This little car is a Trabant. Powered by a two-stroke pollution generator that maxed out at 18 hp, the Trabant was made of a fiberglass, reinforced with recycled fibres like cotton and wood. Designed in the 1950s, the Trabant was East Germany’s answer to the VW Beetle — a “people’s car”. Thousands of East Germans drove their Trabants over the border when the Wall came down, which made it a kind of automotive liberator. Once across the border, the none-too-sentimental Ostdeutschlanders immediately abandoned their cars. Ich bin Junk!
I had never heard of this car before. Very cool. Thank you GarryRF for bringing this car to our attention and for the background info (and also thank you PHeymont for your insight as well).
My view: the Trabant was not a good car, but it was a great car. Huh? Well, it didn’t have a powerful engine, its oil/gas mixture (like your lawnmower) was noisy and spewed fumes, etc. But, it also showcased a lot of engineering ingenuity and “get by” spirit of its makers.
The fiberglass body was a first. The use of recycled materials was decades ahead of the rest of the world. Construction and repairs were simple, perhaps matched only by the Citroen 2CV. And you could never have a failed fuel pump…the tank was upfront, under the hood, and relied on gravity to feed the engine.
PS…you can still rent them for tours of Berlin and other cities!
vintage autos are always fun to find…no matter what their history and performance!