who of you remember the little Messerschmitt 3 wheeler cars that were in OMD in the 60's and 70's.
I seem to recall that the last one left was a blue one which was owned by a French guy Derobe ?? who was married to a Hockney?? girl and they lived in top end 3rd or 4th avenue.
Who can fill in the missing gaps here?
this what they looked like.
He he he The Messerschitt Kabinenroller
Never seen one in Oranjemund, remember no private vehicles in town till mid 70 tees
Here a Picture
http://www.messerschmitt-club-deutschland.de/dateien/bild.htm?pic=img/me103.jpg
One seater? Where did the engine go?
@ Mike
Its a 2 seater, like a plane the only thing missing is the wings LOL
The enigine is on the rear, that vehicle was very popular in the 1950´s
So, the front is like a volksie, boot space in the front?
msn emoticon (9)
You climb in from the top, open the roof
No Luggage in front, a luggage carrier was attached on the rear above the engine section
The maker was Heinkel famous aeroplane builders ( as far as i remember)
I never ever knew that these cars were in Omund....... wonder how many there were and what happened to them......
BMW also made Vehicles like that with about 300 cc engine
Front is the door as seen on the pic
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1a/Isetta_dwergauto.gif
Forgot to say, thes are 4 wheelers
The rear has 2 Wheels very narrow in width
Georg there was one of these in Oranjemund to. Can't remember who had it and when.
can't recall seeing an Isetta in town in the 70's, but there was definitely at least one Messerschmitt. I seem to recall having to work on it or something, as I say it was owned by a young French guy who I think was married to one of the Hockney girls, or maybe my memory is playing games with me here, we're talking almost 40 years ago.
Hi all couldnt post earlier .. connection went dicky .. just back from dinner ... here is content saved ...
Hi Georg .. posted under this topic http://www.oranjemundonline.com/Forum/index.php?topic=1669.0 page two about Mrs Castle who had a Messerschmitt and the De Pinto's had a BMW Isetta plus of course the old morris cars in town .. see the pics
The Messerschmitts actually evolved from the early 3 wheeler and for extra stability became an albeit narrow back 4 wheeler .. and with better engines could top 120 KPH !!! do search .. and read ...
Here the evloved model ..
Mrs Castle still had the 3 wheeler but with the perspex canopy ...
Mrs Castle a school teacher had one in the 1960's. At the same time as Mrs Castle. That was around 1968 that I rode it. My brother Mike and electrician Piet Verkuil used to "look after it" while Mr van der Merwe was out of town. The GM's wife at the time was Mrs devlin. She had a car as well. Maintained by the mine and was repaired on the quiet if one of the kids damaged it! If you dated the GM's daughter, you had access to the car??
John
Interesting the link and infos
Both cars are collectors items here
I often sat in the Isetta with a sporty engine sound
I recall a car looking very similar to the Isetta in a garage around E13 or E15-12th avenue around 1985-87 when we stayed in E17-12th. I can't remember who the families were in those addresses then, but distinctly remember the door in front, and the narrower real axle.
Another "micro" car of old seen around town a few years ago is the FIAT 500. According to the latest CAR mag the new 500 Cabrio (a roomier edition) should appear at the Geneva Show in March and arrive in SA in 2010. Could be handy in the heavy traffic expected with the World Cup... zoot along the yellow line.
Hmmm... while we're talking tricycles, does anybody know what make of car that is in the "Mr Bean" series? It's the 3 wheeler that always comes off second best when Mr Bean tries parking his Mini.
Hi Carl, It's a Reliant Regal Supervan III.
Is it not this one .. it was the reliant bug ... a british 3 wheeler of the 70's .. must have been scary to drive .. do a search under reliant bug or bond bug ..
Andrew , seen a couple of new 500 hard top in CT already .. yes bigger roomier than the little old rear engined 500 .. good retro styling reminiscent of its predecessor .. pretty much in the same vein as the new Beetle and the Mini .. and yes they carry a price tag ..
I thinki this is the one - from wikipedia.
Yup all by the same maker Cherry ...
Ugly little things ain't they? I wonder how stable they were to drive and when loaded up must have been interesting!
I like the Orange Colour, the only thing missing is a Cheetah Logo on the side woo_hoo
Gawd, got orange on the brain already?
Off Course, it's already 2009....... you weepeeee people have already stolen one of my players, Young Duane Vermuelen......
Really ugly car (and colour). Only a cheetah supporter will be seen in Orange - dit maak my naaaaar, Mike.
PS, Duane Vermeulen who? You probably threw him out and we felt sorry for him....
