesn't light up the tires

[@AnnatarTheMaia]

Dear Jay, this is the coolest car you have ever driven on this channel, and that is no joke.

[@Vilhyto]

2 stroke 'Warre' was called 'Jungle drum' here in Finland because of it's uneven idling.

[@paulmccomish7250]

My mate had one in 1977, 2stroke banger.

[@GT380man]

East German engineers played an absolutely crucial part in the development of flexible and high performance two stroke engines, made famous & commercial globally by Yamaha and Suzuki and to a degree, Kawasaki. You’d need to look it up, but an engineer and bike racer (can’t recall if one person or two) made a series of technical breakthroughs which changed low powered, horribly smoky two strokes into high powered, slightly less smoky sports bike motors, which I’m fortunate enough to enjoy to this day. Defecting to The West in those days was a one way trip which would land you in jail if caught in the attempt. Iirc, he slipped away from a bike Grand Prix in Scandinavia because his minders reasoned that no one leading the world championship would defect & throw the silverware away. He did exactly that. At the same time, back in the East, his wife and young child were being smuggled out using a range of transport types. They were not in touch during the execution of their respective defections. It really is a thing to contemplate. From East Germany to Hamamatsu and very quickly, the bikes coming out with the Suzuki “S” or the triple tuning forks of Yamaha became well designed objects of young men’s desire.

[@jakekaywell5972]

Given how good East German motorcycles were (MZ, Simson, etc.), I believe it!

[@GrandTheftChris]

It's true. His name was Ernst Degner. He was a professional rider for the MZ team from East Germany. In 1961, when he was leading the world championship in his class, he escaped from GDR at a race in Sweden with help from team members of Suzuki. In return he handed over crucial engineering data from MZ. After that he was of course seen as a traitor in the GDR, because at the time MZ was very successful and they could have won the championship. Later the Japanese honored Degner at the Suzuka race track. The curves Degner 1 and Degner 2 are named after him and well known today.

[@thatcheapguy525]

as a child in 1977 visiting family in East Berlin I remember the 353 Wartburg used as Police cars. if you happened to own a Wartburg in East Berlin, you were a cut above the rest. my dad had a 312 in 1973. it got down the road pretty well for a family car of its era and he was a big fan of the free-wheel feature. the Wartburg 300 series are possibly unique in that they link the surviving major German car manufacturers of Audi (formerly Auto Union) via the DKW F9/IFA F9/EMW 309, Benz via the post war ownership of Auto Union, VW via the aquisition of Auto Union, BMW the pre-war Wartburg factory owners and Opel who acquired same factory after the fall of the USSR.

[@janstaes2172]

great stuff, my uncle drove on e of those . he was always on the side of the roads with some sort of malfunction. you should do a video about the GAZ volga the car for the sovjet elites.

[@thewatchbloke]

My father's Wartburg in the early 70's was a 3 cylinder 2 stroke that spewed smoke out of the exhaust. Fun fact, discounting the ignition system the engine has 7 moving parts.

[@lunabouch]

I think the HUB NUT and Late Brake Show are telling of the owners love of quirky barn find and et al autos. GDR is definitely the new nostalgia for us who didn’t live there! 🤣

[@Satori-Automotive]

Im from east germany! If u drove a Wartburg back then, u was a rich person! My mom told me about it. When i was a kid quite many of Trabants and Wartburgs where still driving around in my small city (2001 and later) Sadly they are now really rare

[@philjameson292]

Yes the East German Mercedes

[@AnnatarTheMaia]

@@philjameson292 that's it, the East German Mercedes. How the hell do you know that?

[@erickimatu2082]

​@@philjameson292 exactly 😅

[@stuvademakaroner9607]

Several years ago I stumbled upon a big parking lot of Trabants on a field road in Bulgaria near Slanchev Bryag, I think they were rental. It looked surreal in the middle of the night. I've seen several Wartburgs in Moscow, somehow there is still a small but very loyal community of fans of these weird cars.

[@Ascania]

Not quite. If you were rich you drove a Lada. The Wartburg was a step below that.

