1972 BMW 2002 tii

Natural Habitat

Fawudd — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 21:29:36 +0000

an armada of 02sThe tii can dispatch country roads with aplomb, but it is not the sharpest handling car. It will handle hundreds of miles of autobahn/interstate with aplomb as evidenced by it's trips to the Vineyards event and Florida, but with 4 gears, it is not the most relaxed GT car. It will run 500 rpm below the rev limit all day, but it is not a race car. It will carry passengers and luggage with aplomb, but it is no SUV. It attracts attention wherever it goes, but it is no supercar. What it will do is accomplish all of these things on the same trip very well. That is not very well given it's age, it is very well period.

limerock at dawn is always a bit surrealCase in point, the annual pilgrimage to Limerock for the Vintage Festival. The car has made this trip several times, and now the event coincides with the 02 Festival East sponsored by the good folks at Sports Car Restoration http://sports-car-restoration.com . The weekend itself is covered in the main blog, but the trip to and from is what I have come to regard as the natural habitat of the car. A few hundred miles of interstate, about a hundred miles of some of the best feisty parkway in the country (NY's Saw Mill and Taconic), and then about a hundred more of country roads. Add passengers and a weekend worth of Camping gear and luggage, and you get the picture. At the event, the car was popular in the paddock area, and there were two race versions out on track during the weekend. I could have made a commercial for the German sports sedan circa 1972. Job done.

02s were sprinkled liberally aboutThat said, there are two negatives. The first is that as good as the BBS wheels look, they are a royal pain to clean, and they get covered in brake dust pretty quickly. I have even tried different pads, but not much improvement. One fellow 02 owner told me to use less brakes ;-) The other negative is really a positive that turned out to be kind of dangerous this time. People on the highway often chase me down when I go flying by in the left lane, and take a picture with their phone. Fine if the picture taker is a passenger, but I had a driver attempt to drive alongside and use his phone camera while we were both doing 80+ mph. This is not smart. He had a slight swerve and I was on the rumble strip for a second avoiding him. This, we don't need. Overall though, another brilliant trip in a car I can't praise enough.

Sport Utility Sedan

Fawudd — Mon, 30 May 2011 00:08:52 +0000

After an impressive bout of procrastination, I was forced to swap the wheels on the tii by the impending trip down to North Carolina for the Vintage at the Vineyards event. I hauled the BBS wheels up one at a time from the basement, changed them, and then hauled the bottle caps back down one at a time. Pain in the butt, but I got it done. Then work interfered with plans and the trip to NC was shot down. In retaliation, I decided to use the car as daily driver over the long holiday weekend. I drove it to work, on errands, and then on Sunday went to get a few things at the local home center. It dawned on me that this trip in particular exemplified how a 40 year old vehicle (well 39 technically) can still be competent today. It seats four, will haul butt in the left lane (the home center is a few exits away), has a spacious trunk ((2 50lb bags of potting soil, some solar lights, etc), and will dance through the curves on the scenic way home.

One of the back roads home has a tight turn followed by a nice clear stretch. As I rounded the curve and accelerated, a BMW Z4 was coming the other way. We passed about mid way, both doing about 80MPH. I thought I could see the gaping mouth of the other driver as the instantly recognizable snout of the tii flashed past him at speed ! Surprisingly fast, surprisingly useful And, even today, surprisingly good.

The Belated Battery

Fawudd — Sun, 03 Apr 2011 01:00:28 +0000

The thing about having a blog, is that it will cause your laziness to be chronicled ;-) The battery woes of late last fall should have been solved right then, but winter set in, and I didn't get around to addressing the issue until it started to look nice enough to drive again. The old dead battery was sitting on the floor all winter, waiting to be exchanged for a new live one. While it was out, I vowed to do some cleanup of the battery tray area and find the battery bracket that I know I have somewhere. Well, I did cleanup the tray and paint it, but I have not located the bracket so it was zip ties to the rescue for now. I did also end up replacing the positive battery terminal, so we are now in good shape for the season. Now I just need to find the bracket, change the oil, change the wheels......

Of Batteries and Brioche

Fawudd — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 00:15:22 +0000

It was kind of typical. I forgot to put the tii on the trickle charger and that would mean a very weak battery. It was enough to power the dome light and the VDO clock, but I had been here before so I got out the battery charger to give it a starting boost, and then let it charge on the 45 minute jaunt to New Hope for breakfast. I got the trusty old charger out and we were on our way in a few minutes.