Yes having only one front wheel must have been scary when cornering .. I can imagine the nose diving into the corner ... Having a single wheel or narrower track at the back is more acceptable ... the Citroen ID , DS, Pallas range had a considerably narrower wheelbase at the back and it by default played a good role in stability .. the arse end of the car just followed the wider front track very obiently ... I should know i drove them .. and used to sling them around .. and they always seemed to correct their track .. but then again . a mid engined front wheel drive was always the best equation ... good center of gravity ...
Cherry as far as I can recall these (silly) cars used to tip over when cornering too enthusiastically.
As well they aren't too common then - I'd probably spend my life "falling over" on corners! ha ha
You're quite safe on two legs Cherry I would think. image071
Oh and I forgot to mention also that these 'cars' had real cheapo glassfibre bodies.
I can't believe people actually bought these cars. What were they thinking?
Quote from: Carl Wrbka on January 06, 2009, 06:12:38 AM
I can't believe people actually bought these cars. What were they thinking?
Well Carl, if you know what Germany looked like just after war and what transport was available.....
Bycicle, Motor Cycle, Vespa
That was one step up at affordable price and driving without getting wet in the rain.
The later years, it was plain nostalgie.
If you had an Isetta, you were King on the road LOL iknow
The Messerschmit and BMW Isetta had metal bodies .. it was the Reliant 3 wheelers that had glass fibre bodies ...
just on a memory blast with the little cars .. I remeber seeing in the streets of cape town apart from the little Fiat 500's which was a 4 seater ... there was a combi type version occupying almost the same wheelbase .. that was a 6 seater ... did a search and here she is .. a 6 seater ...below a write up and the pics attached .. ENJOY ..
1960 Fiat 600 Multipla
In the years that followed World War II, it became obvious to Fiat management that the future lay in a small car, cheap to manufacture and cheap to buy. Chief technical designer Dante Giacosa set about finding a replacement for the 500 Topolino: Project "100".
Much development and testing resulted in a shape enclosing four people with a minimum of sheet metal, powered by a simple, reliable four-cylinder engine mounted at the rear for cost reasons. The resulting Fiat 600 was one of the great success stories of the twentieth century, with some 2.7 million cars produced.
The mixed-use station wagon, called 600 Multipla (All Service), was introduced a year later, in 1956. The idea was to multiply the serviceability of the 600 for both family motoring and business use.
The multi-place seating was very flexible through a combination of folding seats.
Three versions were available:
* The 4/5 seater had bench seats front and rear that folded to make a bed.
* The 6-seater had a front bench and four individual seats that folded completely flat into the floor to make a roomy load platform.
* The Taxi version had a single seat and luggage platform in front, separate folding seats in the middle, and a bench seat in back, together with a division.
Differences from the sedan included, besides the bodywork, an auxiliary radiator up front, wishbone front suspension, different gear ratios, worm and roller steering, slightly larger fuel tank, and interior lamps.
The Multipla name is today revived for another unusual ground-breaking vehicle.
Manufacturer: FIAT Societa per Azioni, Turin Italy
Model: 600 DM Motor: Fiat, 4-stroke Body: Steel
Years Built: 1956-1969 No. Cylinders: 4 Chassis: None
No. Produced: 129,994 Displacement: 767cc Susp Front: Coil
No. Surviving: Horsepower: 32 Susp Rear: Coil
Length: 3432 mm Gearbox: 4 + rev Strg: Worm&Roller
Width: 1450 mm Starter: Electric Brakes: Hydraulic
Weight: 580 kg Electrics: 12v 4 Wheels: 5.20 x 12"
Interior: 4 seats Ignition: Coil Top Speed: 96 kph
@ Sandy
I remember those 6 seaters, a family van
3 wheelers are still common in Italy, if i find a picture , i will post it. At least i have it in a video....
Will pots that when found
At the moment i am uploading films from Ai Ais to Lüderitz and kolmanns. Will post that when ready
Have a nice day. We have snow all round LOL send you some ???
I'm just laughing thinking back , when I as a child first saw one .. could not work out which was front or the back look at these two pics ,, they depict my initial confusion ... image201
I remember these tiny Fiat 'Combis'. When I grew up in Camps Bay in the early sixties, we often overtook one of these cars grinding its way up from Camps Bay to Kloof Neck. Our car at that time was a Citroen Light 15 which was not exactly the fastest car on the block.
BTW, here is a pic of a Citroen Light 15 (in France known as Citroen 'Traction Avant', meaning front wheel drive), manufactured from 1935 to 1957.
Cherry, if memory serves me, I think I can recall John Hall saying he had or drove one of these Relients in the UK and the vehicle would tilt around corners
I remember the Messerschmidt and the Bubble car, as we called the other one whose single door opened frontwards with the steering wheel attached.
