here have all the micronauts gone? So far this year it has been a story of reduced attendance at events. Is it the Crunch and Gordon Bankrupt’s dissolving Government and policies? Is it that cars are being sold off in a market that seems to find certain cars selling for huge prices and others of equal merit with no takers at all? Is it because interest in micros has waned? Probably a bit of all that and more. We live in strange times.

This story just shows the power of a network of friends who are enthusiasts and dealers built up over the years I have had Microcars and Classic Cars in providing information leading to the return of my car and several arrests.

Recovered

ack in February I was told one of my sheds had been broken into and a rather oddly painted and equipped Messerschmitt taken. The intelligence gathered locally named a suspect, and the destination to which the car was sold too. This was reported to the police who seemed to suffer a great deal of inertia in doing anything about it --- to the extent that I considered an "alternative" way of getting the rest of the information to recover the car as the thief was named, as was the general area in which the dealer who bought it resided. Rejecting that, I put out the info round the network of chums and clubs. Not all responded positively but soon more info flowed and a watch was placed on eBay since it was clear that unless I did the work to find the car for the police nothing was going to happen beyond their recommendation to claim on my non-existent insurance.

nother KR200 has been through the garage and is ready to either hit the road or be restored further. This car had been dragged out of a shed after years of storage. It is amazing how if stored in a dry dark place these cars just do not really seem to suffer greatly from being mothballed. I think they must have been made from good steel as given the same treatment a similar year Fiat would be hanging. So very little needed to be done.

r so they say. This page has an article about the Aptera Typ-1e, a car which looks amazingly similar to the Fend2000, and it just goes to show that the design principles of microcars like the KRs and Fend's other vehicles are just too good to die. Any time the problem of fuel cost or supply bubbles up, from Suez in '56, the oil price shock of '73, or today's sky high petrol prices, the same question gets asked, "How to waste less fuel?", and the microcar principles again prove to be the answer --- use a small, efficient engine in a light, aerodyamic body (isn't this obvious yet?).

urrah! I've just taken delivery of a smashing new set of interior trim for my KR200 from Joyce and Peter Darby. This set is grey with black piping, not, I'll concede, as per the original red, but I came to the conclusion that would stick with my non-origianal blue paint work rather than go for the red in which it left the factory. But, even if I don't follow through with this plan a grey interior will work with pretty much anything.

ere's an interesting picture. It appears in a German book belonging to Big Al which covers the history of the various vehicles produced by Fritz Fend and Messerschmitt. It contains lots of original publicity material and photos of the cars in use and also shots taken in the factory in Rosenheim and later Regensburg. However, this one stood out for two reasons; first, it's the only picture I've seen of KR200s actually under construction, and second, it's in colour.