Micro Survivor: 1955 Messerschmitt KR200
This little Messerschmitt is claimed to have been purchased from the original owner’s estate. There’s 22k miles on the odometer and that is totally believable considering what these are. That actually seems high for one of these. Unlike other Messerschmitts we have featured though this one appears to be in great shape. So if you are in the market for one of these oddball bubble tops, this may be the one to get. You’d better hurry though because the eBay auction ends soon. Just because it’s small doesn’t mean it’s cheap.
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Comments
Neat little car but I’m pretty sure I don’t want to share the road in it with all the distracted, cell phone addicted drivers we have out there. Think of this against a loaded cement mixer. I’m a little concerned in my full size F150 4X4.
Hard to believe this thing has been driven 22k miles but stranger things have happened.
Who? Why? Scary just looking at the size of it. Seems like a vehicle some modern day scooters would get the best of in an accident.
Mike and Ed completely redid one and got 25,000 lbs. for it. They even made custom wheel covers and replaced the bubble top with a brand new one. Ed could drive it from the rear seat.
Used to drive a ’53 KR175 in High School back in 61, the previous model to the one here (or 175cc vs 200cc). Yes, it can be a lil’ daunting when you look out the side window at almost any car next to you , including most MG’s, and all you see is their door handle, but was still a blast to drive with a top speed of 70mph, and even w/o a reverse gear, still OK, as I just got out, picked up the rear, ‘n spun it around. The 175 had more of an aircraft windshield look; I had it transported to CO when I was in the Service, made a great lil’ Base car runabout, ‘n the WAF’s wanted to ride in it too.
Here’s a pic of a couple of my friends fooling around. :)
Would have loved to have had a Messerschmitt when I was in high school. Sadly neither a KR175 nor a KR200 was available let alone (attention Richard Lewis) the “Holy Grail” of Messerschmitt’s a Tg500.
There appears to be a top speed typo. The factory claim for the KR175 was 90 kph (54 mph), KR200 was 100 kph (62 mph) and Tg500 130 kph (81 mph). Although these are listed in Hanns Peter Rosellen’s Deutsche Kleinwagen it is noted that fixed highway speed for a KR175 is 70 kph (44 mph). And the Swiss published “Catalogue Number 1961 of Automobile Revue” notes with an asterisk that the KR200 & Tg500 top speeds, as above, are those claimed by the manufacturer. If I have time tomorrow I’ll search my files for a contemporary road test or two. Think I remember the Tg500 reaching a top of 65/67 mph.
For comparative purposes The Autocar managed a 54 mph top speed with the 1957 Goggomobile T300 sedan. In 1959 they clocked 59.5 mph with the TS400 coupé. In 1959 the Australian magazine, Sports Car World recorded 61.5 mph with the light weight fibreglass 300 cc Goggomobil Dart.
Since Jamie and Jessie have a certain fixation on…er love…for all things Triumph what could be better than a “Battle of Britain test: Spitfire versus Messerschmitt” by way of The Telegraph in the UK. Enjoyable read, but the £50,000 value of the Tg500 in 2010 is a snippet compared to today’s six figure prices.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/classiccars/7952174/Battle-of-Britain-test-Spitfire-versus-Messerschmitt.html
Thanks for the article link, James, but I’ll take my light blue Spit any day :-) And I’m living proof that you can survive a head-on crash in a Spitfire (and it wasn’t low speed, either). I wouldn’t have made it in the Messerschmitt…
CORRECTION: Per contemporary road test Top Speed of Tg500 is 75 – 77 mph. 0 – 50 time 16 seconds; 0 -60 mph 27 seconds.
A 1973 (2nd quarter issue) Automobile Quarterly test of a KR200 garnered a top speed of 52 mph. They list the speeds in gears as: 1st “good for 12 – 15 mph; 2nd “up to 30; 3rd, “the gear you’re likely to spend most of the time in, up to about 45.”
On the positive side if you’re in a wreck your family doesn’t have to worry about buying a casket; you’re in one already!
This is neat, but is it just me or do they bear a resemblance to Cogsworth from Beauty and the Beast? Don’t judge, I raised two daughters alone… the picture won’t post but Google it, you’ll see it.
The Holy Grail of collector Microcars is the BMW Isetta and the Messerschmitt KR200. Reverse gear is accessed by starting the 2 stroke engine backwards with an alternate set of points. That means you have 4 speeds and 50+MPH capability in reverse. My replica Schmitt is pictured here in the March Air Museum.
Richard, link to your replica source please…thanks
Richard’s Replica Messerschmitt was made by a company named Tri Tech. I believe they are no longer in production. Richard sold his car a while back to a friend of mine in Illinois, he has since relocated and the car now lives in Florida.
I drove this replica and it is much faster than my original cars, but the original cars have that certain feel that cannot be duplicated with a replica.
Have your Lots-o’-laughs; but I’d wager thousands of “demobbed” British guys would gladly have traded their m/c’s-and-sidecars for a Messerschmitt in 1945 when they started to build families, and had few pence to start the return to civilian life. (Incidentally, in 1956, on a two-month trip through GB, I kept a notebook with the names of every distinct car brand I encountered. When I left the fabled Isles, the list was over 300. And yes, our kleine freunde above was one of ’em!) (Apologies to Teutons; my second language is French, not Deutsch!)
Another flipper gets lucky! My dad wouldn’t allow me to get any of the micro cars back then for safety reasons. Motorcycles were OK! Who knew? For Micro fans, check out the new Microlino; a Swiss update on the Isetta, but with an electric motor. You’ll be surprised!
I had the same thought about safety. All the comments about little protection in an accident—I’ll bet a large percentage of those commenters have, or have had, motorcycles, which offer NO protection at all.
This looks like a nice mostly original ’55 deluxe car that was imported on the West Coast. (Ram horn bumper on rear) I see it did not meet reserve, I am sure someone will step up and this car will find a good home. A perfect example of an early deluxe car can bring 45k plus. These cars have been discovered by the collector world in the last five years so the prices will never go down. A TG500 even in marginal condition will bring 150k (Bonhams, Montery auction 2015)
The 2016 Hilton Head Island Concours d’Elegance will have a class dedicated to all models of Messerschmitt. (Including FMR)
Oh how this pains me. Especially since they were virtually a dime a dozen in Germany in the mid-60’s! With the rebuilding of the W. German society and infrastructure by the early 60’s, people were afraid to take such tiny cars out on the Autobahn (for good reason) and were trading them in for bigger, faster wheels. You could find them lined up on the back lots of new car dealerships, along with Isettas, Gogomobiles and etc. for almost nothing. :-( For GI car freaks (like me), this was like a free pass to the automotive chocolate factory, since our POV’s didn’t have to meet the strict German vehicle codes. Another reason to build that time machine.
Very clean Messerschmitt.