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Trabant - The Trabant is an automobile produced by former East German auto maker VEB Sachsenring Automobilwerke Zwickau in Zwickau, Sachsen. It was the most common vehicle in East Germany, and was also exported to countries both inside and outside the communist bloc. The main selling points were that it had room for four adults and luggage, and was compact, light and durable. Despite its mediocre performance and smoky two-stroke engine embracing the ultimate engineering simplicity, the car has come to be regarded with affection as a symbol of the more positive sides of former East Germany and of the fall of communism (in former West Germany, as many East Germans streamed into West Berlin and West Germany in their Trabants after the opening of the Berlin Wall in 1989). For advocates of capitalism it is often cited as an example of the disadvantages of centralized planning[citation needed]. It was in production without any significant change for nearly 30 years with over 3.000.000 cars made. The ultimate engineering design allowed for repairs in very improvized conditions. Beyond any proverbs, this car could be repaired with a hammer, pliers and a piece of wire, which made it an ultimate competitor to vehicles with advanced design.
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Trabant has for its particularly archaic look and unique two-stroke engine sound become a beloved toy amongst car tuning community in central Europe.
First stream miticulously prevents the two-stroke engine sound, while either tuning the original two cylinder engine to higher performance or uses two-stroke propulsion unit of other cars e.g. 1000ccm Wartburg. Since the car is very lightweighted (approx. 750kg), a small increase in engine power can rapidly increase its weigth to HP ration, giving it remarkable boost.
Second group goes beyond the sentimental sounds and alters starting from engine swap to completely upgrading the traction of Trabant leaving only the chassis to hide a modern powerful car underneath e.g. VW Lupo GTI of Sascha Fiss. The perplexed effect of being overtaken by post-modern Trabi above 150 km/h is worth all the effort.
Some cars with supercharged implants have rated power over 150HP, which including its light weight gives them performance of drag cars 5kg/HP.
It has become an established tradition in central Europe that Trabant fan clubs organize annual meetings to introduce new increments in their collections.
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Personally i think that Trabant was a great car , easy to handle , it was not so speedy i think that he can reach maximum speed of 120km\h but still .... at his time it was a beautifull car :)