Quick! How many cars can you think of that you could purchase with either a 2- or 4-stroke engine? Anybody? DKW had a 3=6, which became the Auto Union 1000, but that stuck with the two-stroke formula. Citroen’s 2CV looks like it should have a two-stroke, and various Soviet-bloc cars did have two-strokes. In the late 1980s, Trabant and Wartburg started installing VW 4-cylinder engines in their cars, but Saab pioneered the approach of putting a 4-stroke in the home of a 2-stroke in 1967, with candidates vying for a place behind the airplane badge including the Volvo B18 (sacrilege!), the Ford V4 (meh), Triumph 1300 (foreshadowing!), Lancia V4 (philosophically closest), Hillman/Climax, as well as engines from Volkswagen and Opel. The final winner was the Taunus V4 engine, so if you don’t mind an ordinary powerplant in an extraordinary car, try out this 1972 Saab 96, for sale for $3950 in Hobe Sound, FL.
Rusty But Trusty 