Lars Mars
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12/10/2008 7:17:43 PM
Government Designed Cars
The Trabant:
The selling point was that it had comfortable room for four adults and luggage, it was compact, fast and durable. Despite its poor performance and smoky two-stroke engine, the car has come to be regarded with affection as a symbol of East Germany and of the fall of communism, as many East Germans streamed into West Berlin and West Germany in their Trabants after the opening of the Berlin Wall in 1989. It was in production without any significant change for nearly 30 years.
Since it took the Trabant more than 10 years to be delivered from the time it was ordered people who finally got one were very careful with it and usually achieved quite some skill in maintaining and repairing it.
The engine for both the 500 and 601 was a small two-stroke engine with two cylinders, giving the vehicle modest performance. At the end of production it delivered 25 horsepower (19 kW) from a 600 cc displacement. The car took 21 seconds from 0 to 100 km/h and the top speed was 112 km/h. The main problem with the engine was the smoky exhaust and the pollution it produced.
The Trabant's body panels were made of Duroplast, a form of plastic containing resin strengthened by wool or cotton. This helped the GDR to avoid expensive steel imports, but did not provide much crash protection, although in crash tests it has actually proved to be superior to some modern small hatchbacks.
The Trabant's production method, which was extremely labor-intensive, remained unchanged, and much of the work came to be carried out by Vietnamese guest workers.
...The model, known as the Trabant 1,1 also had minor improvements to the brake and signal lights, a revised grille and replaced the coach spring-suspended chassis with one using MacPherson and Chapman struts. However, by the time it entered production in May 1990, German reunification had already been agreed to.
The inefficient, labor-intensive production line was kept open only because of government subsidies. Demand plummeted, as residents of the east could now buy western cars. The production line closed in 1991.
I can't wait for the All - American Trabant.
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