Wednesday 30th September 2015

BMW 2002: Time For Coffee?

A Petrolicious video on a BMW owned by a car designer. Not an X6, surprisingly enough...

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Anybody disillusioned with the current BMW line up, of front-wheel drive MPVs and diesel crossovers, should spare a few minutes with their morning brew to watch this. It's a two-door, rear-wheel drive sports saloon, light and raw and with an emphasis on driver enjoyment. Not efficiency or ruddy configurability...

This stunning 2002 is owned by Radu Muntean, who is a car designer. Says a lot about how right the 2002 still looks 40 years later that a man who does it for a living loves the car's appearance. Muntean openly admits too that the car won't appeal to purists but the spec is pretty hard to argue with: M20 straight-six transplant, limited-slip diff, coilovers and so on. A car previously treated as a garage queen is now used much more regularly; good on you Radu!

The link between drawing and driving may seem a little tenuous but the rest of the video is spot on, as we've come to expect from Petrolicious. A car enthusiast with a great car talking about and driving his great car; take a look!

Watch the video here.
 

[edinph]

Superb! A man who has EXACTLY the car he wants.................

[soad]

[derin100]

My first ever car...at age 19 in 1982...a 1974 2002tii !

Happy days!

[LotusOmega375D]

I had a boggo manual round rear light 2002 when I lived in Germany in the early 1990s. Beige and hub-caps, so real grandad spec. Bodily restored it still went quite well!

Here's a terrible photo. NB: I've still got the football shirt! (they were quite good back then!)

[unsprung]

Outstanding.

ps: he now works for Tesla

[twizellb]

derin100 said:

My first ever car...at age 19 in 1982...a 1974 2002tii !

Happy days!

I had a red one with minilites and cibies, back in the early 80s.
Great cars, had the legs on my brothers 3.0 Capri.
I wish i still had one for the weekends now, very cool cars.

[iloveboost]

unsprung said:

Outstanding.

ps: he now works for Tesla

It's pretty yummy. I'd take the yellow fog lights off if it was mine, but it's a good looking car. Bet it's great fun, and I would love to have a twisty canyon road like that near me. I get a bit jealous every time I watch another 'Smoking Tire' video, as Matt goes driving through some nice canyons. In my experience you don't really get roads that twisty and beautiful in England.

[vtecyo]

My uncle had one of the very first ones in the country back in the day. In a lime green colour if I remember the photo my mum dug out a few years ago!

[unsprung]

iloveboost said:

It's pretty yummy. I'd take the yellow fog lights off if it was mine, but it's a good looking car. Bet it's great fun, and I would love to have a twisty canyon road like that near me. I get a bit jealous every time I watch another 'Smoking Tire' video, as Matt goes driving through some nice canyons. In my experience you don't really get roads that twisty and beautiful in England.

Yes, I see what you mean. Removing those yellow fog lights might clean up the nose a bit. I don't mind them, however. Perhaps they lend a bit of character.

One thing about fog and Los Angeles:

In the morning, it's not uncommon for fog or grey skies to take hold in parts of the city. Or to nestle in and around the nearby canyons.

For one or two hours, it looks almost like a bog-standard morning in some parts of northern Europe. But this condensation quickly burns off. And the rest of the day will be shouty blue skies and nary a cloud.

So, when the June Gloom sets in, it's possible that this bloke actually uses those fog lights.

[g3org3y]

LIKE!

A 2002tii is on my 'to buy' list.

[JMF894]

Never been a purist myself as I've always believed in 'personalising' things.

Lovely car, lovely sound.

Jealous

[dinkel]

German performance yum:

http://www.pistonheads.com/Gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

70s and 80s stuff is up for grabs. Restoration can be a real pain and a money pit: window rubber to mention one.

I wonder how a good 2002 compares to a Giulia.

[dandare]

Beautiful. I love the Schnitzer wings.