[@Killerspieler0815]

one of the cars of my childhood ... this car might survive an EMP

[@jonathancmilne67]

Having owned both a Two stroke and a Four stroke Wartburg i can see good in both the eerie silence when not accelerating in my 2 stroke Wartburg but terrible bodyroll to the noisier but much better handling 4 stroke wartburg both weirdly in Ahorn Gelb/ Acorn Yellow! If you can get a copy of the late Julian Nowill's book East European cars i think that Wartburg almost launched a 4 stroke wartburg in 1978(?) even printing brochures but it was "pulled" by the SED in East Berlin i think it had a Renault 12 engine 1300cc from Dacia .

[@BobTheMartin]

Shame we didn't get a drive by clip with the musical horn That was the most amusing part of the whole video, doppler effect would have only elevated it

[@The-Sea-Dragon-1977]

Point of order James, Soviet Union refers to the conglomerate of the Baltic states, the Stahns etc. East Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria etc etc were part of the Warsaw Pact. Not really important but could irritate some people.

[@jakekaywell5972]

Both a very important and a very annoying point of contention. Not making that distinction would be like referring to Wales as the United States because they're both in NATO.

[@DaveP668]

We had family friends who had three cars I remember, 2 Wartburgs and a Polski Fiat. The Wartburg was part of a group holiday to France in about 1980, it did well over 2,000 miles with no issues, unlike my dad's Vauxhall Viva Estate which broke down in Dover, just 250 miles from home. A failed HT lead.

[@philw4625]

My dad had a ‘farty hans’ back in the 70’s. Only kept it for 5 months as (as you pointed out) it was just exhausting to be in for any length of time. A riot at full chat, a clattering cacophony the rest of the time. Very difficult to keep in tune and timing as it had three sets of coils and points.

[@ChuckFickens1972]

I think if I owned that car every time I left the house I have to shout something like "to the bat supermarket" and hit the horn... 8am in the morning "TO THE BAT OFFICE" Dli Dli Dli Dli Di Da

[@constantinadm]

Fun fact. Wartburg was rebranded from EMW, which itself was rebranded from BMW. As the factory in which they were made was the original BMW factory for cars. BMW’s first car was a copy of the Austin 7, named BMW Dixie.

[@emergingloki]

Now you have to drive the top of the tree Warsaw Pact (and I've chosen my words carefully there) motor, the Skoda Estelle. I had 3 in the days of my youth, loved them.

[@Mickhanic-garage]

I have 2 Estelles, a 120 and a 180.. 1.8 16V and modified but looks standard.. the Wartburg is a fairly standard one I can afford to drive 😂

[@rogerking7258]

Didn't know the 4-stroke was a thing, but I travelled around a bit in an earlier 2-stroke. The ride was so soft it made a 2CV feel like it had rock solid suspension and the freewheel device just made the experience bizarre; every time you took your foot off the throttle it disengaged the transmission and the car just rolled along with the engine at idle. Progress was a series of 2-stroke engine noises with intervals of near complete silence. I was sort of horrified and impressed at the same time.

[@robertmerkel8247]

That's...interesting. Would get a bit exciting if the brakes failed!

[@TediI47]

I absolutely love the clean shaping and minimal styling.

[@spakkkomat]

I owned one of these in red, is was the first car I had. Ran well enough. Sold it when I moved to Berlin. My then girlfriend had a VW Golf L with a 1.3 engine that looked very, very similar to the engine in the Wartburg. Just saying, these engines were also used in the Golf, not just the Polo. Props to you for properly pronouncing "Wartburg".

[@StarsingerOG]

I grew up around these and it's so weirdly silent. Most ones people had were 2-storkes and they sounded like a geiger counter.

[@jamieflanagan7946]

A Skoda Rapid/Estelle 130 135/6 Sport should be next! I love these wee cars!

[@doughall8727]

Back in the day, some 50 odd years ago, my friends dad had a two strokecWartburg estate in a lovely blue colour. I distinctly remember the delightful thrum of the engine, and how spacious and comfortable the car seemed.

[@divakism]

My 84 years old neighbour, still drives it! A Yellow one - 1.3, 1990. It's his life!

