PA
The Trabant (above) was a symbol of the former German Democratic Republic: before the fall of the Berlin Wall and reunification, East Germans waited for years to take delivery of these odd little two-stroke economy cars with their resin-reinforced cardboard body panels.
As such, the Trabant is an unlikely candidate for a comeback, but many East Germans still hold it in great affection - and now a model-making company based in Zwickau, home to the original Trabant factory, has bought the rights to revive it.
The new-age Trabant nT won't have a smelly two-stroke oil-burner, nor the Duraplast body panels: it's intended to be an electric vehicle, with a 45kW motor, lithium-ion batteries and roof-mounted solar panels.
The exterior styling and familiar outline are little changed, however, and the nT will be the very definition of retro Communist chic. Production is planned for 2012, if sufficient investment capital is found: dig deep, if you want to see the Trabi back on the road.
Much-maligned before the onset of Ostalgia, the Trabant wasn't the only automotive horror - or indeed, unsung wonder - lurking behind the Iron Curtain. We look back at 10 Eastern Bloc bangers which we reckon are ripe for a revival.
Images of the Soviet Union from Bing
