Trabant 601 car history

Manufacturer:	VEB
Production period:	1964 to1990
Class :	Motor car
Body versions :	Limousine , station wagon ,ATV
Engines:	Gasoline 0.6 liter

The Trabant 601 was the third and most widely used model of the Trabant series produced in the GDR . It was built under the type designation P 601 from 1964 to 1990 at Sachsenring automobile works Zwickau , the engine was produced in the Barkas factory .

Trabant 601 history

The Trabant 601 sedan was produced as a two-door from 1964 in series; the three-door combination car "Universal" replaced the Trabant 600 "Kombi" from September 1965 . From 1967 the "bucket (601 A + F)" was produced - it served mainly as a military version for the NVA , the GST and the forestry administration as Kübelwagen . Zivil ("Tramp") this was hardly seen in the GDR, because he was mainly for export to places including to Greece .

With  improvements have been made regularly during this series of Trabant, but the body and vehicle technology essentially unchanged. The concept became obsolete during its production and was no longer in demand by socialist fraternal states at the latest in the 1980s. Efforts to serialize the successor types 603 and 610 were blocked by the political side. 

A license agreement with VW in 1984 eventually led to the installation of a four-stroke engine in the form of the type 1.1 , but only in 1990 went into series. 

The Trabant 601 was not a new vehicle model, but the provisional final stage of development of the P-50 basic pattern The program of our vehicle industry provides for a gradual development of the P 50, which is expressed in that after improving the seating conditions, the synchromesh was introduced, followed by the 600 cc engine and later built on the basic skeleton of the P 50, room-improved body will connect. At the same time, introducing these improvements as a new vehicle under the given conditions would be wrong and economically unacceptable.

In early 1963, the Trabant 601 first presented to the public. roduction started in January 1964 with the initial batch, on 1 March 1964, he was first officially presented to the international public. In June 1964, the production began.The body of the internally as P 601 vehicle was designated - / as compared to the Type P 50 P 60  - especially the front and changed on the roof. Their outer shape corresponded to the trapeze line, a fashion design of the 1960s.Similarity exists with the Peugeot 404 and the triumph Herald .  Because of the wide and flat acting body was the Trabant 601 at the time press GDR referred to as a vehicle with "modern design". The large front and rear windows and good visibility were praised. Nevertheless, the Trabant was 601 only a "old car in a new package," which in addition to the old technology, the disadvantages of the predecessor had (such as the high noise level).

The engine was still initially 17 kW (23 hp). As of February 10, 1969 the P offered 601 19.1 kW (26 hp) engine power and had to from now on with 88-octane gasoline to operate, in 1974, the engine came with needle bearings connecting rods , a mixed lubrication of 1: 50 enabled. The two-stage gasifier type 28 H 1-1 with pressure point in the accelerator pedal was from 1984, the fuel consumption by about 1 l / are km decreased 100, he lay in the test average of 6.9 l mixture 1: 50, the maximum speed of the tested Sedan was measured in this test with 107 km/h.Until 1990, the Trabant 601 no longer featured any significant innovations.  Due to the lack of modernization and the production technology has not been developed further, leading over time to wear out the machinery and a constant work process. Nevertheless, the Trabant was further bought because there were few alternatives - the waiting time for a Trabant 601 was in 1988, fifteen years.

On December 30, 1966, the VEB Sachsenring Automobilwerke Zwickau officially received the contract to develop a successor to the Trabant 601. Under the direction of Werner Lang , the P 603 was developed as a potential 601 successor from which various prototypes were built, including Škoda four-stroke engine and Wankel engine . The P 603 had a tubular frame and, like the Trabant 601, a plastic body. It did not come to mass production, possibly for reasons of economic policy. 1968, the development of the Wankel engine was discontinued unsuccessful.Since it became clear that the GDR would be unable to develop a successor for the Trabant 601 on its own, it came in the early 1970s to cooperate with Škoda, which was canceled in 1979 for financial reasons. 

The Trabant is a two-axle vehicle with self-supporting body and independent suspension. It has a platform frame welded to a zinc phosphated sheet steel frame . This frame is covered with thermoset body parts made of short cotton fibers ( Linter ) reinforced phenolic resin. In Trabantwerk all thermoset body parts were made in presses and cut by hand with a band saw. Then they were connected by gluing, screwing and folding with the steel skeleton. The total mass of the Duroplastteile a Trabant body is 32 kg.  The Trabant, there was basically a two-door (sedan, tubs) and as a three-door model (Universal).

