There is a joke in the GDR about how to double the value of a Sputnik car - A, just fill up the tank!

Jia Lei heard that the second-hand goods recycling company had collected thousands of satellite cars, so he decided to go and see it himself, and then Jia Lei was taken to an open-air parking lot by Novan, which was in Jia Lei's farm.

"Isn't this car parked outside afraid of getting wet and rusty in the rain?" why don't you rent a parking lot?" Jia Lei asked Novo.

"The value of this car is not as expensive as the parking fee, and the shell of this car is all made of plastic, so it is not afraid of rain!" Novan told Jia Lei.

"Why don't you use steel?" asked Jia Lei curiously.

"Because the West stopped exporting steel to the Soviet Union and its jurisdictions during the Cold War, East Germany was starved of steel and the automobile industry was running out of raw materials and had to look for alternative materials. Novan said.

"But, is it possible to use plastic? I think this thing is quite fragile, as if it can hammer it into a hole with a single effort!" Jia Lei carefully knocked on the roof of the satellite car with his hand.

"There's no way anyone can make it a trabant, I've heard the joke that it takes a lot of workers to produce a trabant? The answer is three! The first one is for cutting, the second is for folding, and the third is for gluing!" Pete laughed and said to Jia Lei, a joke mocking the plastic shell of a satellite car.

Due to the lack of steel materials in East Germany, East German automobile factories began to use compressed materials to make car bodies in 1951, wood and artificial leather in 1954, and later East German scientists also used phenolic resins extracted from lignite and fibers from cotton to synthesize thermosetting plastics. This invention was awarded the East German State Medal in 1953. This thermoset plastic was then used to replace steel in the body of the car, and the first cars were born. Novan explained to Jia Lei in detail.

"How do you know so clearly?" asked Jia Lei curiously.

"I've spent a week compiling information on Sputnik cars since you asked me to buy them, do you see the writing on the bodies of these cars?" asked Novan, pointing to the big number 61 on the door of a car.

"See, I know this is the model of the car!" Jia Lei said.

But according to the Soviet style, they would never have names that didn't make sense of flashiness, they stood for plaste, 50 for 500, the 50 was produced from 1958 to 1962, the P600 was a slightly stronger version than the P50, it already had 600 ccm and 23 horsepower, and it was produced between 1962 and '64. However, these two types of cars have basically been phased out a long time ago, and most of the products we collect are classic P601s. Unfortunately, due to the shortage of raw materials, some of the last models are directly pressed with recycled plastic!"

"Recycled plastic is used to make cars, and this car looks very environmentally friendly!" Jia Lei sighed.

"It's not environmentally friendly at all! This car consumes a lot of fuel, is heavily polluted, slow, and in poor condition, and the most important thing is that the body made of recycled plastic is seriously polluting, and there is no way to bury it directly, and the car owner in Germany will pay a pollution fee if he applies for scrapping! Pete rolled his eyes and said that he didn't understand why Jia Lei had to recycle this second-hand car and refused to accept government subsidies.

"Don't just talk about his disadvantages, is there any benefit to this car? For example, I see that his contents and trunk are quite large, and it looks like it can hold a lot of things!" Jia Lei looked carefully in the parking lot for a while and then said.

"It's true, the trunk of the front-wheel drive car is completely empty and can put a lot of luggage, especially the rear lid of this car, which can be used to move and pull goods. Novan said and showed Jia Lei one side, he lifted the rear wall and flattened the seats inside, and the rear compartment completely became a square space that could pull goods.

"This design is good, this is the most popular business vehicle model in the future, the large capacity of the rear door is simply the favorite model of the Chinese people, usually can be used as a sedan at a critical moment can also be used as a truck! Jia Lei said that although the Soviet goods looked ugly and ruthless, they were really very practical.

"This model is good, but it's ...... They haven't made any improvements in 30 years, and the current car still uses the old technology and production methods of 30 years ago, and the car will always be loud when it is driven, which is particularly annoying! I really don't know how the Soviets put up with this noise! This car was exported to the whole Soviet Union. Pete said.

"If a car costs only 10,000 yuan, I can also tolerate all kinds of disadvantages of it, because is it cheap? We Chinese people have a saying that you get what you pay for - if you spend the money of a broken car, then when you buy it, it is really not surprising to find that the car has many shortcomings. Jia Lei said.

"But the boss's car is only 60 kilometers per hour, and even if you press the gas pedal hard, it will run 85 kilometers at most! There is also a joke in the GDR about how to make a satellite car go faster than 100 kilometers per hour -- A, just push it off the cliff. Pete said.

"It doesn't matter if the speed is slow? No matter how good the car is in the urban area of Huaxia Kingdom, it will only run 60 kilometers per hour - this is still the current road condition, maybe in a few years it will only be able to run 30 or 40 kilometers!" Jia Lei said indifferently.

"There's another problem with this bike, which is that in some versions it is equipped with a wheel idling device similar to a bicycle flywheel, which gives it a perverted roll ability at the expense of engine braking, which means that it will slide out if you are not careful. Novan continued.

