On November 7, 1957, the first phenolic-cotton composite bodied car rolled off the assembly line in Zwickau, East Germany. When the  Trabant factory closed its doors, and the last Trabi rolled off its assembly line in 1991, it had produced over 3 million cars, making it, for better or for worse, an East German symbol. Today, only 50,000 of the two-stroke engine Trabants roll on Germany’s roads, primarily in the east, and there is renewed talk about reviving this nostalgic cult vehicle.