$8 USA The Vintage Microcar Club MICROCAR NEWS Issue #2 2013 1 2 Microcar News #2 2013 The Vintage Microcar Club In this Issue: MICROCAR NEWS 4 Letters ISSUE # 2 5 NEWS & rumors 2013 6 eBay Watch 8 Live Auction results 10 Why Buy a Crosley? How do I get this magazine? go to www. Microcar.org and click the 12 MR. FIAT “Join Now” Button, follow the directions. We can also send you a form in the mail, 14 Everyone’s a WINNER! just write or call (see below) 17 BIZ BUZZ How much is it? 18 The SMITE Four Issues are $35per year for USA/CANADA $60 elsewhere 22 WHAT A FIND! Can I get Back Issues? 24 Classifieds Sure! Most back Issues are $6 ea (+postage) You can also buy all the Back Issues at once for a flat price. 28 Parts & Suppliers How do I submit a story or photo? go to www.Microcar.org and click on SUBMISSIONS 30 Meet Calendar or send an email to: [email protected] or send stuff via Mail to the PO Box. 31 class Crosley Advert Submissions are printed space permitting. 32 Back Cover: River Find Isetta The Vintage Microcar Club PO Box 6136 Evanston IL 60204-6136 phone: 630-MICROCAR (642-7622) So what IS a Vintage Microcar? At least 25 years old 1000cc or less (preferably less than 700cc) Basically an enclosed scooter Intended for Road Use TIME TO RENEW? In case you forgot: Published by MICROCAR.ORG Inc. You get FOUR Issues of MICROCAR NEWS per year. P.O. box 6136 Evanston, IL 60204-6136 Your mailing label should look similar to this: www.microcar.org Last Issue is: #2 2013 email: [email protected] Your Name Here tel: 630-MICROCAR Your Address (630-642-7622) USA Residents: this is printed on the Back Page of the magazine. If calling from outside the USA/Canada, dial: 001-630-642-7622 Outside USA (including Canada): this is on the mailing label on your envelope. So look at your mailing label. The actual expiration date The Vintage Microcar Club is focused primarily Microcars that are over will vary depending on when you signed up. Also- If we 25 years old and have an engine displacement of 1000 cc or less. got your renewal AFTER MAY 15, your mailing label for this issue will not be updated. Dues are $35 annually for U.S. and Canadian members and You can renew on-line via the website very easily, or just $60 annually for International members. send a check with your NAME and ZipCode and we’ll figure Members receive Four Issues of Microcar News Annually it out! Send Renewals to: Vintage Microcar Club Advertising Rates: Full page $400 ; ½ page $250 ; ¼ page $150 PO BOX 6136 Evanston IL 60204-6136 Discounts are available for multiple insertions, request an Ad Spec Sheet All contents copyright ©2013 by Microcar.org Inc. Except for rights claimed by individual contributors as stated herein. Cover : Ken Stoner w/ son Ron and their Messerschmitt KR200 All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part is prohibited unless Back Cover : River Find Isetta prior written permission is obtained. Vintage Microcar Club www.microcar.org 3 I’m pretty sure I knew every single person in that room during Letters: the auction. I tried to make a point of talking with every one of them as well. I thought I did a pretty good job of that, but as : In reference to the letter printed in the previous issue Ramon and “The Microcar Club of Mexico” point out from their Q from Ramon and “The Microcar Club of Mexico” position at the back of the room: I failed. expressing their disappointment at “seeing such rough restorations, or no restorations at all” at the RM Auction of The The only disappointment I have is that their bizarre letter was Bruce Weiner Microcar Museum, I am confused. Were they published in the first place. What was the point? mislead to believe every single car offered was completely To read something that attacks who I am and what I’ve been restored? doing for decades with nonsensical comments that have no basis in reality is just...irresponsible. Many cars in the collection were acquired from previous owners To see it published in a club magazine that I have bent over who had cared for them for decades. For some, this did indeed backwards to support in so many ways over the years is just mean applying paint by hand with a brush at some point in the heartbreaking. past to preserve what was underneath. Some of these cars were slated for restoration but as of February 2013, it was time to I have always thought this club and the magazine were meant to share them with new owners. For more than a