"That might have something to do only having two cylinders. An extra couple cylinders can do wonders for the smoothness of an engine, and for the sound it makes as well."
You've done a great job showing your ignorance of the 2-stroke cycle.
A two cylinder 2-stroke engine has the same smoothness of torque as a 4 cylinder - 4stroke engine. You're forgetting that in 2-stroke engines EVERY downstroke is a power stroke! and there are no wasteful strokes dedicated entirely to exhaust or intake.
"I can rebuild a 924 engine in two hours, and when I put it back together again, it will make more than 30hp! :P"
That may be so, but can you rebuild the engine while it's still in the car? Or change the head gasket in five minutes?
With the trabant, one never has to worry about burnt exhaust valves(gak!) or sticking valves (double gak!), out of adjustment valves, or any stupid poppet valves at all.
"You still have to mix the oil and the gas, every time you fill up."
It's easier to dump a couple quarts of oil into the gas tank, than it is to drain four quarts from the oil sump, replace an oil filter, make a mess, and have to refill the crankcase - over and over and over.
"I think Porsche is much more distinctive, given 50 years of breaking the sports car mold, again and again, with successively better models. The Trabant, on the other hand, falls in the same boat as the rest of the automotive monstrosities that should have never seen the light of day."
And here I thought these forums would be LESS yuppie than those at cartalk - what was I thinking?
If the trabant is bad, don't forget to throw all those other cars in there, like say the SAAB models 92-96, everything 2-stroke DKW made, the Honda N600 and N360, the Suzulight fronte.
In fact, just throw ALL front wheel drive cars in there, because every single one of them is related to the Trabant - through DKW of course.
The BMC mini is wrongly credited by many as being the first front wheel drive car with a transverse mounted engine - which is wrong. DKW mass produced the first front wheel drive cars with transverse engines, more than three decades before the mini ever saw the light of day.
Those DKW macines - they were 2-cylinder 2-stroke powered - like the Trabant - and are related closley. It's known that SAAB copied the prewar DKW design (after all the 92, was a 2-cylinder 2-stroke front wheel drive car) and that Honda and Suzuki too copied DKW with 2-cylinder front wheel drive cars (4-stroke engine for the honda).
The trabant is not a copy though, but a descendant of those original DKW cars, giving it an important and interesting place in Automotive history.
If I had the choice between a yuppie porsche and a Trabant, I'd take the trabant, it's funner to drive and gets more looks too.
Thanks.