Some of you might have seen the poster for this Saturday's Magnolia Car Show and wondered about the car that the smiling mustachioed chap with the spiked German World War I helmet is sitting in.As you've probably already guessed, it's German, but forget about all those expensive, high-speed Autobahn rollers like Mercedes-Benzes, BMWs or Audis. This is a three-wheeled, Messerschmitt Kabinenroller, and it once supposedly returned 87 miles per gallon of hard to find, comparatively expensive, postwar torn, German gasoline.That sounds like something that might be appealing today. The Messerschmitts were small, fuel efficient and inexpensive. In a country in the throes of the after-effects of the war, but with an extensive system of motorways, it was well-matched to the demands of the time. The German company Bayerische Flugzeugwerke AG (Bavarian Aircraft Works or BFW) chose to try automobile production in an attempt to rebuild.However, BFW's automotive efforts faltered.Incredible as it seems, the local automotive grapevine has it that there are actually three examples of the rare little bubble cars existing within the confines of Magnolia. The grapevine also has it that the most complete one was in the Bill Cotter Racing Collection. Some further investigation was called for.Roger Kennedy is the collection manager over at BCR and he was gracious enough to show me the little red three-wheeler. He unlatched and then swung the canopy open. He reached in and raised the folding driver's seat and seatback to its raised-for-entry position. The little car had been reupholstered and the sparse interior now was done up in gray leatherette with a faux snakeskin pattern on the centers of the folding seats/chair backs. Seating for two is arranged front and rear.In 1916, a south German engineering group started a company, BFW, to start production of this newly developed machine, the airplane. When Willy Messerschmitt joined the company in 1927 as chief designer and engineer, a string of German fighter and bomber aircraft bearing his name followed.After World WarII, BFW was not allowed to produce aircraft. One alternative the company came up with was the three-wheeled enclosed motor scooter/ bubble car or kabinenroller (cabin scooter).The little car was actually designed by Fritz Fend, who was once himself an aircraft designer. The cars were built by Fend's own company in the Messerschmitt works at Rosenburg and Willy Messerschmitt had very little to do with the vehicles other than ruling that they carried his name.This little 200 cc one-lung engine could push the little bubble car around at 65 mph -- wide open. Production of the KR 175 Messerschmitts ran from 1953 until 1955 when the KR 200 replaced it with a slightly larger engine. Production halted in early 1964 due to sagging sales, the cost was now almost equal to an Austin Healey Sprite. Total production was thought to be around 30,000.Bubble cars, like the Messerschmitt and its cousin company BMW's, Isetta, became big sellers in Europe after the war at a time when the demand for cheap personal motorized transport emerged. Fuel prices then were made even higher with events like the 1956 Suez crisis.Most, although by no means all, of the bubble cars were three-wheelers; this made them cheaper still to run in many places, since they were considered to be motorcycles for tax and licensing purposes.There are car clubs in Europe, the United States, and elsewhere that still value these cars, usually for their quirky character rather than their actual monetary value. Elvis Presley had a red one. And in the 1991 movie, "The Addams Family," Cousin Itt drove a white one.[[In-content Ad]]