[@mirceapopa9947]

And my dad as 82 years old still drives a Daewoo Matiz same tipe, same colour at Mister HUB NUT. The car are not power steering, my dad used power muscle.

[@DavidLee-zy3ju]

Hello James,there were quite a few iron curtain cars about in the 70s. Our neighbour had a hideous Moscovich? It was a sky blue colour and sounded like an old tractor!! Then after that,he had a Burgundy Wartburg.

[@lukecarruthers]

Nicely done James. This was great fun and that air horn is a fantastic thing. I think I saw this car in one of the roundup videos for Rustival too so it's great to see it get the JayEmm treatment.

[@Mickhanic-garage]

Yes I was at Rustival with it, one of 2 there

[@psircos]

I know this goes against everything we stand for, but I just want to see one of them on a hill climb, with a hayabusa under the bonnet 😂 Lovely little thing though....front end kinda remind me of the old shhhkoda rapid!

[@Turbobuttes]

My grandparents had one basically just like that! "White", 1.3, took delivery like half a year before the fall of the wall after selling their used Lada for higher than MSRP because being immediately available meant used cars carried a hefty price premium and usually cost more than new cars, ended up driving it until the late '90s or so. Riding in the back of it to our family summer cabin (it sounds fancier than it was) as a young lad in the early '90s and always having those odd headrests in my field of view is basically my first car memory. FYI that horn is not stock or even optional and would've never been legal in Germany.

[@01menyou]

My late father bought a new Wartburg Knight saloon in 1972. I remember going with him to collect it. I was very excited because it had the new yellow rear number plate. Immediately, it was returned for a gearbox fault, then it started to rot everywhere, and the final straw, a spark plug blew out of the cylinder head. My dad traded it in for a new Marina, which was not a lot better.

[@felipesancho]

It is lovely to see the Hub Nut sticker in my favourite car channels ;)

[@PaddyWV]

Ooh! 86 numbers away from the "Mighty Dacia" Had an early Wartburg in our Kent village in the 70's

[@Mickhanic-garage]

G ATL is a well known reg, anything 1990 registered or reregistered gets this at the moment.. Most Wartburgs are this.. few different and the odd H reg about

[@PaddyWV]

@@Mickhanic-garage Rather like a lot of Citroen AX's ending up with .... FJH plates! 👍

[@andyarmstrong1493]

I remember a work mate had a "Knight" in the 80's. He was laughed at, but it really was a VFM car. The one you tested looked really fine.

[@supersimon126]

That horn went straight from Lamborghini Countach mode to Indian truck or bus mode :D

[@jo05dk]

I have zero doubt that the four stroke version is a much better car than the original, but having grown up hearing them ringadinging along, a two stroke is what I’d buy, where I ever to buy a Wartburg. I’d need that sound, and the regular fenders, to get me going 🙂 That said: I love that you cover cars like these. ..and that you’re able to find joy in driving so many of them.

[@sagetheowlfatfeathery2083]

I had a 2-stroke one of these in 1978. I was rather good for ferrying all your mates and their around - huge inside. Getting the fuel mix with oil was rather critical - put too much in and you’d be extra smokey, and you’d have to put the plugs in the oven to burn off the extra oil. Sounded brilliant, being a 3 cylinder. It had all sorts of weird stuff too - freewheeling hubs that you could lock out if you needed engine braking, and a radiator blind operated from the cabin. It was great until the body mounting points rusted away.

[@jocking3]

The engine actually comes from a Golf Mk II, not a Polo (NZ motor code at VW), so much so you can actually put the engine in a golf if you change the mounts (they just bolted on the engine). When the Barkas Werke (the east german company who produced the engines for both the Trabant and Wartburg) bought the license of the engine, one of the ways they paid were built engines, which they then returned to VW, to there are golfs out there which have IFA logos on their engines.

[@frglee]

When I was at school in the early 70s I had a Saturday job as a petrol pump attendant (remember those?). There were a few two-stroke Wartburg Knights in Kent in those days, even the rather nifty estate versions. Apparently these were the only two-stroke cars on sale in the UK by 1972. I remember them having a very odd feature when it came to refuelling. You poured a pint can of 20/50 oil into the petrol tank, then filled the tank with 2 or 3 star petrol. They seemed to run well enough without too much smoke as might be expected, though.

