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The Trabant is a car that was produced by former East German auto maker VEB Sachsenring Automobilwerke Zwickau in Zwickau, Saxony. It was the most common vehicle in East Germany, and was also exported to countries both inside and outside the Eastern Bloc. It was advertised as having room for four adults and luggage in a compact and durable shell; and being relatively fast. Due to its outdated and inefficient two-stroke engine (which produced poor fuel economy compared to its low power output and thick, smoky exhaust), and production shortages, the Trabant was regarded with derisive affection as a symbol of the extinct former East Germany and of the fall of the Eastern Bloc. This is because in former West Germany, many East Germans streamed into West Berlin and West Germany in their Trabants after the opening of the Berlin Wall in 1989. It was produced for nearly 30 years with almost no significant changes; 3,096,099 Trabants were produced in total. In Western nations, the Trabant's shortcomings are often written about for comedic effect. However, older models of the car have become popular imports among collectors in the US due to their low cost and easier import restrictions on antique vehicles. There are also clubs in Germany and elsewhere that heavily modify the cars with artistic paint schemes, additional mechanicals, modifications to the body and suspension, etc., as well as several instances of the cars being used for rally racing and other motorsport. == Overview == Meaning "satellite" or "companion" in German, the name was inspired by Soviet Sputnik. The cars are often referred to as the Trabbi or Trabi, pronounced in English. Due to the long waiting period between ordering a Trabant and actual delivery (in some cases, years), used Trabants would fetch higher prices than new ones. The people who finally received their own Trabant treated the car gently and were meticulous in maintaining and repairing it. The lifespan of an average Trabant was 28 years. There were four principal variants of the Trabant: *the P50, also known as the Trabant 500, produced 1957–1962 *the Trabant 600, produced 1962–1964 *the Trabant 601, produced 1963–1991 *the Trabant 1.1, produced 1990–1991 with a VW engine (making the "1.1" a slight misnomer) The engine for the 500, 600, and original 601 was a small two-stroke engine with two cylinders, giving the vehicle modest performance. Its curb weight was (~600 kg / 1100 pounds). At the end of production in 1989, the Trabant delivered 19 kW (26 horsepower) from a displacement. It took 21 seconds to accelerate from 0 to 100 km/h (62 mph) and had a top speed of 100 km/h (62 mph). There were two main problems with the engine: the smoky exhaust and the pollution it produced – nine times the hydrocarbons and five times the carbon monoxide emissions of the average European car of 2007. The fuel consumption was . Since the engine did not have an oil injection system, two-stroke oil had to be added to the fuel tank every time the car was filled up, at a 50:1 or 33:1 ratio of fuel to oil. Gas stations of the time, in countries where two-stroke engines were common, served premixed gas-oil mixture from the pump. Today, owners carry a container of two-stroke oil in the car for this purpose. Because the car lacked a fuel pump, the fuel tank had to be placed above the motor in the engine compartment so that fuel could be fed to the carburetor by gravity; a trade-off of this design was an increased fire risk in front-end accidents. Earlier models had no fuel gauge; a dipstick was inserted into the tank to determine how much fuel remained. The Trabant was a steel monocoque design with the roof, trunk lid, hood, fenders, and doors made of Duroplast. Duroplast was a hard plastic (similar to Bakelite) made of recycled materials: cotton waste from the Soviet Union and phenol resins from the East German dye industry. This made the Trabant the first car with a body made of recycled material 〔 and was partially responsible for the misconception that it was made of cardboard (it was dubbed ''Zwickauer Rennpappe'', i.e. "Zwickau racing cardboard"). The Trabant was the second car to use Duroplast, after the "pre-Trabant" P70 (Zwickau) model (1954–1959). Production of the Trabant reached 3.7 million vehicles on 30 April 1991. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「trabant」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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