It was a beautiful fall morning and the ride was scenic but cool. The cafe au lait and the brioche at my favorite bakery were brilliant as usual. Come time to leave, the key turns and the weak crank soon turns to clicks. No worries, for I am equipped with the battery booster/starter/jump thing that I had purchased in the spring. It should be fully charged and ready to be tested in a real life situation. I pushed the little test button and it showed that it was too weak to be used !! I tried it anyway and it was of no help. Fortunately, the departing couple next to agreed to a jump start and it fired up immediately.

Back at home, I put the meter on the alternator, and it tested fine. The battery charged fully on the charger, but I think it is time for a replacement. This has been a year of battery woes in the garage, so perhaps it is fitting that another one bites the dust. I returned the battery booster to the store and it failed their test too. They exchanged it for another, so we will try again. This is the first time that the tii has ever been less than flawless, but it wasn't the car's fault....

Cruisin to Carlisle

Fawudd — Sun, 23 May 2010 02:27:06 +0000

It may seem like the tii has not been out much, but it flew up to Pocono as you can read in the Back In A Minute post, and went down to New hope just a week ago. The trek to Carlisle for the Import and Kit Replicar Show was something of an annual pilgrimage for a long time. However, I missed the last one or two for various reasons. This year, Ed's car was in good enough shape to make the show, but not to drive the 2 hours needed to get there so he trailered it. I followed in the tii and we had an uneventful trip out. At the event, the showfield had a 7 or 8 2002s along with several other variations of BMW. More impressive was Ed Ulsom's collection of jaw-dropping cars. It included a Bauer Cabriolet, a turbo, and a beautiful black Touring model. Great cars, and rare ones on this side of the Atlantic. For more on the show see the post on the main blog.

The tii continues to be of interest wherever it goes. In particular, people believe the interior is a custom creation rather than factory. It ran flawlessly as usual. Coming back was mostly 80 MPH+ and the car just cruised along. I will need to flush the cooling system though as it ocurred to me that it has been a couple of years now. I also turned on the AC for a bit, and it is cool, but not cold. It has also been a couple of years on that front. I also have the passenger side mirror to replace. Time to tackle a few issues.

PS: I am actively in search of the owner of the Golf-colored 2002tii next to the Nittany Bimmers tent (pictured here). It has an interesting air filter fitment that I would like to discuss.

The WRC and the 02

Fawudd — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 03:41:00 +0000

Back in the 60s and 70s, almost every performance sedan was turned into a rally car by someone. Many were just experiments to prove that an ill-suited car could be made into a rally car if you spent enough time, effort, and money. However, a select few cars became stellar cars in stock form, in rally form, and in many different forms of racing. They became legends and cult cars, and they are worshipped today by people in the know. Such is the case with the BMW 2002. Does the fact that I have owned several over 20 years make me biased toward this fantastic sedan? Yes, but it is still one of the greatest sporting sedans ever built. The competition lineage could fill a book, and in its first year 1968, it shocked the motorsports world. According to Taylor and Macartney (The BMW 2002), in addtion to the European Touring Car and Hillclimb championships, the 2002 had 101 victories, 152 category wins, 1099 calss wins, and 996 gold medals. Not bad for a rookie year!

Such success set the stage for competing in the dirt and gravel and snow of the rally world. There had been BMWs offroad prior to this going back to the prewar era, and including the predecessor 1600. The 2002 continued the proud tradition and competed at the highest level including the inaugural WRC season in 1973. In that year Achim Warmbold won the Rally Poland, and the Austrian Alpine Rally. In the Austrian Rally, 2002s were also 4th, 9th, 14th, and 16th. Here is some great video from that season. By the way, the co-driver for Warmbold in the 2002 that year was none other than current FIA president Jean Todt. Ultimately, the 2002 was not the best platform for a rally car at that time. It had stiff competition from the Lancia Stratos and the Fiat Abarth. It slowly faded out of the competitive rally scene as its production was drawing to a close.

The car looks great in rally trim, and continues to be campaigned in vintage rallies today. It has also become a cult car for a whole new generation. In the words of David E. Davis, you can still turn your hymnals to 2002.