I remember us running a mile when we saw the Messerschmidt - thinking it was Mrs Castle coming along and ducking behind a bush or what ever hiding place was available. Great fun and good memories.
Richard can perhaps recall who the young French guy was who I think was married to one of the Hockney girls. This guy was the last owner of a blue Meschersmitt car, probably the ex Castle car. This crowd lived in either 2nd or 3 rd avenue on the coast side of OMD.
Hi Leon,
Is it not Daniel Vinten, married Gilbert Kirmes's sister? (spelling!)
yes Daniel Vinten seems to ring a bell.
Hi All,
I haven't visited the forum for quite a while but since contacted a few days ago by Zerkie Bergh, an old classmate, I read most of the posts including these about the Messerschmidt and BMW cars in Oranjemund.
As far as I can remember there were two Messerschmidt three-wheelers, one belonging to someone working at the hospital and the other one to the English teacher, the dreaded Mrs Castle. A few years ago a friend of mine was looking for one of these cars and I phoned around in Cape Town in the hope of finding the Castles. With my second call I got hold of the husband of Mrs Castle who was living in Blouberg at the time. He told me that he had sold the car to someone in Bloemfontein.
Mrs Castle had passed away and so did her son, Philip who was killed on the border a few days before he was due to return to SA. The other son is Peter who is a director of Primi Piatti. Perhaps some of you remember them - they had a sister Gwen.
The BMW bubble car belonged to Mrs Anna de Pinto. I visited her in Blomtuin, Bellville a few years ago.
Those cars are now worth a fortune. If only we had known that .......
regards to all
Thanks Lourens for reinforcing the who owned what .. as said its all posted there , just that some people could not seem to remember ...
Hi Lourens,
I remember when Mrs Tinka Castle brought that car to town. It was the first private car in town.
Those day anything you brought in stayed there. So she never expected to ever take it out again.
Thing have changed, they let it out after all.
The next private transport appart from ordinar bicycles was my father's BSA Winged Wheel.
This was an engine built into the back wheel of a bicyle.
I remember the BSA's with the engine ,, then there was a German woman that also had one of those " help my trap " thingies also a glorified bicycle but the engine was on the front top of the wheel and drove the front wheel through friction contact ( the name Solex comes to mind , did a search check pic .) , then some italian models came in .. not vespa more standard small motorbike shape two stroke engined ,, ah now name comes .. Mopeds .. Kenny Gotsch was a dab at repairing them and keeing them going
Here pics first one the solex second a dutch model but very close to the italian ones in appearance ...
The winged wheel first
then the cycle master
all pretty similar
an extract from the cyclemaster
CYCLEMASTER
Probably the most well known of the cyclemotors, the Cyclemaster was a complete powered wheel that replaced a bicycle's normal rear wheel. The earliest models had a 25.7cc engine; this was increased to 32cc for later versions. Nearly a quarter of a million of these machines were built in the UK between 1950 and the early 1960s; several other countries also produced their own versions of the Cyclemaster
@ Sandy, when was 16, i had exactly that solex.
Used 1 L / 100 km, top speed about 30 kmh, 2 stroke 50 ccm
When you run out of petrol just use it like a bycicle, eventually it was stolen from me.
Remember having made a tour to Heidelberg those days...........
Sandy, help me out here, look at the photo below.
Did Viv and some other appies not have a Zundap or a Puch?
Could be .. a bit vague .. but yes i remember well the italian on vespa as per the one pic models very well ... did you know that slang for motor scooters here in SA is a puchie pronounced pooghie .. obviously after the steyr puch numbers of many years ago ...
Quote from: Clive Symes on February 15, 2009, 12:16:19 PM
Sandy, help me out here, look at the photo below.
Did Viv and some other appies not have a Zundap or a Puch?
That was the dream of all youngsters in my time in the late 50
I had a Solex 50 cc at first ( bycicle engine in front), later the 125 cc and 150 Vespa ( 2 stroke unbreakable) then the Heinkel 150cc 4 stroke wih a heavy sound LOL
How nostalgic!! I remember my dad bought a red BMW bubble car for mum and they were not allowed to take it into Oranjemund because it had 4 wheels! Only the 3 wheelers were allowed. It got left with me in Bellville and my brother drove it around the streets there. What a noisy car it was! When we moved I sold it for a song and now would give my right hand for one! What good memories. I wonder what happened to it??
Remember a few of the Solex's parked in front of the shop.
My mom also had one of those , which i crashed one day on the road at back of mule derby and soccer field.
Leaon you may remember this
Hi Clive
Was that your 750 Honda?
