In appreciation of our forum.

[Bob Purton]

Having just joined the Messerschmitt owners club forum I must say that ours is much better and easier to use. The former is a yahoo based affair and the only advantage I can see is that it has its own photo gallery which automatically resizes your pixs. Hooray for The RUM car forum!!

[Jim Janecek]

...The former is a yahoo based affair and the only advantage I can see is that it has its own photo gallery which automatically resizes your pixs.

the big advantage of a Yahoo-based forum/group is that you never have to go to the website to read the messages if you don't want.
You can receive and send all messages via email, which many people apparently prefer.
that being said, I do enjoy coming here and seeing what is going on.

[P50]

I prefer this type of forum. Where each thread 'rolls' on.  The Yahoo Schmitt forum is a bit muddled and littered with spam.

Plus we get Heir Cyphus on this one.  and finally it's full of eccentrics not snobby types..  Schmitters do like to have every detail correct.

Is that FMR '63 air in your tyre original?!!!

Yawn.........

   

[Bob Purton]

P50, I couldn't agree more!!
 Jim, why on earth would I want an email every time someone posts something on the forum, I'm up to my neck in unwanted mails every day as it is, its just more junk to have to delete. The roll on threads are much more fun and user friendly and about Cyphus, the boy, the myth and all the others, what would the forum be without the fruitcake, it would be as dull as a slice of Madeira! About the schmitters , you have noticed that too, there are some great guys in the MOC but also an equal amount of stuffed shirts, I let my membership laps for years because it just wasn't my kind of club but I think things are changing now for the better, there are some new movers and shakers so although I admit to only rejoining because I needed a Panza wheel from partsmart, I think I'm back to stay.

[Dan Rodd]

i joined the microcars one on yahoo and left because i was fed up of all the emails i kept getting!

I found the messerschmitt rallys to be dull and lifeless,just a row of expensive,shiny,trailered cars with do not touch stickers on them.
The more money thats involved,the less i seem to like the people,thats why i find a Reliant rally more welcoming than a schmitt one!

mind you,i can still remember going to national micro rallies where the Reliantswere told to move and were pushed to the side of the field,away from all the other "superior" micros.Shamefull.

[Stuart Cyphus]

 But Reliant's arn't strictly micro, technically speaking, the same with 2cv's, 126's & Trabants. These are all "small cars", not "microcars".  With some of the older Reliant items I've seen, it seems T.L Williams had short strif with anyone calling his cars "microcars". Reliant was always a slight cut above that market, both in his opinion and mine. A micro was for the disillusioned motorcycle man who didn't have any money, whereas a Reliant was for the disillisioned motorcycle man who DID have some money....

[Bob Purton]

I know what you mean Dan, I felt the same way about the MOC rally but its all changed now, for the last couple of years the rally has been organised by new blood and held at various venues across the country, this years will be at Southport near Liverpool and on an Airfield instalation with none stop events for three days. I have never been to a Reliant rally but my pal took his Reliant Ant up to the National Reliant owners club rally a couple of years back and on his return said that he had never met a more stuck up and inhospitable bunch in his life! [ With the exception of Bob Neal] So I dont know who to believe now. Dan, you said " where serious money is involved" The cat is out of the bag, I have seen some of your bike collection and I think serious money is involved! Dont try the old poor relation with us, your scott alone must be worth more than my cars!

[Dan Rodd]

dont own the Scott anymore,and in any case it was only worth £2000.find me a schmitt for that!My Ariel was £1000 and everything else below that,whats a good schmitt now?plus the motorhome to tow it,and the ivor williams to put it on
Reliant owners are very clique and to be honest not that interested in the cars,but you see more people who have very little who are happy to give you as much help and info as possible,when i broke down in my Regal at a meet last year another chap phoned his brother up and a convoy of 6 Reliants came up to help me!

im afraid that every schmitt rally ive been to it was all picnic hampers and champagne and who has the shiniest car,i spent more time looking at the rough bug in the car park than what was on show.

[Stuart Cyphus]

 Oh dear, don't talk to me about Reliant Rallies!  R.O.C Southern Area Rally, Henley-on-Thames July 1998. I'd been looking forward to this rally for months, I'd finnaly managed to join the ROC after two years and twenty-three (yes really) unanswered letters asking for the membership forms, AND for the first time since 1990, we actully had a Reliant on the road in which to go in.  We eventully find the Rally on a blistering hot day (a Sunday, well, it would be!), but absulutly nowhere on the roads leading to, or on the site itself, were any signs or indecations that a Reliant Rally was being held. I asked in site recption, and the staff on duty had to ask several other folk INCLUDING AN ORDINARY MEMBER OF THE PUBLIC WALKING PAST THE WINDOW!!!! if such a rally was indeed being held on the premises.

