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As with Andrew’s R107, purists will want to look away from today’s car.
This 2002 is a mix of eras, to say the least. Representing the 70s is, of course, the base car – here augmented by Turbo-esque bodywork. Representing the 80s, the fantastic but oddly placed Centra Type 7 wheels and a 5-speed manual transmission from an E21, along with some Recaro front seats and E24-sourced rear seats. for good measure, there’s what appears to be a Volvo Turbo badge thrown on the rear. The 90s? This thing is rockin’ an Alpine stereo, of course. And from the Naughts comes one of BMW’s best shades, Laguna Seca Blue. The combination of all these things would perhaps lead you to believe that it should be this car that has the 1JZ under the hood, but no – a recently rebuilt M10 is still lingering. So does this car pull it all off?
Having just looked at a few modded fails, I think it’s relevant to remind ourselves that not all modified cars are in bad taste! And where better to start than one of the most popular classics that people like to customize; the BMW 2002.
A few months back I took a look at a wild Zender-bodied example that pulled it all together rather well, if a bit extreme:
1973 BMW 2002tii Zender Widebody
Today’s example is one year newer and a lot more tame, but no less shouty. This example has undergone the knife and come out sporting Turbo-style flares, an M42 DOHC inline-4, and a host of other mods all draped in Porsche’s Miami Blue. Does it pull it off?
The 2002 Turbo is not the type of car that you typically ‘roll the dice’ on. With asking prices for many at or over $100,000 today, they’re one of the established royalty of the storied halls of BMW. The KKK turbocharged slapped on the M10 resulted in a Corvette-killing 170 horsepower in the mid-70s. This was cutting-edge technology as one of the first turbocharged production cars and required the efforts of BMW’s Motorsport division to pull it all off. With just 1,672 produced, they’re rare as proverbial hens’ teeth too.
Yet here is a claimed example that has been restored and is being offered at no reserve, with bids sitting at just $13,100 at time of writing. Is this the deal of the century, or is something amiss?
With only 1,672 produced now some 45 years ago, your odds of coming across a 2002 Turbo today are fairly unlikely. Yet over the past few years I’ve taken a look at a steady stream of the legendary hot E10. While the M5 is often credited with being the first real ‘super sedan’, a decade before that model launched BMW’s fledgling Motorsports division breathed heavily on the diminutive 2-door sedan, creating a pint-sized sports car killer. I covered what made it so special back in 2017:
1974 BMW 2002 Turbo
The third 2002 we’ve looked at in three weeks, this is one that definitely ticks the right boxes as the collector car left out of the EAG Legends collection. But what will it take to buy today?
