ONE of the cutest minicars ever made was the Kleinschnittger F125.
It looked like a pedal car, but was a serious attempt by German engineer Paul Kleinschnittger to provide a cheap, driveable vehicle for the masses in the wake of WWII.
The nation, like most of Europe, was in tatters after the war and vehicle production, of any kind — was near impossible.
However, Herr Kleinschnittger had already built a few basic cars since 1933, using a 98cc DKW two-stroke motor for propulsion, but that model never went into series production.
Soon after the end of hostilities, he found a former military airfield, probably the one at Leck, where captured and damaged aircraft had been parked, pending their destruction by US forces.
He went there almost daily, sourcing parts he could use to build his dream of producing econocars at his nearby workshop.
That’s where he had for long been doing general repairs for farmers in the area, often on a barter system.
He wanted his cars to look good too and designed a neat aluminium body, which was riveted onto a lightweight tube frame.
The little stunner soon featured in the press and attracted an investor named Walther Lembke, who financed the construction of a small factory near Arnsberg and the development of the car.
Called the Kleinschnittger F125, it was put into series production.
The cutie had a 125cc single-cylinder two-stroke 4kW motor from ILO Moterenwerke and a three-speed transmission.
It had no reverse gear, but it had a mass of only 135kg, so it was easy enough to get out, lift it by the tail and turn it around.
Also missing was a self-starter.
To fire up the little beauty the driver had to give a cord under the dashboard a sharp tug, just like starting lawnmowers of a few years ago.
The shapely roadster body was just 264cm in length and 114cm wide, and it was made of hand-beaten aluminium over a steel tubular Wachtendord & Schmidt chassis.
Among the leftovers from the war were some supersize ex-German army cast iron cooking pots, which, cut into quarters proved to be perfect moulds for the front mudguards.
Other innovations included independent rubber band suspension for each of the four wheels – a radical and effective change from the traditional coil or leaf springs.
The F125 had a top speed of 70km/h and was very fuel efficient, using only 2.5L/100km (or 94 miles per gallon in imperial terms).
Kleinschnittger also produced the F250, which had a 250cc ILO engine giving 15 hp (11.2kW).
It consumed roughly 4.0L/100km (58.8 miles per gallon). Only 22 of them were produced.
In the late 1940s exports of the F125 were going ahead and residents of Arnsberg often entertained by the weird sight of a string of 15 cars being towed down the main street behind the company owner’s Fiat en route to the train station.
Then, halfway through May, in 1950, Lembke got a case of financial panics and left the project.
Bank credit was arranged instead, but the bankers had more passion for balance sheets than motor cars and closed him down in August, 1957 after nearly 3000 F125s had been built.
Afterwards, he became a beloved figure in the microcar community and supplied spares to his fans until his death in 1985.
An immaculate example from the Bruce Weiner Microcar Museum was this year auctioned by RM Sotheby’s and sold for US$48,300 (AU$69,500).
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