 Eventully it was establised that the rally was beingheld in the top field, so off we trot to find them. Eventully I find what looked like a Caravan Club reunion rally. There was one single solitry Robin LX parked to one side. The time is now 12 noon. It turned out that THIS was the Southen Area Rally, a rally that I had been led to belive was "a big do". Seventeen campervans/Caravans, and one single other Reliant apart from the one I'd turned up in!  I start talking to a bloke who seemed to be in charge of the others, all of whom seem to averide 60 in age. He confirmed that the rally was indeed right here, and was in fact in full swing.    I asked him if there were any other Reliant's on site as I couldn't find them, and he replyied; "Oh, we don't much bother with the cars these days." Then he went on to say that it was going to get exciting in a few moments becuse they were just setting up the bingo machine.  I found myself saying, more out of suprise than anything; "but I've came to a Reliant Rally to look at Reliants, not play bingo!" The bloke then was just as dumbstruck as I was, but in his case becuse I din't want to play bingo.

 We turned around at that precise moment and went back home again.

 But it didn't end there. Three days later I recived my National Top Gear, which is the ROC's magazine. Alreaddy somewhat disilusioned with the Reliant Owners Club, I flipped through the magazine. There it was. A full-page advert practically encouraging the membership to sent their Reliants to the banger track!    The very next day I cancelled my ROC membership in total & utter disgust.

[Dan Rodd]

totally agree there with Stuart,i have(and continue to do so)caused uproar about how all the rallys were full of caravans and the mag full of stories about someones new pair of slippers or how they grazed their knee.On that Score,the micro clubs win top marks for their mags etc

[Stuart Cyphus]

the mag full of stories about someones new pair of slippers or how they grazed their knee.

 I picked up a 1962 issue of National Top Gear on eBay about a month ago. It would seem something never change. This forty-five year old issue is also stuffed with such riviting accounts as Daniel mentions. One does wonder if Lucy from Essex Region ever did get back the pair of glasses she lost at the Shenstone Rally.....

[Bob Purton]

Dan I said the thing about your bike values tongue in cheek. No offence intended. You are mistaken about owners not driving their schmitts  though. I think I can safely say that more miles are clocked up in messerschmitts than any other true microcar, and as Stu pionted out, this doesnt include minicars like reliants and fiat 500 ect. More owners drive there cars to rallys than the other marque too..

[P50]

I wouldnt say the Schmitts are all 'minters'.  Just tidy and maintained. Can be an anal environment.   However I like the Schmitts that are a bit tatty and scruffy. Perhaps owned for donkeys years by the owner.  

My KR has old paint with lots of imperefections and dings.  But I like it like that and would never dream of painting it. It's not new! It's 45 years old.  

I had heard though that if one sold ones Schmitt to a German in the 70's you were slung out the club. Is this an urban myth? I suspect it is..  

Of all the forums and clubs I'd have to say this is the friendliest.  Lots of odd types.  Strange cars for strange people!    One or two altercations occur but generally it runs smoothly.  Plus Peels/Scootacars etc don't really have a functioning forum so this one gets utilised.  (I know some members find Peels tiresome but there you go!).  Finally this is primarily an English forum. With English humour.  As we all know it can be very dry and ironic. All good! 

[Bob Purton]

I don't think it is a myth, people were chucked out of the club for all manner of reasons in those days and exporting a car was a capital offense even if it went back to its country of origin! A few years back a glass fibre moulder who is well know to us was chucked out for just buying some TG parts that another member thought were promised to him, the gonk in charge swallowed the story and signed the execution warrant even though the matter had nothing what so ever to do with the club! I'm the opposite to you P50, my cars have to be pristine, its just the way I am but it doesn't stop me from driving them at every opportunity.

[Peelpower]

Mates, you should'nt forget the germans sold plenty of Schmitts to the brits!! We never discuss to kick out our members out of the club.
At least its a free market anyway, isn't  it.
Some of the british mates are looking for a TG. So what you thinking where you can find one? Im just looking to help somebody in the UK to find aTiger.
 At least we are all enthusiast of microcars, matters not what country they are coming from.
Important is, we should all keep friends, and enjoy the cars together.
Regards Ferdi