Class: Cars, Sedan — Model origin: — Made for:
Background vehicle
Author | Message |
---|---|
◊ 2006-11-19 16:43 |
353 |
◊ 2006-11-19 18:25 |
In UK marketed as Wartburg Knight(in fact,an UK-Owners'Club had chosen,later,as title of their own issued newsletter,just"The Knight Rider"(imitating the title of TV-series"Knight Rider"!!!) |
◊ 2006-11-19 18:26 |
1966-1984 with that grille |
◊ 2006-11-19 18:30 |
Actually this grille is a bit strange, I've never seen it in this part of Europe. I think that it was used mainly in cars for export to "western" countires (like this "KITT"). |
◊ 2006-11-21 13:22 |
Wartburg Knight,however,for UK-imported 1st generation 353(on an old Seventies'world car annual,was shown a car like that(FKR 138 L adsUK-plate),with"Wartburg"writing on left upper edge of grille and "Knight"on right lower edge of grille(here not visible,'cause the Jag in foreground covers the background car almost partly,especially grille) |
◊ 2006-11-22 15:35 |
The one seems had a black vinyl covered roof(an habit seen on many cars in UK into Seventies,especially) |
◊ 2010-06-25 00:26 |
1975+ Knight [353W]. Familiar looking photo from 1977 prospect: http://www.die-besten.de/wartburg/prospekt/353/353-1977b/s6-a.jpg -- Last edit: 2010-06-25 00:27:05 |
◊ 2013-11-10 23:17 |
This evening there was aired an interesting TV-documentary about the export-salesmen of the DDR. Among them was the guy, who had organized the export of the Wartburg 353/Knight to Great Britain. He told a story, that one day there was an UK-owner of a Knight that unsatisfied with his car, that he place a sheet in the window "I feel so sorry to have purchased this shitbox from East Germany" (as in West-Berlin did in 1975 the owner of a Matra Simca Bagheera) - and the DDR-export-office have sold it back. And, as a much more interesting information, that in GB in the early 70ies there came a restriction about the emission carbon-monoxide, that the Wartburg became forbidden in the UK - to avoid that, the DDR-importers had mounted a four-stroke-engine (what one, was not said!! ) to keep the UK-export rolling. Has anyone ever heard anything abuout that story?? |
◊ 2013-11-10 23:31 |
The only thing I can think of is the replacement with VW Polo engine, but I didn't think that was a UK special, more a general update across most/all markets. My memory is that Wartburg died in UK when the 2-stroke became obsolete (emissions rules, petrol stations stopped selling 2-stroke at pumps, general lack of image/sales, etc) without a normal engine version being sold here, but would need to check before stating as fact. |
◊ 2013-11-10 23:42 |
No, this shall have happened years before the 1.3 came up, even years before the contract in 1977 between the DDR and the Volkswagen AG about delivering the legendary 10.000 VW Golf, which were paid with DDR-made machine-tools. |