Kings Of The Mild Frontier (Part 1)

This funky utility quintet is ideal for adventures in the countryside, says Andrew R., as long as the terrain isn’t too demanding

The idea of the ‘soft-roader’ an all-purpose yet two-wheel drive vehicle for the he-men of the Sainsbury’s car park has been with us for longer than you might think. As early as 1948, Willys-Overland was selling the Jeepster, an upmarket rear-drive version of the Jeep and, by the ’70s; there was a small but highly visible group of utility vehicles that was aimed as much at affluent holidaymakers as barracks that needed a general runabout. C&SC took five of these blistering pseudo-macho motors to the wilds of the Queen Elizabeth Country Park in Hampshire – a region of natural beauty where men are men, women are women and neither is in danger of being too far from the tea-room.

Two-stroke gives decent performance in light body; non-original bucket seats provide good support; column gearlever

The rarest member of our group is the 1971 Trabant 601 Kübel, a machine that gives new dimensions to the term idiosyncratic. The original ’58 Trabant P50, made by Sachsenring of the former East Germany, was a front-drive saloon with a body made from Duroplast recycled plastic and cotton resin – not cardboard as myth would have it and powered by a transverse two-stroke engine. In ’63, it was face lifted into the 601 and, although production was intended to cease in ’67, the government demanded that it remain largely unaltered for the next 22 years.

Trabant 601 Kübel side

One Trabant derivative familiar from 1960s newsreels is the 601 Kübel built for use by the Grenztruppen border patrol. In ’78, however, the East German authorities - not hitherto associated with joi de vivre – decreed that that it would also be available to civilian customers as the Tramp. A few were exported to Greece but in its homeland the Tramp was an aspirational item because only the elite would have the rare chance to drive a pink Trabant soft-top with no doors.

Non-original bucket seats provide good support

Clive Gross bought his ex-border patrol 1971 601 from an East Midlands auctioneer in 2006. It was in largely civilian form – “although it still had its petrol heater,” says Gross, who painstakingly restored it to near-original form over two years, fitting ’70s front bucket seats for comfort and sideways support. Today it attracts attention everywhere: “It is not a car for wallflowers!”

It has to be said that travelling through the rainswept woods of the South Downs in a Kübel puts one in mind less of summer holidays and more of a scene from a Le Carré novel, but it is never less than enjoyable. The non-standard seats hold you in place plus there’s the two-stroke music from the engine. A Trabant in full flow sounds much like a 1950s twin-tub washing machine that has been supercharged and it goes well, once you acclimatize to the unusual gate of the column change. There is even free-wheel on fourth. As for the all-round drums, the Kübel is light enough that stopping is rarely a problem.

Although the Trabant was never intended as an off-road vehicle, its front-wheel drive and good ground clearance make it perfectly suited to the tracks of our test ground. Interior comfort is minimal, but there is that auxiliary heater. Perhaps the best way to enjoy 601 Kübel motoring is to be chauffeured on the rear bench in the manner of a Grenztruppen Colonel desperately plotting his promotion to General.

Trabant 601 Kübel back

Meanwhile, on the other side of the Iron Curtain, VW was developing a light utility vehicle sourced from existing models – the engine and gearbox were from the Beetle, the rear suspension from the first-generation Type 2 and the floor pan from the Karmann Ghia T1. The result was the 181 Kurierwagen of ’68, initially used by the German Federal Army as a mehrzweckwagen (general-purpose car). Civilian sales began in ’71 and, two years later, exports started to the US, where the 181 was marketed as: ‘The Thing That Can Do Anything!’