The front axle of the Trabant is provided with a transverse leaf spring, the front wheels are suspended at the top of the transverse leaf spring and at the bottom of wishbones.  They are driven by drive shafts with tripod inner joint. Rear is a pendulum axle (" installed with rubber-mounted triangular wings and transverse leaf springs, from April 1988 coil springs were used instead of the leaf springs. Both axles are dampened with telescopic shock absorbers, Because of this suspension especially the rear wheels were at a low, and even at almost full payload angle. It was therefore recommended to replace the wheels (including the spare wheel) every 5000 km according to a set schedule on the vehicle in order to achieve the most uniform tire wear possible. The satellite has disk wheels with four-hole division, at which wheels the size 4J × × 13H J35-2 are mounted. The 13-inch standard tires have the dimensions 5.2-13 or 145 SR 13. The brake system is a hydraulic dual-circuit brake with brake drums whose diameter is 200 mm. The handbrake of the Trabant acts mechanically on the rear wheels. Steering is a rack and pinion steering . 

The transmission is a four-speed gearbox. The engine transmits the power to the transmission via a single-disc dry clutch . The Trabant's P65 / P66 engine is an air-cooled, two-cylinder, two-stroke gasoline engine with an inlet rotary valve . With a cylinder bore of 72 mm and a piston stroke of 73 mm, the engine has a total stroke of 594.5 cc . It is installed transversely to the direction of travel in the Trabant, has a crankshaft mounted in ball bearings and needle-bearing connecting rods, and weighs about 54 kg. He is going through mixture lubricationlubricated and cooled by a V-belt driven axial fan. In order to roughly regulate the temperature of the intake air, the intake pipe could be turned 180 ° forwards in the cold season towards the warm engine environment and exhaust system. A Type 28 H1-1 horizontal flow gasifier prepares the mixture. It is ignited by type M 14-225 spark plugs , ignition system is EBZA-2 H electronic battery ignition system . For cold starts, there is a hand-operated choke cable. The fuel enters the carburetor as white spirit. The fuel cock is located on the bulkhead in the footwell of the passenger. To convert the cock to "reserve" while driving a deep bending down of the driver in the area in front of the passenger seat, the view of the traffic for seconds was completely lost.

The three-phase alternator (type 8042.421 / 6 ) of the Trabant is driven by the V-belt from the crankshaft. The 6-volt systems had an alternator with 220 W power and a lead-acid accumulator 6 V / 56 Ah. The starter for 6 V and 12 V systems is a push-screw drive starter with a rating of 600 W. The energy storage unit is a 12 V lead battery with 38 Ah. The H4 halogen headlights have a light emission diameter of 170 mm.  6V version had 40/45 W Bilux lamps installed.

Emissions

The clearly visible and smelling hydrocarbons ( aerosols , secondary aerosols from aromatics  as well as fresh gas losses including benzene ) are emitted by the Trabant 601 about 30 times as strongly as in a comparable four-stroke engine . Of the nitrogen oxides (NO _x ) emitted the Trabant thanks to the lower combustion temperature only one tenth compared to a similar small four-stroke engine without a catalyst.  The carbon monoxide Emission (CO) is within the current limits and thus also far below that of a comparable four-stroke engine without catalyst. In the years of political change, there were numerous efforts to develop a catalytic converter for the Trabant 601. Because of the uneconomic price and their technical immaturity, however, such two-stroke Kats were hardly installed.

Safety and Crash test.

In 1990/91, much was debated about the safety of the Trabant, which may be so unreasonable that it needs to be phased out as quickly as possible. Eventually, Allianz crash tests provided clarity. The Trabant 601 does not deform more than a VW Polo I in a frontal collision , and the stability of the passenger compartment complies with international regulations. Since the crumple zone in the Trabant is affected by rapidly splintering plastic parts in their effectiveness, the kinetic energy can hardly be converted into deformation energy and therefore acts abruptly on the occupants. This leads in particular to high values ​​in the head acceleration (significantly above 100 g). With headrests, the vehicles were equipped as standard only from the mid-1980s. Furthermore, the two-door thermoset body (ignition temperature: 800 ° C) and the front mounted tank pose an increased risk in vehicle fires. 

Technical specifications

• Engine type:Two-cylinder gasoline engine, two-stroke
• Engine capacity: 594.5 cc
• Bore × stroke:72 mm × 73 mm
• Maximum power:23 hp to 26 hp
• Engine cooling: Air cooled
• Transmission: Four-speed gearbox
• Length:3555-3560 mm
• Width:1504-1510 mm
• Height:1437 mm
• Wheelbase :2020 mm
• Curb weight :610-650 kg
• Top speed: 98 km/h