Well, what is this machine?

Hi Dave,

it's a Messerschmitt Kr200 or a replica thereof.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messerschmitt_KR200

Some special kind of Vehicle that surely is.

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Saw it the otherday somewhere in town and the guy was just starting it up. It's definitely a 2-stroke and from the patina on the bodywork, looks like an original. Never got a close look or an opportunity to chat so could be wrong on the originality of it.

Sweet though.

Cheers,

Pikey.

 

You struck an interesting part of German history, David

The bubble car indeed was an after WW2 construction by Willy Messerschmidt who was not allowed to continue his famous aircrafts

http://www.aviation-history.com/messers ... 109f2s.jpg

This actually how the Germans experienced the new freedom

http://www.hackmaskate.net/blog/wp-cont ... -1958.jpeg

This "bubbles" were seen as far 2000km South of Germany as Sicily/Italy driven by the hunger for seeing new countries on vacation.

Willy Messerschmidt's company was integrated in MBB what today is Airbus Industries, his ideas living on in the A380

If you are interested this short summary of very colorful life which began 110 years ago read this

http://freespace.virgin.net/john.dell/b ... WMBio.html

I myself have been driving a BMW ISETTA, as my very first car. Not less funny, called the cuddle box.
Why Cuddle Box?

http://news.autocarpoint.co.nz/portals/ ... 6275_p.jpg

Well, while the GI's fed us with chewing gum and Lucky Strikes, and were driving huge Cevys, Cadi s. Buick s we had our fun in bubble cars. The Isetta had only one door , actually the whole front was the door. Attached to the door was the flexible steering wheel. When the door closed you would be sitting on one bench, wide enough to sit 3. No interrupted by anything because the gear box was attached the wall.
In fact plenty of space + the advantage that the window would fog-up after the first kiss because the Iseatta was so small.
Never had more fun in a car.

http://www.shannons.com.au/marques/marq ... 3LEVYI1EA1

David is was fun to go back to my own youth, seems like yesterday,
thanks for vivid memories

Pico

 

There was an original Mrs Smith :lol: kr200 at Khun Deang engineering shop near
Robinson about 12 months ago undergoing restoration/fabrication of new body parts.
Maybe the same one?
Amazing bit of gear tho!

 

I rode this Messerschmidt once, it was called "Kabinenroller", some friends of mine who worked on and collected old motorcycles like NSU Max, Maico a.s.o. and old cars had one. There are a lot of airplane parts in this car since this was the easiest and cheapest way to build a car after building planes. The one I drove had a real pilot's glass bubble as a roof which opened to the side, like a plane. Also the steering was no wheel but a just an axle with two grips for the hands; it took some getting used to since it took only about a quarter turn to lock the wheels from left to right. The noisy 200cc two-stroke was in the rear and gave the thing a go-cart feeling.
As mentioned by Pico-Pico there were quite a few interesting cars on the road in the fifties and even sixties, Germany still suffering after the war. Most people were riding motorcycles since cars were too expensive.
There was also the Goggo, a four-wheeled small car with a 250cc single in the rear. My grandfather had one, I rode often in it as a kid, my job was to turn the fuel cock on and off. When he sat in it, his feet were right behind the headlights. There was the LLoyd which had a 175cc two stroke engine in the front! BMW built the Isetta, a four wheeler but the rear wheels were close together so you wouldn't miss a pothole of which there were plenty. It used the R25 motorcycle engine. BMW also built cars with a 600 and 700cc boxer engine in the rear. There were lots of small brands that have long since disappeared, like NSU, DKW, Glas, Borgward and more.
It's amazing how quick things changed fom the sixties to the seventies, until now - VW started out with the Beetle and is building SUV with V10 engines now!