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Recently I bought a book on Messerschmitts edited by Jens Kron. The book contains a reference to the Messerschmitt Owners Club so I thought you might like to hear of my Tiger memories.
Unfortunately I no longer own a ’schmitt but I made fantastic tours with these vehicles in the ’60s. It started with a used KR200 in 1959 bought for DM 1075 (at that time UK pounds 98!) The threewheeler got me on tours into France and Scandinavia being most reliable and hardly any tools needed on tour. Than I traded her in for a Tiger in February 1962 with the chassis ID Nr. 20517. The price DM 1800 or UK pounds 170!
My first tour was planned for France. Gearbox trouble got me to buy a stripped exchange engine. We started nearly broke to the Biscaya driving across the Massif Central which was a hell of fun. Winter 62/63 was a real rough one with the Rhine being frozen for 6 weeks. I faked a breakdown of the Tiger to my employer and the office gave me a Beetle with a slightly better heater to get to work in. Krons book very correctly shows the hassles of driving a Tiger. The guy in the spare parts shop of the Frankfurt Messerschmitt depot had the saying “If you drive a Tiger there is hardly anything left for living” Though it never spoiled the fun.
Summer 1963 my friend Wolfgang and I did another Scandinavian tour, this time with the Tiger, taking us through Norway, Sweden and Finland. You have to imagine that in those days most Scandinavian roads north of Oslo or Stockholm were gravel. On these roads driving a Tiger was hilarious fun. In five weeks we covered 6000 km, lost 5 wrenches when bleeding the brakes every 300 km or fixing the ignition or the silencers. The rear wheels touched the wings when jumping through the air on some of the Finnish country roads, burning the paintwork.
After returning from Scandinavia I took the Tiger to Britain, actually to Swansea, Wales. I had a job there for one year in a merchandise company called T.T. Pascoe selling car parts to the former Colonies. It didn’t take long until me and my Tiger was well known in Swansea and the surrounding country. They called it “The Bomb” and the police always had an eye on me because of my speeding down the Mumbles road. They never were able to catch me but came to my digs to warn me. People living in Mumbles on the hill also complained about the noise I made when coming up in second after closing time – another police visit was scheduled. I had a hell of a time there and only recently a former Welsh girl friend visited me here, talking about old Tiger times.
Even though the Tiger had a break down on an average of every 1000 km, I never was towed. I always got to my final destination. During my stay in Wales I went back to Germany twice. On my last trip to Wales the engine broke down two days after arrival. The crank bearing on the clutch side went. They sent me a replacement from Regensburg but without the seal ring. I went around Swansea and eventually got a leather one which worked fine for as long as I had the Tiger. Also the bearing for the clutch release went. Replacement was not in sight, so I drove around without a clutch for nearly 6 weeks!
The sad thing – after driving him for 50.000 km I sold the Tiger to a friend whose girl friend did not like it. Without me knowing it, the Tiger was left in the street to be picked up by scrap merchants and ended its life. Why oh why didn’t he tell me, I would have stored it away!
Today I drive a ’74 beetle and a ’61 Karmann Ghia convertable. I wouldn’t mind going on vacation with a Tiger or KR 200 again but unfortunately this is not the idea of my lady. Two years ago I drove Oliver Vogel’s KR 200 and also did some body work on one of his friends Karo so I keep in touch.