Collection Gift Guide: The Time Traveler
December 1, 2006
Most folks will tell you that H.G. Wells’ fabled time machine remains the
figment of a fertile imagination. But those people have not slid behind the wheel of one
very special BMW 2002tii.
The setting is the famous San Francisco intersection of Haight and Ashbury.
The time-warping device of choice is an oh-so-psychedelic Inka orange 2002 that BMW’s Mobile
Tradition division recently cobbled together almost entirely from parts stored in its
vast Teutonic vault.
Slip the slightly stiff clutch, and the car confidently buzzes off the line.
As the speed gradually ticks upward, the images outside the expansive windows blur back to
1966—is that Janis sauntering down the street, or maybe Jerry and the rest of the Dead?
Cast your gaze on the 2002’s interior, and the view also is nearly 40 years old, from its
just-the-facts-ma’am dash to its utter lack of electronic aides.
While the car-loving Bay Area still turns up the occasional 2002, this one is
particularly eye-catching. Maybe it’s the German plate stretched across its rear end, or
the factory-fresh condition of its paint and chrome, but there is little doubt
this example of BMW’s iconic, and some might argue company-making, car is not a
run-of-the-mill restoration or even a well-kept original. Simply put: It is as new as an old car can
be.
Not that it is perfect. When area BMW mechanic and amateur rally driver Bill
Arnold pops the hood of the 2002 behind his Marin County garage, his ear-to-ear grin turns
south. “Oh no, that valve cover,” he shouts in mock horror, a grease-covered Dracula
spotting the sun. “It’s from a 1976 320. I have the correct one; please take it to BMW.”
And BMW takes his dusty part, gladly. “We never had the intention to build a
car for a concours,” says Manfred Grunert, a BMW public relations man who focuses on
heritage products. “Our goal was to prove how efficient our historical part service
works—and to remember the 2002 series and its important role in BMW history.”
No argument there. The phrase Arnold uses is the same one repeated by other
car cognoscenti: “This is the car that put BMW on the map, at least in America.”
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