The story
History
On 15 January 1957 the Messerschmitt cabin scooters passed to a new company at the old works in Regensburg. Fahrzeug- und Maschinenbau GmbH Regensburg, FMR, belonged to the designer Fritz Fend and the industrialist Valentin Knott, and the car on this page was its first new model of its own.source 1 Willy Messerschmitt, one of the aircraft makers who had turned to cars, had to give up vehicle building when he returned to state aircraft work.source 1 In the Weiner museum’s account, Fend set out in the summer of 1957 to build a “super Karo”, a car that would beat his three-wheeled Messerschmitt KR200 in every respect, above all in speed and handling.source 2
The engine came off a shelf. Fichtel & Sachs, which had supplied the cabin scooters’ engines for years, had drawings for a 400 cc two-stroke twin meant as a stationary engine; it was enlarged to 494 cc and given a four-speed gearbox with reverse.source 2 auto motor und sport put it precisely: designed by Fichtel & Sachs, built and fitted under the FMR name, so the sources that call it a Sachs engine and those that call it an FMR engine are both right.source 3 It gave 19.9 PS (14.6 kW) on paper, roughly double the KR200’s power.source 3source 4
The factory judged that a single driven rear wheel could not take 20 PS, so the new car got two, on independent swing axles and wishbones with hydraulic struts.source 3 The H-pattern gearbox had a proper reverse, where the KR200 backed up by running its engine the other way; the brakes became hydraulic; the headlamps grew; the wheels were 10-inch.source 3source 5 The Weiner museum adds larger front suspension arms and an adjustable rear subframe, which it calls “Formula One-style”.source 2 The fuselage, the Plexiglas canopy, the tandem seats and the direct steering bar stayed.source 3source 1
Tiger, then Tg
The Weiner museum says Fend presented the car in September 1957 “to sensational acclaim”, but the magazine’s issues from that autumn are not online and the show has not been confirmed.source 2 In January 1958 auto motor und sport reported that “Der Fend Tiger” would get a 500 cc Fichtel & Sachs twin and be built in series in the near future.source 6 In March it stood at the Geneva Salon among the small cars, alongside the Goggomobil, the Frisky and the Bianchina.source 7
By May it had lost its name. The magazine headed its report “Der umgetaufte Tiger”, the renamed Tiger: the car was “at first Tiger”, but because the trademark had other owners it was now only the Tg 500.source 3 The Weiner museum, the owners’ club and German Wikipedia all name the owner as Krupp, which used animal names for its lorries, though no primary source for that has been found.source 2source 8source 1 The Weiner museum offers Tourenfahrzeug-Geländesport, touring vehicle and cross-country sport, as what “Tg” “supposedly” meant; Carl Wagner, writing in 1973, says it unofficially stood for Tiger.source 2source 5 Everyone called it the Tiger anyway.source 3source 8
Nor could the type name carry “Messerschmitt”, by German Wikipedia’s account, and the car wore a diamond-shaped FMR badge.source 1source 9 But the press of 1958 still filed it with the family: the magazine’s price list put the Tg 500 under “Messerschmitt”, and its test called it the four-wheeled type of the Messerschmitt Kabinenroller.source 10source 3 So the honest description is FMR-built and FMR-badged, sold as part of the Messerschmitt family, and “Messerschmitt Tiger” is a period usage, not only a dealer’s label.
