Comrades hail cars that came in from the cold

Soviet Block cars took to the roads of North and East Yorkshire yesterday during a tour that eventually took them to the cold war bunker at RAF Holmpton near Withernsea.

At a time of rising motoring bills, owners of Ladas, old-style Skodas and Trabants are keeping their own costs at rock bottom and many carry out their own repairs and maintenance.

Some of the older Eastern Bloc models do not require car tax and Trabants can be picked up from countries like Hungary and Poland for just a few hundred pounds and then driven back home.

And with its tiny 597cc, 24 horse power engine, the Trabant isn’t thirsty for fuel.

Yesterday a handful of enthusiasts gathered in West Yorkshire for a celebration of Communist motoring nostalgia.

They drove in convoy to RAF Holmpton, a Cold War era bunker in East Yorkshire, for an underground tour.

Trabant driver Dominic Russell-Price helped organise the mini rally – complete with Russian-style winter weather – on behalf of the amusingly-titled Soviet Auto Luxury Tours (SALT) whose organisers refer to themselves as ‘commissars’.

He said: “We are a small collective of people who like Cold War era cars which are normally the butt of jokes this side of the Iron Curtain. There are still a fair few going.”

Although he jokes about the reliability – “they are easy to repair – some would say they need to be as we always have the bonnet up” – Mr Russell-Price has a genuine affection for Trabants.

“We would not have them if we didn’t love them,” he says. “It is the same with all classics. We like driving them and they are generally easy to maintain and cheap. They are unusual and you don’t see these things on the road very often. They definitely turn heads.”

Nostalgia plays a large part in the love of these much-maligned cars. Some owners had fathers who had a Lada while others saw Trabants on a school trip to West Berlin before the Wall came down.

Mr Russell-Price, who lives at Nostell, Wakefield, and works in arts marketing, recalls buying his first ‘Trabbi’ five years ago for £130. He immediately had to spend another £70 on an engine as this appeared to be an optional extra.

Those made before 1971 don’t need car tax and his Trabant will do 50 miles to a gallon.

“It’s like driving a go-kart,” he chuckles.

Though enjoying ‘Communist kitsch’, members of SALT are well aware of the brutal nature of those regimes.

Every year members meet for dinner in a nice hotel – the ‘luxury’ element of the SALT acronym – and have a short silence to remember those who lost their lives during the Cold War.

Fellow enthusiast Darren Fawcett, of Wheatley in Doncaster, admits to being “daft” when it comes to old-style Skodas.

He has an Octavia Combi (estate) and a 1965 saloon.

“Nobody can guess what they are,” he says proudly. “The most common guess is Hillman Minx. Since 2006 I have probably only had three people guessing correctly.

“The great appeal with Eastern Bloc design is that you could fix them at home. That applies to all Eastern Bloc cars. I have used three different garages for MOTs and each mechanic has said ‘wow – that’s amazing’ and called a mate to come over to see it.

“I bought one from a man in Bedford and one from a man in London. Both happened to be retired engineers and had done their own maintenance. The only downside for me is getting parts for them. I have to go to the Czech Republic but I have a German girlfriend so I can just pop across the border when I am over there.”

Owners of Soviet-era cars will try to tell you that poor reliability is something of a myth, although they may admit to a drop in manufacturing standards in the 1980s.

Mr Fawcett, a train driver, has driven his Skodas on long trips with little fuss.

“Touch wood, I have never been dragged back home by the AA for either of the Skodas.”

Mr Russell-Price recounts taking his first Trabant from Yorkshire to The Gambia in West Africa for a charity event.

Apart from a “small fire” while driving through Spain and a carburettor problem, it was plain sailing.

“The Trabbi did 5,500 miles in a month. If it does break down it is easy to fix. The engine is air-cooled, two-stroke, not much to it.

“People with an interest in classic cars look after them. I think they are no more unreliable than the cars that came out of British Leyland in that period. They were bottom end, budget motors.

“I tend to travel with a box of spares and I even changed the head gasket in 15 minutes. It’s air-cooled so there’s no radiator or water to bother about.”