[@Tom-Lahaye]

The Wartburg was sold in the Netherlands and Belgium as well, the Netherlands also banned the 2 stroke in new cars in 1974, but in Belgium the Wartburg 353 was sold for a longer time. The engine was in essence the engine of the Polo mk2 but with a revised bottom end casting as you said, but apart from that all internals were the same. You can't swap out the whole engine with a Polo engine but you can repair it with parts from a Polo mk2. The top end looks exactly the same as a Polo engine except for the IFA branding on the valve cover.

[@turulmagyar2768]

Great video, really enjoyed it! You still see them in Hungary, but now they become rare here too. Most of this type (1.3) was exported to Hungary. I own one of the last ones built (1991) before the factory closed. Greetings from Hungary!

[@TheAshman306]

Remineds me of an old skoda(squar head lights engine in the rear) my papa had one from new it finally came to it he couldnt get parts for it. Had until early 2000's he ownd his own fish shop at the time and had a fish van that wee skoda pulled that trailer every weekend without missing a beat.

[@VickersDoorter]

We had a custard colour Wartburg Estate circa 1974. It was noisy, hot, slow and stank of two stroke. It pretty much turned to rust within a year of being new. A complete shocker of a vehicle, but strangely nostalgic seeing one again.

[@CB1000FP1]

Back in the early 70s I was a delivery driver for a TV rental shop and my mate who was a salesman there had one of these, if I remember correctly it was a 3 cylinder 2 stroke, he didn't keep it long

[@Rick2010100]

A old friend of mine was from East Prussia end endet up after WW2 in West Germany, his younger brother in East Germany. He became prosperous* and visited his brother in the GDR regularly, with his 500 Mercedes (W126), which his brother was enthusiastic about. When he got a new 500ér, he gave his old one to his brother while visiting him. His brother was overjoyed, but he was unable to register the car because no insurance company in the GDR wanted (or was allowed) to insure the car. He was then able to exchange the Mercedes for a Wartburg, which saved him at least 10 years of waiting. *After the war, at the age of 17, he founded a business for products needed on farms. He printed a small brochure and order form, got on a bicycle and rode to countless farms where he offered his products, the business finaly growth.

[@huwprice881]

Luxury eastern block motoring! My wife had a Lada Samara - it was bloody lethal, the fuses all blew if you used the horn, the paint ran if you tried to wash it, it had the wrong coloured interior when it arrived (her cars blue interior was in another mugs, sorry, customers, car), and the sight of my best friend going straight past us and off into the night, rather than stopping to pick us up, because it had no brakes at all, was hysterical. The look on his face as he looked at us out of the side window - bemusement and terror in equal measure - will stay with me to my dying day.

[@Richard-Bullock]

It's always nice to see a man enjoying his work.

[@shaekeeney319]

Ah, man..... I was getting excited, thought it was a real Wartburg. With the 1.3 two-stroke in it.... still cool as hell though, James! Get an old Skoda to review to!

[@tinplategeektoo]

The air horn took me back to the 70's when I upgraded my Viva HB with just such an item (not that tune though which is a shame as I really loved the Batman TV series)

[@neilfoster814]

I've seen them for sale at around £5,000, so I think those sellers were a bit optimistic. Mind you, Trabants aren't the giveaway they once were, even scrappers are going for around £1,000. Got to love those DDR cars!

[@PeaceyEasy]

I always quite liked whenever I saw someone covering the Wartburg in a video. I am actually from the eastern part of Germany and they were actually built not that far away from where I live today. I may have not been alive yet when there were actually a thing but I did mostly hear quite nice things about it in comparison to the other cars of east Germany. Anyways, there quite sadly (at least outside of east Germany) always overshadowed by the way more famous Trabant, so I'm very happy to for once see the Wartburg covered as well

[@PeaceyEasy]

Or to put it in my mothertounge: Endlich geht's bei Ost-Autos mal nicht nur um den Trabbi

[@MarcRudolf-t3p]

Klar doch 😊

[@grzegorzbalcerak576]

You need to check a Polonez next :D