"Oh my God! This design is fantastic, how much fuel does this save? Gasoline is so expensive, I know many people who will manually turn off the engine and release the throttle when they go downhill! This is simply the favorite function of the Chinese people, saving fuel equals saving money. Jia Lei was pleasantly surprised and said that these problems in the eyes of Westerners have become advantages in Huaxia.

"If you like it, boss, then you can take it! Anyway, it's not my money that is lost!" said Pete, and Novan agreed with him.

"Don't worry, you won't lose anything! The price of this car is the same as that of picking it up for nothing, and I can sell it for tens of thousands of dollars when I ship it back to China, and I only need to spend a little freight!" Jia Lei said confidently.

"Does your country's environmental protection law allow cars with such high emissions to be on the road? The reason why this car is so cheap now is because the West German environmental protection law does not allow it to be on the road, and the West German people have already started to protest. Farr finally spoke, and as soon as he spoke, he pointed out the most critical issues.

"Environmental Protection Law? What is it? Can you eat it? Huaxia Country does not have an environmental protection law now!" Jia Lei smiled proudly, if you want to make money, you have to drill some loopholes in the law!

"Okay, don't be so serious! The joke just now is good, you can say one by one! It must be related to this car!" Jia Lei said.

"I'm not going to tell jokes!" Novan said.

"Then tell a story!" Jia Lei said immediately.

＊＊＊＊

Novan first told you a story

Although the "Sputnik" brand car was the pride of the East Germans, it also had times when it "discredited" the GDR. When the Berlin Wall was first erected, many East German citizens racked their brains to defect to West Germany, some of them made their own submarines and some flew homemade hot air balloons. The most interesting thing is that there is a young couple, they found that there was a hole in the railing of the Berlin Wall checkpoint, so they modified their "Sputnik" brand car to lower the body, one day they took advantage of the military and police when they were a little careless, and drove the "Sputnik" brand car through the railing of the checkpoint, and the roof of the car was cut off and flew away at once, this operation made everyone present at the time stunned!" said Novan with admiration in his tone.

"This operation is really 666, and only the body made of plastic can be arbitrarily cut without being discovered!" Jia Lei said in shock.

"Yes, that's true! Changing to a steel body is not something that ordinary people can modify at all, but the story is mainly about the low chassis of this car and the small cab space. Novan reluctantly said that he originally wanted to use this story to make Jia Lei face up to the shortcomings of the satellite brand car.

"The satellite car has no tachometer, no air conditioning, no fuel gauge, no rear seat belt, no power steering, no ABS, no ESP, don't you think that's what should be the most important?" asked Daddy Farr, worried.

"The joke is funny, it sounds just like the real thing. Jia Lei said with a smile while holding his stomach.

That's why everyone says that driving this kind of car is putting half of their lives in their hands, and people who don't have a certain level of skill can't drive it at all. The planned economy of the Soviet Union has really been achieved to the extreme, and everything is simple!" said Novan helplessly.

"Really? I'll see. Jia Lei looked out curiously and found that this was really the case.

"I don't think it's quite pleasing to the eye without those messy things, this car has a total of a few kinds of equipment, and it must be very simple to drive! Even female novices won't be scared to give away half their lives because of too many things to see!" Jia Lei snapped his mouth and said, but this kind of car is a famous brand exported by the Soviet Union, and it is no problem that this kind of car is also on the road on the streets of Beijing.

"Half-Life!Oh, I said why is this car so familiar, isn't this the model in the game Half-Life 2!"

At an exposition, a wealthy Arab sheikh heard that there was a car in the Soviet Union with a delivery time of more than ten years, and he thought that it would not take so long to deliver the all-handmade Rolls-Royce, and he thought that this car must be better than the Rolls-Royce. It was still magnificent, so he ordered a satellite car without even looking at the appearance of the car, because this was the only automobile factory in the entire East Germany that could produce cars, and its capacity was limited, so the order was only ten years later. Pete said.

"Sure enough, the Arab tyrants are stupid and have a lot of money!" Jia Lei sighed.

"Boss, don't interject, listen to me!" Pete said unhappily.

"You speak. Jia Lei nodded.

"Sputnik cars are produced in Zwickau, a small town that used to produce parts for the well-known German Horch and Audi companies, and their technology is limited to produce such a simple car! When the factory in Zwickau heard that an Arab sheikh had ordered a satellite car from them, the whole city was boiling, and they felt that this was a thing that would bring glory to the country, and if a foreign sheikh drove their car on the streets, the whole city would have a light on their faces, so they postponed the original order arrangement, put the sheikh's order first, and they only took a few weeks to produce the car and ship it to the UAE. Pete deliberately stopped here.

"And then?" asked even Father Farr.

"Later...... After receiving the car, the chief was very excited and immediately called his friends to unpack and inspect the goods, and the friends only said one sentence after seeing the car - "It's amazing! Although the delivery time is a little longer, they actually sent you a plastic model before delivery, and this model can still be driven!". Pete couldn't help but laugh when he said this, and Jia Lei and the others all laughed along.

"Oh, the shell of this car is made of plastic, so it's really not surprising that it's used as a plastic model. Jia Lei said while holding his stomach. You have to find the latest chapters by yourself to read books?