decade we have support this hobby and move it forward, not tear it down. collected vintage microcars and restored many to the highest quality possible. To expect every single vehicle offered at the Bruce Weiner auction to meet that standard is just absurd, unrealistic and Madison, GA USA naive. We did not wait until the cars were “perfect” to share them with the public. Many are fascinating just the way they are and : It certainly is frustrating when someone has created while they could have benefited from a complete and thorough A expectations for someone else and is then in turn restoration, these things take time. Years of research and a great disappointed that they failed to live up to their mythical deal of money are needed. Should they be hidden away until standards. they are perfect? I don’t think so. : I heard these R/C Isettas were going to be coming out a Without ever visiting the Museum Collection in person, the Q few months ago, so I contacted an overseas retailer and author(s) created some fantasy world where all these vehicles had them contact me when they became available. They came were restored as new for their enjoyment. So it is not surprising out with the first version recently so I got myself two of them! they were disappointed. That being said, they still bought five This one is 1/18 scale and runs on a 40 mhz signal with light microcars -INCLUDING TWO CARS THAT WERE UNRESTORED, up front and rear lights. They are supposed to be coming out (one having been painted with a brush no less) and took them with two other colors in the 1/18 scale as well as the same three back to Mexico. colors schemes in a 1/24 scale. For now this is the only variant available. Pretty cool if you ask me!! But their disappointment was not limited to the cars. Apparently Michael Barney they were disappointed -in my own actions- during the auction. Fort Wayne,IN Without knowing me, and seeing me for only a short period of time, I was compared to some mythical image they had created of me as a person. Not knowing what they expected me to be like, I apparently failed miserably (in their eyes). So now they have a story to tell of how I ignored a father and son to pay attention to a “high roller” instead. What is missing from their story is that this “father and son” they refer to are both very good friends of mine. They have been coming to visit the collection for many years. We have had good times and meals together privately before and after the auction, and will continue to do so in the future. Their company : Yes, they certainly ARE cool! But where can us mere is one of the reasons I enjoy this hobby. We spoke several times A mortals obtain them? Can’t see the manufacturer and the during the auction about missed opportunities and what might price tag is in British Pounds. grrrrr..... happen next. But Ramon and “The Microcar Club of Mexico” saw only one interaction from their position at the back of the room and used this one moment in time to paint me as some kind of uncaring and pompous jerk. 4 Microcar News #2 2013 News,rumors,etc... NEWS! Tg500 wins First in Class at Amelia Island Lincoln Highway Tour 2013 March 10 2013 July 1 to July 27, 2013 This FMR Tg500 Roadster owned by J.C. and Judy O’Steen just won First in Class at the Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance 2013. 100 American cars from -Scandanavia- will be coming to the USA It looks even better with the top DOWN, but rules apparently state to drive from New York City to San Francisco on HWY 30, the first that convertible tops must be up/installed. paved cross-country coast-to-coast road. This year marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of the Lincoln Highway. In addition to the Scandanavian owned American automobiles, The win is especially impressive considering that there was not a two vintage microcars will be making the trek: microcar class at the show. Uwe Staufenberg from Germany with his Goggomobil Pickup & The Tiger was placed in a class called “What Were They Thinking?”. Erik Gjermundsen from Norway with his Messerschmitt KR200. Most of the other entries were prototypes and one-off specials, Both look forward to seeing microcar enthusiasts along the way. including a 1949 Veritas, 1951 Packard 200, 1957 Spohns More about the Scandinavian trip and stages at www.LH2013.com convertible, 1962 Tiburon roadster, 1963 Ford Mustang prototype, 1964 Corvette XP-819 and a 1974? Fascination.