On Thu, 11 May 2017 16:17:36 -0700 (PDT), wrote:

On Thursday, 11 May 2017 22:27:52 UTC+1, T i m wrote:
On Thu, 11 May 2017 19:43:42 +0100, Chris J Dixon
wrote:

snip

Then there was the heater designed so that, if it was going to
stick, it would do so fully on.

The heater on my Messerschmitt KR200 is a jacket wrapped round the
exhaust manifold-downpipe. Heat up time was nearly instant, as would
be death if there was an exhaust leak. ;-(



Sounds fun.

It is / was (I still have it but haven't driven it in years).

A mate and I both had one (well, he had two) and they were 'just
transport' for us at the time. So they were serviced, for what there
was of it (changed the gearbox oil (it was a 2/), checked the brakes,
did the plug and points as soon as we noticed any drop in
'performance' g but that was about it) and both sported plenty of
primer and signs of 'work in progress'.

But, we were young, they were quite agile / nippy compared with
conventional cars and so we would generally have fun in them. [1]

Once, the mate was in the back and we were doing a rat-run in what
I'll call a 'spirited fashion' and I commented on how good it was to
have a passenger that knew what he was doing. At that he thought it
would be 'fun' to sit on the wrong side on the next corner and we
found ourselves up on two wheels.

On that, he lean his spare 'Schmitt' to his mate who had it a week and
rolled it (no harm to him from the rolling, only from my mate). ;-(

So, when we went to the 'International Messerschmitt Rally' in
Northants, he and I came joint first (out of 50 or so) in the driving
agility event because we both drove like that every day. ;-)

Had there been a prize for the 'scruffiest cars at the show' we would
have one that too. ;-)

Safety was never a feature of microcars though.

No, you are right there, as I found out once when in some slowish
moving traffic, the car in front stopped really quickly (for no
obvious reason [2]) and I couldn't stop in time (6" drum brakes all
round). There was no real damage to him (metal 'bumpers' in those
days') but I had a bumper depth crease across the nose of my Schmitt
that just fouled my toes as I used the pedals!

But I went all over the place in it, including on holiday with my
girlfriend at the time and even towing a lightweight trailer I'd made
for it and at the time, considered it safer than being on my
motorbike. shrug

Cheers, T i m

[1] Even with the drivers seat out, it was nearly impossible to have
any 'back seat' fun in it, as my girlfriend and I found out.

[2] After he had checked his car for damage and found none he smiled
and confirmed why we had both lost concentration for a second ...
'That was a *very* short skirt wasn't it ...' weg

(The irony of that story was a few weeks later, a woman in a car drove
into the back of me (again, in slow moving traffic, no real damage to
either vehicle) and she confessed she was distracted by 'looking in
the gas showroom window'. g).