introducing myself- German TG 500 owner looking for contact in the US&worldwide

[TG500-Martin]

Dear Microcar friends,

first let me introduce myself, Martin Sauer, 46 years old, living in Germany. I am proud & happy owner of 2 Messerschmitt KR 200 and 3 FMR TG 500. 1 KR 200 and 1 TG 500 still in need of full restoration ;-). I got my first KR 200 at the age of 13 and never sold it. I did and still do everything (except bodywork & paint) by myself. Having completed already 4 total rebuilts of TG 500 engines I have some experience with these. In my normal life I am captain on a private jet, I am flying a Hawker 900 XP, mostly all over Europe and Far East countries.

I do have some request:

Together with Heiko Z, who is the german "TG 500 guru" and living just 1 hour away, I am bulding up a TG 500 archive. Well probably it will never be complete, but I want as many pictures as possible of each TG 500 existing. We know of almost 160 worldwide surviving examples by today. (register) We still have some open questions, for example with which framenumber was the FMR sign changed, when did they remove the wooden rails below the side windows etc. I would be really happy if I could receive as many pictures (with the frame number) as possible. Please use my email adress martinair at gmx.de for that. Also the register is listing many cars as "disappeared", being sold or whatever. On request I can submit the VIN's in question. (for example the 2 TG 500 from the last 2 RM auctions, Bruce Weiner (VIN 20563) & New York (VIN 21027)). Any advice on these or the others would be really welcome.

In return I can give advice on rebuilding TG 500 engines or help with parts. There is quite much available right now. For example I had the clutch hubs remade last year. And since I am driving my 2 restored TG 500 quite much (including racing), I probably can answer many questions.

looking forward to your emails!

Martin

on the picture you can see Heiko Z (grey TG 500) and myself (red TG 500- still wearing original paint!) racing in Germany at the 2011 Solitude Revival   

[kabinenroller]

Hello Martin,
First of all I applaud your effort to compile a current list of TG500's. I have in my shop under restoration one of the two TG's that were sold by Bruce Wiener at the Christies auction in 1997.
I will send the information for this car and some pictures to your private email.
Please share the list when you have it ready, TG's are special and knowing all the facts is important.
I have forwarded this post to some other TG owners who may not read this site on a normal basis.
Regards ,
Jim Garbo
The 'Schmitt Haus
Messerschmitt Specialties
kabinenroller55@yahoo.com

[TG500-Martin]

Hi Jim,
thank you very much, I am really looking forward to your pictures.
We won't share the complete list, I will explain why:
It already happened in the past that people (especially in Germany) created replica-cars around a VIN the register listed as "disappeared" or "scrapped". This is not the goal- giving people a hint about an identity they could use. This is a problem with many other cars- Bugatti 35 or BMW 328 just to name a few as example.
What we definetly will do is giving an owner of an original car all the facts that we have, for example, if we know, in which color it left the factory, number of the matching engine, who was the first owner, where, what, when, sold there to whom, etc etc.
what I also can do is a website with pictures of the cars I received pictures from, if their owners agree. Right now I have pictures of ca. 25 cars, mostly from Germany taken on our different meetings.
Thank you for your understanding.

[TG500-Martin]

what I forgot: Heiko's register is a perfect tool to help with many questions, for example with one of the engines that I had we were able to re-unite this engine with the car it was delivered with. That was because the register had the info that this engine was in that car when it left the factory, and it also had the info that I was the present owner of it.

My photo-archive shall be an addition to Heiko's register, Heiko turned 70 2 years ago, when I came up with the idea he said: pictures- good idea, but not me anymore, so go ahead! We exchange informations about all the cars we get infos from. For example there is a car far east of Germany which I might be able to take pictures of while I am on duty with my plane. These people also need some more info and help to keep it running. I would be happy to help them as much as I can.

[TG500-Martin]

one car which is believed to be in the US is this one.

The register doesn't have any information about it, not even the VIN. Picture is approximatly 10 years old, Owner at that time seemed to be a Lady from Kansas. We can only see that it seems to be an early one (4 holes in the back).

If anybody could help us with any information about this car, that would be really apprechiated.

[kabinenroller]

Hello Martin,
Yes, I understand that making too much information public could have bad results. I am in the process of writing you a personal e mail with the information for two cars. One of them I restored for the owner a few years ago and the other is the car I mentioned in my first post. I restore these cars but do not own a TG, I do own a KR201 and a KR200.
As for the car that you posted a picture of, I do not recognize it.
I am surprised that you have not posted this request on the Yahoo "Schmitt Talk" forum. Most every Messerschmitt owner  that I know reads this forum regularly.
You will receive my email shortly.
Regards,
Jim Garbo
The 'Schmitt Haus

[TG500-Martin]

Dear Jim,

thank you very much for the emails- I will answer them seperatly. I am at vacation right now (diving in Egypt) so I didn't take the register with me. But I am in contact with Heiko.

I will post my request in the yahoo group as well. The problem is: I really don't like it. It doesn't have any structure and it is really time consuming if you want to look for something special.

all the best, Martin

[TG500-Martin]

today I reached the number of 90 different files in my archive. Thank you very much for your replies- especially Jim G.

The search is not over- still a few cars missing, in the US we believe:

20533 (red, dometop)
20554 (the RM Bruce Weiner car) well I think I know where it is, but as long as this gentleman doesn't reply I consider it as missing.
20555 (white, dometop)
21027 (yellow/black, dometop, the RM New York car)

all cars went through the hands of Mr. Weiner.

any help appreachiated. Thanks.

[TG500-Martin]

21027 is not missing anymore.

I discovered it last week- in Moscow/Russia. Owner has a 2nd TG 500, which I saw & inspected in his workshop.

My archive has now more than 1000 pictures of 107 different cars. Plus several pictures, where I don't know the relating VIN.

[Jim Janecek]

is the 2nd Tiger in Moscow the ex-Harrah's collection Tg?  21121 with engine 2922

[TG500-Martin]

yes it is. And it is in good hands.