MarkHindell's blog

Opaque Dome: A GRP replacement

his is Simon Frost's white KR200 lined up at Popham last weekend. My particular interest in this car was tweaked by the opaque replacement glass fibre dome that Simon explained was a temporary replacement for a cabrio hood that the previous owner had retained at the time Simon bought the car.

My own car was similarly equipped at the time I got it 20+ years ago. I forget whether transparent domes were even available at that time, but there was no way that I could have afforded one even if they were. So I stuck with the GRP replacement for a few years before opting for a cabrio hood conversion.

Martin McKeever's KR200

ome of you may well know Martin McKeever and his ever growing collection of microcars that includes, among others, a Berkley T60, Scootacar Mk1, a Goggomobil, Nobel 200, numerous Bond Minicars, and... a rather nice KR200. Having a large collection of cars is nice and all, but presents our man with the problems that he needs somewhere to keep them and, distressingly, he can only drive one at a time. The later is usually addressed by periodically roping in some friends to drive out for lunch or to visit something interesting. You can find the gory (somewhat more gory than usual actually) details of the most recent expedition at www.tinthing.net. The last time I drove this car it needed a bit of 'adjustment' to the brakes, but these days it's much more civilized and thanks to a rebuilt engine and one of Russell Church's B&Q table leg exhausts it goes rather well. My only slight quibble with this was that it fell off after a mile and a half ("hmmm, you really do need something to lock the exhaust nut you know").

ow this is more like it! After two miserable rotten summers we finally get some warm weather and the chance to sit outside a decent pub, have a drink and look at a TG500.

It seems to have been a long time since that's happened, and with domestic distractions putting a definite crimp in my 'schmitt activity recently it was nice to be able to sit out in daylight till after 10pm putting the world to rights. But before we got too engrossed in that I did remember to take a few photos of Mike Grossman's car, so here they are.

r so they say. This page has an article about the Aptera Typ-1e, a car which looks amazingly similar to the Fend2000, and it just goes to show that the design principles of microcars like the KRs and Fend's other vehicles are just too good to die. Any time the problem of fuel cost or supply bubbles up, from Suez in '56, the oil price shock of '73, or today's sky high petrol prices, the same question gets asked, "How to waste less fuel?", and the microcar principles again prove to be the answer — use a small, efficient engine in a light, aerodyamic body (isn't this obvious yet?).

urrah! I've just taken delivery of a smashing new set of interior trim for my KR200 from Joyce and Peter Darby. This set is grey with black piping, not, I'll concede, as per the original red, but I came to the conclusion that would stick with my non-origianal blue paint work rather than go for the red in which it left the factory. But, even if I don't follow through with this plan a grey interior will work with pretty much anything.

ere's an interesting picture. It appears in a German book belonging to Big Al which covers the history of the various vehicles produced by Fritz Fend and Messerschmitt. It contains lots of original publicity material and photos of the cars in use and also shots taken in the factory in Rosenheim and later Regensburg. However, this one stood out for two reasons; first, it's the only picture I've seen of KR200s actually under construction, and second, it's in colour.

Graham Taylor's KR200

robably the hottest day of the year so far today (I've not checked, but it seemed so to me) and not a cloud in the sky — perfect conditions for catching some photos of Messerschmitts. So, here are a few I took of Graham 'MEC Treasurer' Taylor's 1956 KR200.

This car is of particular interest to me as it is the same year of manufacture as my own TLF 845 and also because its colour is probably the same as that with which TLF 845 originally left the factory. I can't be sure - all that was left of the original colour was a few flecks on the firewall behind the wiring clips.

nd a month later, we had the opportunity of seeing Mike's new Carlos Fandango rear wheel fitted and working at the January club night at the Shire Horse on the A4 at Maidenhead — photos are courtesy of Tony. It was a bit dark, a bit late, and a bit cold, and since most folks present were already more than familiar with the nether regions of a KR200 we didn't dwell outside too long — after all, we were standing outside a perfectly good pub! However, the wider wheel certainly looked the part, and the much squarer tyre profile means much more contact with the road and, Mike reports, much better stability.

ith this Russell Church super wide wheel! Mike Grossman humped this along to our recent London/South East club evening so we could all have a nose at it. And jolly fine it is too, constructed from two separate rims welded together with laser cut holes in the centre plate for the hub and studs. Ought to take an eight inch tyre and won't use an inner tube. Since it appears that replacement rear wheels are hard to come by these days, if you need a wheel (and you really don't want to be driving on an iffy elderly rim as rear wheel/tyre failures can be very bad news indeed) you might want to get on to Russell and see if he's got any left.

Invisible mending for aluminium frames

ar back in the murky depths of prehistory (1986 to be precise) when I first bought my KR200 it was, so it turned out once money had changed hands, not a complete car after all but, in fact, a loosely related collection of components placed in a pile in order to look like a complete car. I have some aged photographs kicking about somewhere of the bits, once purchased and transported home, scattered all over the garden.