Trabant Team Tackles Two Continents, 320 Breakdowns

The four Trabi travellers who made it to Phnom Penh posed Tuesday with two of their vehicles. From left to right: John Drury, Daniel Murdoch, Lovejoy, and Anthony Perez.

Trabi drives past the Palace of the Republic, the former seat of the East German parliament, in Berlin in this 2006 file photo. The Trabant, which celebrated its 50th anniversary last year, is much maligned for its poor construction and shoddy performance -- it is made mostly of plastic, and is capable of a top speed of around 80 kilometers (50 miles) per hour. Nevertheless, Trabis are a pop culture icon in Germany.

A team of ambitious young travellers have driven a fleet of three Trabants, the infamous East German autos, from Germany to Phnom Penh as a fundraiser for Cambodian street children. The 16,100 mile journey spanned 21 countries -- and 320 breakdowns.

A team of intrepid young travellers arrived in the Cambodian capital this week to cap off a fundraising campaign that sounds as unlikely as their method of transport -- a fleet of East German-made Trabant cars.

John Lovejoy, a 27 year-old American, came up with the idea to drive Trabis from Europe to Cambodia in 2006 after buying one of the infamous Soviet-era autos in Hungary for $60 (€41). He promoted the so-called "Trabant Trek" as a fundraiser for street children in Cambodia, and set an ambitious goal to raise $300,000 (€204,000).

The four-person team that he led into Phnom Penh Monday piloted three jury-rigged Trabis all the way from Germany. The six-month journey took them 16,100 miles (26,000 kilometers) across 21 countries.

Eight people started the trip last July, but four dropped out along the way as the team struggled to coax the three Trabis -- named Dante's Inferno, Ziggy Stardust, and Fez -- across two continents.

The dauntless travellers endured more than 320 breakdowns. On some days, said Lovejoy, the finicky Trabis would need to be repaired 10 times. Only two of the vehicles made it to Phnom Penh.

Despite being much maligned for their shoddy construction -- the cars are made mostly of plastic and have a top speed of around 80 kilometers (50 miles) per hour -- Trabants are an icon of German popular culture. Trabiphiles celebrated 50 years of the cult car (more...) in 2007 -- the first Trabant rolled off the assembly line in the East German town of Zwickau on Nov. 7, 1957.

Lovejoy's Traban Trek was a fundraiser for two charities, Mith Samlanh and M'Lop Tapang, both of which work with homeless children in Cambodia.

"We're passionate about this cause and knew we'd have to take an unusual spin on traditional fundraising tactics to really get the word out," Lovejoy told the Associated Press. He said the team had raised $16,000 (€10,880) as of Wednesday -- slightly more than 5 percent of the original target.