Deeper Into The 02 Cult

Fawudd — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 22:58:57 +0000

A friend of mine bought a 1976 2002 and joined the cult. Let's get something straight right away, this is not his first BMW 2002. In fact, it is not his 2nd or 3rd. But it is the first roadworthy one. He has had several parts cars and we have owned a few together, and then there was the one that needed some work to be roadworthy which gave rise to this one. It is a recognized sign of deepening embace of the 02 cult to simultaneously own more than two of the breed. Particularly if most or all are not roadworthy.

It is a pretty good Chamonix (white) example, with a sound structure, and even a sunroof. Even better, it was being prepared for a life in motorsport (and that's the plan). As such it has nice panasports with racing tires, it has been de-trimmed except for the rain gutters, the battery was relocated to the trunk with a cutoff switch, it has a sport steering wheel, and it has sport seats. But best of all it has....wait for it......Sidedraft Webers. It has a foam filter, but it needs replacement so we used that as an excuse to remove it. The car is not yet running perfectly, but once you open up the throttle, the sound of the open bellmouths makes you just laugh out loud like a maniacal pre-schooler. There is only one thing to do once that happens.

We went for a ride and kept the webers on howl for as much of the ride as possible. It serves to remind us of how good the basic version of these cars were, and are. It also reminds us of how brilliant these cars were, and are, with just a few changes to intake, fuel, and exhaust. This is going to be a good one....

The Oil filter vs Der Olfilter

Fawudd — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 18:22:41 +0000

vintage filterAfter a season of very few actual miles compared to planned, it was time to put the tii to bed for the winter. I usually change the oil and disconnect the battery or leave it on a battery tender. The positive battery post was covered in acid corrosion, while the negative one was free of it. The difference was one of those felt corrosion protecting washers. I had always doubeted that they actually did anything, but this was pretty conclusive evidence. new filter

I drained the oil and removed the filter only to discover that I did not have a replacement filter on the shelf. After a trip to the basement rummaging through stuff, I turned up the period filter pictured complete with sticker ! It ocurred to me that I had not seen a sticker like this actually in the engine bay, so I put a post out on the 2002FAQ list. I decided to keep the vintage filter, so I left the car on the jackstands and ordered a few replacement filters. You can see the new one, the one I removed from the car, and the vintage one along with the obvious differences.

A Visit to Van Sant

Fawudd — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 02:25:33 +0000

The Sunday after Thanksgiving was a clear sunny unusually warm day. I decided to take a run out to Van Sant airport to give the tii some exercise on perhaps one of the few remaining nice days this year. The tii was decked out in its winter livery. ie: Bottlecaps replaced the BBS wheels which had been cleaned and put away for the winter.The car was its' usual brilliant self on the run there and back.

Van Sant Airport is really an airfield complete with grass runways, and is used more for gliders and antique aircraft. On any given Sunday, there is a fair amount of activity as tow planes pull gliders up into the sky. The tow planes themselves are an interesting variety of single engine aircraft of varying age. It is amazing how slowly they get airborne. The hangars contain some more interesting vintage equipment including a biplane or two and a variety of WWII trainers. The radial air-cooled engines are another fascinating aspect of these planes. But I digest....

Every Sunday, Van Sant is a gathering spot for a variety of car and motorcycle enthusiasts of all types. There really is no rhyme or reason other than it is a bucolic setting with some good driving/riding roads surrounding it. I saw one of the first Aston Martin Vantage cars sold in the flesh there, parked next to a Model T. I saw 3 Citroen DS cars there one weekend, along with a Renault 5 Turbo, and a Peugeot 505. Apparently the French club was out enjoying the day. The bikes are just as eclectic. Harley panheads and Ducati 1098s, BMW /2s and Triumph Bonnevilles, BSAs, and Goldwings. You never know what might turn up.

Today continued the traditon. There was a small group of muscle car guys with a Chevelle, a Challenger, and a 57 Chevy, there was a Caterham 7, and an E Type Jag along with my tii. The bikes included a cool RD350 Yamaha, an R90S similar to my own smoke silver except this one was fully assembled. There was also an MV Agusta F4 Senna, a Bonneville, and a bunch of Harleys. You just never know....

Fawudd — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 01:17:00 +0000

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