In May 1958 only a pre-series of 20 cars existed, driven by dealers, and series production was to start in July. The works was building about 22 Kabinenroller a day and hoped, in time, to build as many Tigers. The magazine praised FMR’s management as rational and careful, and set its cautious production policy against what it called the euphoric planning common at the time; the firm shared as many parts as it could between the two cars to keep costs bearable.source 3
A driving machine
The tester had a long drive in a pre-series car with a factory-new engine. He began by admitting the sceptics’ fear, that a tiny, narrow and extraordinarily agile “road flea” with the performance of an Opel Rekord might seem made for reckless suicides, and then took it apart. Visibility, the asymmetric dipped headlamps and the brakes were very good; body roll was barely noticeable; and the car would slide long before it would tip, so that he trusted it in corners straight away.source 3
„Der Tiger ist eine ausgesprochene Fahrmaschine, die nicht den Anspruch darauf erhebt, ein Kleinwagen im landläufigen Sinne zu sein.“
He called it practically a single-seat racer with room for a passenger, and found its nearest relative in the motorcycle and sidecar: as agile, but with full weather protection, symmetrical handling and about 8 PS less needed for the same speed than a heavy sidecar outfit. He also likened it to Neumann-Neander’s Fahrmaschinen of the 1930s. The gearbox was geared for hard driving and fourth could be used only from 55 km/h (34 mph); the box was scratchy and had to be stirred firmly. Above 100 km/h (62 mph) the extremely direct steering wanted a calm hand, and bumps came through the bar as hard little knocks. The body worked noticeably in torsion, though the factory’s tests supported its promise that it would last, and the front springing needed refining for long runs on the Autobahn.source 3
The brochure promised nearly 130 km/h. On a brand-new engine the tester saw a little under 110 km/h (68 mph) and thought about 120 certainly possible. The magazine also reported that the engine really gave 21.2 PS at 4,350 rpm, more than its rating.source 3 Wagner later noted that the centre of gravity sat at the rear seat, so the handling was the same with a passenger or without.source 5 The list of minuses was frank.
„Der Tiger ist hart gefedert, laut, eng, der Beifahrer weiß nicht recht, wohin er seine Füße stecken soll, es klappert und dröhnt nun einmal in einem solchen Kabinchen, und soziales Ansehen ist damit nicht zu gewinnen.“
Unlike the KR200 it could not pass as an economical utility vehicle, and anyone who wanted a sensible utility car at that price was, as the tester put it, not at the right address. For the right enthusiast it was a car to love.source 3
DM 3,650
The price list of 1958 gave DM 3,650 for the Tg 500 against DM 2,395 for a KR200 Kabinenroller or a KR201 Roadster, about half as much again.source 10 For about DM 3,700, the tester pointed out, a buyer could have a Fiat Nuova 500 Standard with an Abarth kit that would top 100 km/h, a Fiat 500 Luxus, the quick Goggomobil Coupé 400 or a four-seat Lloyd Alexander, all small cars whose practical value naturally far exceeded the Tiger’s.source 3 German Wikipedia gives DM 3,725 for 1961, and says the high price meant that only a few were built.source 1
Developed as a proper sports car but with an underdeveloped motor, it found a place with enthusiasts but not the general public.
Some went abroad. At least seven were Canadian-market cars, and the histories of cars sold at auction lead to Britain, the United States and Australia.source 9source 4source 11 The Weiner museum calls the Tiger’s British debut “the stuff of legend” without saying what happened, and no British report of it has been found.source 2
Racing without doors
The Tiger raced, but it was never properly allowed to. After the Wolfsfeld hillclimb of 1958, auto motor und sport noted that it had not been homologated as a touring car, and that homologating it at all was probably impossible “as long as it has no doors for getting in”.source 12 FMR built at least one car for its own employee and competition driver, Eduard Ernst: chassis 21065, metallic red and silver, registered R CC 143, with a front spoiler, extra cooling scoops at the back and changes to the front suspension, the gear change and under the bonnet. Ernst raced it, and period photographs exist, but no results have been found.source 11 The results that are known are in the racing section below, and more in racing and rallying.
The end, and an echo
Production of the Tg 500 ran out at the end of 1961; the Weiner museum says August 1961.source 1source 2 The three-wheelers went on in shrinking numbers until 1964. Fend left FMR after Knott had taken over all the shares, and ran a design office in Regensburg.source 1 In 1994 Tiger Automobile GmbH of Bretten took its body form from the Tg 500 in the Fahrzeugmuseum Marxzell for a modern cabin car, the Tiger T1, with a 1,300 cc Rover engine of 64 PS, a weight of about 700 kg (1,540 lb) and a price of DM 78,000. It remained a one-off.source 1
