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Father of the Trabant Dies at 91

Dr. Werner Lang, the man behind the small and popular Trabant 601 two-door vehicle built in East Germany back in the 1960s, died at the age of 91 after suffering a heart attack at his home in Zwickau.
Trabant 601 station wagon 1 photo
Introduced in 1962 as an update to the initial P50, the Trabant 600 was engineered by Lang, who later upgraded the "limousine" with the 601 model, which was kept in production until 1991.

The 3,360 mm (132.3 inches) long vehicle was available as a two-door sedan and two-door station wagon and took its juice from a 600cc two-cylinder two-stroke engine. A new 1.0-liter VW Polo-sourced unit was added in 1989. Initially, the Trabant 601 has only 26 HP and could rach 100 km/h (62 mph) from a standing start in a "lightning-fast" 21 seconds, while top speed was rated at 112 km/h (70 mph).

Although it was one of the poorest vehicles ever built, being noisy and polluting, the Trabant 601 became quite popular in communist Germany, where very few cars were available at the time. 3.7 million examples were sold until April 1991, when production was finally axed. Some of these Trabants can still be spotted in ex-communist countries.

Story via Hemmings
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About the author: Ciprian Florea
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Ask Ciprian about cars and he'll reveal an obsession with classics and an annoyance with modern design cues. Read his articles and you'll understand why his ideal SUV is the 1969 Chevrolet K5 Blazer.
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