BERLIN, May 16 (UPI) -- The East German automobile brand Trabant should be represented at the Beijing Olympic Games if the notorious clunker can make it, a noted traveler says.

Renowned world traveler Rolf Becker is traveling to China with a fleet of three Trabants automobiles, which have a reputation for mechanical failures. He will traverse 6,200 miles from Germany to the Chinese capital, Der Spiegel said Friday.

"We'll see how many of them complete the route," said Becker, who started his international journey Thursday.

The 61-year-old has previously used Trabants on various other world travels, including a close call in Somalia which indicated rebel gunmen are not huge fans of the smoky, two-stroke, two-cylinder automobile formerly built in communist East Germany.

"There was a bullet hole in the Trabi," Becker said of that experience. "Fortunately Allah protected us."

Becker told Der Spiegel he is confident the cars will complete the lengthy journey and allow him to maintain his spree of attending every Olympics since the Berlin Wall fell in 1989.