01
Origins
The P50 of 1957 introduced the name Trabant — 'satellite', honouring Sputnik — and the formula East Germany would freeze for three decades: a tiny two-stroke twin driving the front wheels, and body panels of Duroplast, a resin stiffened with Soviet cotton waste, hung on a steel shell. The material solved a real problem — the DDR lacked sheet steel — and resisted rust better than the West's products, whatever the jokes later claimed. With around 18 horsepower the P50 was slow even by 1957's standards, but it was a genuine people's car in a state with few, and demand instantly outran the Zwickau plant's capacity, beginning the years-long waiting lists that became folklore. The improved P60 followed, then in 1964 the 601 — the shape the world would come to know.
Trabant · Torsten Maue · CC BY 2.0
