Trabant

Trabant is the name of a series of small cars built from 1957 until 1991 by the East German manufacturer VEB Sachsenring Automobilwerke Zwickau. Four production models carried the name, the P 50 (also called the 500), the 600, the 601 and the 1.1, and 3,096,999 Trabants were produced in all. The first model combined a galvanized steel unibody chassis with detachable duroplast body panels, front-wheel drive, a transverse two-stroke engine and independent suspension. That design stayed largely unchanged until the four-stroke Trabant 1.1 arrived in 1990, so the car became a symbol of the stagnant East German economy and of the collapse of the Eastern Bloc. Older Trabants are now sought by collectors, tuners and rally enthusiasts.