U2 fan finds the 'Achtung Baby' car of his dreams on Ebay
By DARA KELLY, IrishCentral.com Staff Writer
Published Friday, April 2, 2010, 12:29 PM
The Trabant used in the U2 Achtung Baby tour
A U2 fan based in North Carolina has finally realized his dream. For almost two decades he had his heart set on buying a tiny East German car just like the one he saw in U2's legendary One video back in the 1990s and this week the keys are in his hands.
According to the U.S. fan site @U2, a member known to the U2 fan community as Chris S. finally got his hands on a Trabant, one of the mass produced East German cars that was a favored mode of transport by U2 back in its Achtung Baby era.
In fact, the devoted U2 fan actually secured one of the Uno models, the exact make that U2 had hand painted by late New York artist Keith Haring.
A poster on the @U2 website writes: "Chris made arrangements to have it shipped over from Germany to Baltimore, picked it up there, and hauled it home to North Carolina. From what he can tell, Chris says he’s the car’s third owner since the video shoot and he thinks there have been some minor touch-ups on the exterior paint (mainly around the face and hands)."
"Overall," continued the fellow fan, "the car’s not in great shape, the rear window on the driver’s side is missing and the window on the driver’s door is stuck and won’t roll up, so years of rain and snow have damaged the interior."
During the Zoo TV Tour back in 1992, U2 featured a small fleet of brightly painted Trabants on stage. The four cars recently hung in the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland as part of a special U2 exhibit.
The Trabant was once the most commonly driven car in Eastern Germany, but nowadays it's either a hated symbol of Soviet oppression or a worthless heap of junk that's actually smaller in size than a mini. For a precious few like Chris S., it's an enduring link to the Irish supergroup and a dream come true at last
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