There were quite a few of us who owned 750 Hondas, you, me, Charlie, Keith, Dereck, Terry,..............
Here's Charlie and me on the way to JHB from Cape Town. Had a prang in the Transkie. Can see my bent front forks. Some African gentleman in the Transkei turned to the right as I was about to pass him.
Ja, that was before the conversion ( Full faring etc need to look for some photos of that.
Quote from: Leon Sumter on December 22, 2008, 04:31:06 PM
this what they looked like.
I remember Mrs Castle driving one in the early 70`s when I was in Grade 2,all us kids thought it was super cool, msn emoticon (8)
Have a look at this url for a definitive look at every three-wheeler ever commercially produced.
Regards,
Bob.
http://microcarmuseum.com/
Daniel Roulez was the french guy who had the Meschersmitt 3 wheeler in the early 70's on OMD.
I stand to correction , but the agent for Solex bikes, in O Mund was mr Gillby .
Sorry for Spelling mistake- the Solex agent was Norval Gillbee
Norville Gillbee resided at E5-1st Avenue. Was out neighbour in the early/mid 70's
...
Norval ran a advert in the weekly bulletin- pre October 1975 . - reading something like this : - " why walk to the store , if you can transport your groceries on a motorbike ? " this is deffenately not the correct words - but near enough . He marketed his bikes with a basket on the carrier as a option .
Yes, I also rememeber Mrs Castle's Messerchsmidt. Some people did bring their private cars into town ... that was allowed and not a problem. The problem was once in- never allowed out. CDM hired cars out and some people hired Anglias on a permanent basis. Just saw an Anglia yesterday in Cape Town ... brought back some memories.
Also known as the EPPING JAG......
Mrs Tinka Castle already had her car before my parents left CDM and that was 1959.
I always thought it was a Gogomobile, or that's what we called it.
mmh! a Car, a Woman... Many names.... they could make a movie out of this one, starring Merry Streep.........
:ciupa1:
Did Mrs Castle not drive into a tree or lampost in 11th avenue?
Quote from: Alfred Boehme on November 03, 2012, 07:12:35 PM
Did Mrs Castle not drive into a tree or lampost in 11th avenue?
She drove into my hands with that ruler of hers.....
I heard she rolled it once .. got repaired ,,
inside the MS
Looks Like a Beach buggy that got squashed between two gemsboks...
ms engine
Just my opinion. 1950's 1960's . There was very little on the small car market that could compete with what came from the Four rings [ Auto Union ] and the VW factories. (pic's VW Auto Pavilion )
Remember The DKW / Auto Union ? predescessr to the Audi brand ,, the first Audi that came out was remember the Audi 600 which progressed to the Audi 90 , soon became merged with VW passat etc ,,
The DKW / Auto union had 3 cylinder 2 stroke engines ,, quite nippy for their time ,,,
visiting VW Auto Pavilion , I took pics of 1933 DKW and 1938 Audi
Quote from: Leon Sumter on December 22, 2008, 04:27:47 PM
who of you remember the little Messerschmitt 3 wheeler cars that were in OMD in the 60's and 70's.
I seem to recall that the last one left was a blue one which was owned by a French guy Derobe ?? who was married to a Hockney?? girl and they lived in top end 3rd or 4th avenue.
Who can fill in the missing gaps here?
My folks owned the blue on, we left in the late 70 and my folks David and Jean Embleton sold it to the French computer tech, I don't remember his name. My folks now live in Kleinbrak near Mosselbay, both still going strong My Dad is now 74 and my mom is 72.
Daniel Roulez perhaps?
Isetta BMW 600cc
I wonder what the value would be these days?
As collectors items ,, intrinsic value ,, the willing collector will pay whatever ,,
I wonder how they got from caravan park to the next park - most probably pushed it - imagine the speed you would get from a 600 cc motorcycle engine in a two seater car + pulling a caravan ?
John Creedy's reference to Mrs Devlin"s car brought back memories of her car and raisin bread being uplifted from the Morris bread delivery trucks whilst the Ovamo's were delivering and the back door was left open.We were caught red handed close to her house ,reported to her by the driver whilst being held firmly lest we should escape ,but absolved by her as she didn't for one moment believe that we were able to get up to such mischief to the total disbelief of the Ovambo driver.Some times you were just lucky.
Mrs Devlin had a beautiful grey Plymouth - 1959/60 model?
We also "sourced" fresh bread from the Bakery van, it had open sides, so we could cycle next to it as it drove really slow, and just haul bread from it.....
We were caught at one stage and got dragged down to security for the lecture of our life's.....
Mrs Castle a school teacher had one in the 1960's - 1970's . she was our neighbour 13/ 15 th ave