Messerschmitt KR175

It began with a car for people who could not walk. After the war the aeronautical engineer Fritz Fend built the Fend Flitzer, a single-seat tricycle for disabled drivers, one of the invalid carriages of its day, pushed by hand at first and later fitted with small Victoria, Sachs and Riedel engines. Its first buyer was a paraplegic from Offenbach.source 1 Fend had no capital to go further, so in January 1952 he went to Messerschmitt’s idle aircraft works at Regensburg. Messerschmitt himself insisted on a two-seater.source 1 The Weiner museum calls Fend Messerschmitt’s “former employee”; the Messerschmitt Owners’ Club says he never was one, and that the cars were built under licence from him.source 2source 3

The first Fend vehicle built at Regensburg was a load scooter, the Lastenroller, in 1952.source 3 By that summer the prototype FK 150, the Fend-Kabinenroller, or Fend cabin scooter, with a 150 cc Sachs engine, had every element of the production car except the multi-piece dome and the engine.source 1source 2 The maker was Regensburger Stahl- und Metallbau, a Messerschmitt company, and the car wore the Messerschmitt name and eagle.source 1source 4 It was shown at the Geneva Motor Show in the spring of 1953, and production began early that year, in January by German Wikipedia’s account and in February by the Weiner museum’s. It cost DM 2,100.source 1source 4source 2

Here was the shape that would be called a bubble car: a 2,820 mm (111 in) fuselage of steel panels on a tubular frame, a Plexiglas canopy hinged sideways, a flat glass windscreen, and a passenger sitting behind the driver.source 4 It was a three-wheeler, with two steered wheels at the front and a 174 cc Fichtel & Sachs two-stroke in front of the single rear wheel, driving it by chain.source 4source 2 The driver steered with a handlebar that acted directly on the track rods and opened the throttle with a motorcycle twist-grip on its left end; at first the only pedal was the brake, and the clutch was a hand lever built into the gear lever.source 1source 4

Rough edges

The first cars were crude. By the Weiner museum’s account the suspension was very hard, the car was noisy and rattled, and the hand clutch did not work well in practice. About 70 modifications were made between February and June 1953.source 4source 2 Early cars had no reverse gear, and owners simply pushed or lifted the light car.source 4 In 1954 a clutch pedal replaced the hand lever, and electric starting became standard, although the sources disagree on how the earliest cars were started.source 1source 4source 2 The Series 1 cars are known by their open drive chain, their narrow rear seat, a windscreen wiper that could be worked by hand and a complicated early rear suspension.source 5

The buyers came anyway. At its peak the works built up to 80 cars a day, and the West German production table for the last months of 1954 gives 656 in October and 902 in November.source 1source 6 A Berlin newspaper looking back in 2003 noted that three-wheelers like the KR175 were often taxed like motorcycles and could be driven on a motorcycle or even a tractor licence.source 7 By February 1955 about 11,000 Messerschmitt Kabinenroller had been sold, well ahead, by auto motor und sport’s account, of every other German scooter car.source 8

The same test found it still a little rough in many ways, and hoped its fathers would cure it of its last bad habits.source 9

To London

The export KR175 was first seen on London streets in April 1954, the start of Britain’s long attachment to the Messerschmitt.source 10 A press photograph taken there on 31 August 1954 was captioned as a two-seat, three-wheeled enclosed motorcycle made by the R.S.M. Messerschmitt company of Germany, doing 80 km/h (50 mph) and 2.4 litres per 100 km (120 miles to the gallon) for about £300.source 10 In Southampton, Testwood Motors ran KR175s in early competitive events, though no dated results have been found.source 3

Replaced, not dropped

The issue of auto motor und sport dated 5 February 1955 announced the Messerschmitt KR200, and said the KR175 would continue: DM 2,125 with an electric starter, or DM 2,195 with a reverse gear and an electric wiper.source 8 The new car cured most of what the testers had disliked in the old one: the narrow 920 mm (36 in) front track, the lack of dampers, the engine and rear suspension, the 12-litre (2.6-gallon) tank, the motorcycle-style controls, the small flat screen, the 25-watt headlamp bulbs and a passenger seat so cramped that its occupant could not sit with knees together.source 9source 8 The Weiner museum ends KR175 production in March 1955, but the Frankfurt show’s price list still offered it at DM 2,195 that September, so main production probably stopped in the spring and the last cars were sold through the year.source 2source 11

In Italy the KR175 had a second life. Metalmeccanica Italiana Valtrompia of Brescia, Mi-Val, assembled the car from imported Messerschmitt components but fitted its own 172 cc two-stroke engine, and sold it as the Mivalino.source 4source 5 It was one of the licence builds of the 1950s. The Weiner museum kept a Mivalino beside its two KR175s until its collection was sold in 2013.source 2source 5

That is nearly all that is known for certain. No production figure and no firm dates for the Mivalino have been found; Italian sources may hold more.

The Weiner museum estimated that about 50 KR175s survive. That seems low, and it is unverified.source 2 The museum itself held two, a dark early car and a white 1954 Series 1 with its original side luggage rack, until they were sold with the rest of the collection in 2013.source 2source 5 No KR175 result from a major auction house has been found.

The Messerschmitt Owners’ Club in Britain keeps the type alive, with an article on restoring a KR175 and a copy of the 1954 brochure, and Germany has the Messerschmitt-Club Deutschland.source 10 The cars that survive are the first of the Kabinenroller, the line that took the idea of Fend’s invalid tricycle from a workshop to the streets of London.