ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS: What was the last car to have a two-stroke engine?

By Charles Legge

Published: 11:19 AEDT, 8 October 2024 | Updated: 11:58 AEDT, 8 October 2024

23

View
comments

QUESTION: What was the last car to have a two-stroke engine?

As strict Western emissions standards were developed, two-stroke models were phased out. 

However, this was not the case in the Eastern Bloc, where cheaply built polluters such as the Wartburg and Trabant pootled about in size­-able numbers until the late 1980s.

A two-stroke engine holds some advantages for a car: it’s simple, completing a power cycle in two strokes of the piston (one up, one down) and one crankshaft revolution. It is also light, cheap and can produce a lot of power for its size.

As strict Western emissions standards were developed, two-stroke models were phased out. However, this was not the case in the Eastern Bloc, where cheaply built polluters such as the Wartburg and Trabant pootled about in size­-able numbers until the late 1980s

Four-stroke engines complete a power cycle in four strokes of the piston (intake, compression, power and exhaust), requiring two crankshaft revolutions. 

While more ­complex, they are also more fuel­efficient and emissions-friendly.The two-stroke Saab 96 boasted an 841cc three-cylinder engine and was discontinued in Europe in 1967. 

Japanese two-strokes lasted longer; the Subaru Rex and Mitsubishi Minica converted to four-stroke engines in 1973 and the Daihatsu Fellow Max in 1976.

In Eastern Europe the two-stroke engine persisted. The Syrena was a popular Polish model produced until 1983, and the boxy East ­German Wartburg 353 (the ‘Knight’) was manufactured until 1988.

Q: Was London ever considered a Hanseatic city?

Alan Fry, Pembroke

Q: What are the origins of Margate’s extraordinary Shell Grotto?

Robert Mace, Christchurch, Dorset

Q: Who provided the first 24-hour news service?

Lesley Payne, Leeds

The winner was East Germany’s Trabant 601. Perhaps the most maligned car of its time, it was ­nevertheless staggeringly successful. 

It was a very basic model, with its lightweight Duroplast bodywork, made from resin strengthened with wool or cotton. 

More than 2.8 million vehicles were produced between 1963 and 1991. All were powered by a 594cc two-cylinder two-stroke which was a positive dinosaur by the time the last vehicle rolled off the assembly line.

Will Anderson, Blackburn, Lancs

QUESTION: Why is the Jamaican village Me-No-Sen-You-No-Come so called?

In west-central Jamaica, there is an approximately 500 square-mile expanse of rainforest known as Cockpit Country. 

This rugged part of the island has a vast array of steep hills, limestone caves and treacherous pits and sinkholes.

The last of these were dubbed ‘cockpits’ by the British because they reminded them of the cockpit in the lower deck of a warship where the wounded were taken.

This terrain was once the hideout of the Maroons, the name given to runaway slaves (likely derived from the Spanish ‘cimarron’, meaning ‘wild’ or ‘untamed’).

 The Maroons fled to the hills during the British invasion and conquest of Jamaica in 1665, and from there they waged guerrilla war.

The region adopted names that reflected the inhabitants’ behaviour towards their enemies. 

The area was known as The Land of Look Behind because Spanish horsemen were said to have ridden two to a mount, one rider facing the rear as a lookout.

The village of Quickstep got its name after Maroons were forced to move fast when the Europeans attacked. 

Me-No-Sen-You-No-Come translates as ‘If I don’t send for you, don’t come’, reflecting the community’s attitude towards outsiders.

A community of approximately 5,000 still inhabits Cockpit Country, where they retain semi-autonomous control over the land.Maria Reid, Hornchurch, Essex

QUESTION: Have any bands debuted with a live album?

The Yardbirds’ first LP (released in 1964) was entitled Five Live Yardbirds and recorded at the Marquee Club in Wardour Street, London. 

It is the earliest released recording of Eric Clapton. The debut album by John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers was entitled John Mayall Plays John Mayall and was recorded live at Klooks Kleek in London’s West Hampstead. 

It was released in 1965. By the time of ­Mayall’s second album the following year, Clapton had left the Yardbirds and joined the Bluesbreakers.Georgie Fame & The Blue Flames’ debut was Rhythm And Blues At The Flamingo (another club in ­Wardour Street), recorded in 1963.

There are various reasons for the plethora of live albums from 1960s R&B bands such as these — a live recording was quick and relatively cheap, the band did not have to come off the road for three or four days in the studio, and usually they just played better live.

John Holmes, Lymington, HantsMC5 were progenitors of punk and metal music in the U.S. The band were known for their wild, anti-establishment live act. 

Rather than try to capture their on-stage energy in a studio, MC5 opted to record their first album during a live ­concert on home turf, Detroit’s Grande Ballroom.

 Although the resulting album, 1969’s Kick Out The Jams, only peaked at No 30 in the U.S., it is now regarded as one of the great rock ’n’ roll albums.

Gary Thompson, Malpas, Cheshire

Published by Associated Newspapers Ltd

Part of the Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday & Metro Media Group