Melle 2013

Melle Tour 2013

The 14th German Steam Automobile Tour was based as always at the Automuseum in Melle and organised by Heiner and Anne Marie Rössler and their excellent team of helpers. The Firing Up Dinner was Saturday night, 28th April, with tour routes of around 80kms (50miles) on the following four days and finishing off with the Blow Down Dinner on the Wednesday evening. We needn’t have worried about not being able to understand German as the tour routes were so very easy to understand with self explanatory diagrams for every turn. There were 16 steam cars participating from six countries – two Whites, Udo Puchert’s 1902 Waltham, two Locomobiles, a Likamobile and 10 Stanleys with another two cars on static display; a 1906 Stanley Vanderbilt Cup Racer and a 1911 Stanley Model 63. Even the fragile little tiller steered cars managed to complete the routes which were through very pretty countryside, past historic homes, castles and country estates with just the gentlest of hills to tax us. The slowest cars would catch the faster cars up at the frequent coffee stops. A special mention here to Lucia Serventi driving her 1900 Locomobile Style 2 who never gave up. It was such a treat to have a back-up service team following us all every day – if any car faltered it was quickly put onto a platform trailer and whisked back to base. What luxury! It was a lovely surprise to see the ex-David Webster/John Liming Stanley Model R arrive, now owned by Willy Smessaert from Belgium, and the ex-Tom Dawson Stanley 750A driven to the tour by its 21 year old owner René Hopf. The ex-Marion Cole 735B effortlessly completed the tour driven by Bob Bruin and we met the new owner of the ex-Bill Lowe 735B, Captain Reinhard Kloser. This was the first time that Mike Mutters, Bill Rich and Basil Craske had joined fellow Brit’ Arthur Thomson and Jerry Stoneman  in taking cars to Germany, but all agreed that it won’t be the last, it was a great experience. Thank you everyone, organisers and participants, for making us all so welcome.

Participants
​
Arthur Thomson    White    OO    1910
Basil  Craske    Stanley    70    1910
Mike  Mutters    Stanley    606    1914
Bill  Rich    Stanley    6.5 HP Runabout    1903
Willy  Smessaert    Stanley     R    1908
Jean  Tilmans    Stanley    Mountain Wagon    1913
Bob  Bruin    Stanley    735 B    1919
Gerry  Stoneman    Stanley    Vanderbilt Cup Racer    1906
Charles  Whitworth    Likamobile    2008
Wvittorio  Serventi    Locomobile    Style 2    1900
Peter  Würinger    Locomobile    Style 2    1900
Arnoud  Carp    White    D    1904
Udo  Puchert    Waltham    1902
Heiner  Rössler    Stanley    735 B    1919
René  Hopf    Stanley    750 A    1924
Exhibit
Helmut  Karbe    Stanley    Vanderbilt Cup Racer    1906
Karl-Heinz  Rehkopf    Stanley    63    1911

Owners w/o car

Albert  Seigers    Homebuilt Doble
Captain  Kloser    Stanley     735 B
Martin Werbeck    Stanley    735 B