The East German car, Sachsenring Trabant or “Trabi” was famous for one thing: it was made from recycled cotton. Not the whole car mind you but just the exterior panels. The bad news was that the car was known to be noisy and smoked “..like an oilfield on fire.”
It was a happy accident. Wolfgang Barthel, the creator of the body panel was experimenting on different products to substitute for steel since the government couldn’t afford to purchase large quantities of the material.
Luckily, he was able to produce something that was strong, lightweight, and rust-free: the Duroplast. He then applied this to the steel frame of the car and voila! The Trabi came into existence.
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