The Wartburg engineers developed several four-stroke versions, none of which were accepted for series production. In 1972 a four-stroke inline-four of 1.6 litres producing was developed, but the political leadership cancelled the project in favor of a facelift. A slack in demand abroad was compensated for by rising demand within East Germany, made possible by wage increases. In the early eighties, as two-strokes were becoming harder and harder to sell, the technical team developed a four-stroke version of the 993 cc three-cylinder unit. In spite of good performance in tests, this too remained stillborn.