Vintage BMW racecar identification

[tisalover]

In a moment of weakness I bought myself a Christmas present. The Vin number is 1670728. The second owner/ racer of the car said that it had always been a race car and BMW 1600. I found the Vin number on the drivers inside door. I could not find the stamped one that goes in the front of the car near the snorkel.  Does anybody remember where else they hid any other Vin numbers. Is this a 1600 or 2002? Unfortunately the aluminum passenger side Engine compartment riveted Vin plate is missing.The original color is Granada red. When I looked this up on the Columbian decoder it comes out as a 1969 2002.  The plan is to make it a vintage snotty fast duall purpose street/ race car if I can get headlights and a few other things put into it.

Also if anyone knows of a good source for Plexiglas sliding driver and passenger windows it is going to need some minor weather protection. Luckily the windshield wiper and a few other key bits have been left in it. The good news is a full shack motor with very little time on it, plus close ratio 5 sp box, very serious brakes and other nice period parts from back in the day. 

 

thanks for the help, 

 

[HBChris]

VIN should be stamped on passenger side fender next to hood latch bar.  It's a 2002, built 12/69 from the number and as shown on your door decal.  6,390 built in 69 so you are around 100 from the end.

Edited December 27, 2016 by HBChris

[72ITB]

nice car!!! good luck

[Conserv]

13 hours ago, HBChris said:

VIN should be stamped on passenger side fender next to hood latch bar.  It's a 2002, built 12/69 from the number and as shown on your door decal.  6,390 built in 69 so you are around 100 from the end.

 

Very cool, Peter!

 

In addition to the chassis VIN that Chris points to, your new car appears to retain the top steering column cover, which received a small VIN tag on U.S. models -- and this is a U.S. 1970 model, having been manufactured after August 1969 and before September 1970).  Unlike the chassis VIN stamped into the outer edge of the right inner fender, however, these steering column covers are easily changed and are thus a less dependable verification of a car's original VIN.

 

Enjoy!

 

Regards,

 

Steve

 

Edited December 27, 2016 by Conserv

[Mike Self]

Cars with 166xxxx-167xxxx VINs are 68-69-70-early -71 US spec 2002s.  US 1600s had VINs beginning with 156 and 157. 

 

If it was built in Dec 1969 per the door label, it's actually a 1970 model car.  Model years--at least for the US market--run from 1 Sept to 31 August.  The confusion factor is that VIN listings from BMW are usually by calendar year (1 Jan-31 Dec).  Model year US spec 2002s began with 1666901, so yours is about 3000 cars into the 1970 model year run.  

 

As for your side windows, it might be easier just to reinstall the original lift mechanisms, glass and tracks than try to engineer sliding windows--especially since the 2002 has frameless window glass on the doors.  All the pieces you need should be available used on the FAQ, and really don't weigh that much. 

 

Neat car...I'm sure you're gonna have fun with it.

 

mike

[markmac]

Good looking car.  The seat looks like an old period Recaro (schalenisitze), very valuable even if its jacked up.  They used them in o2's (alpina's and schnitzer) and of course the Porsche guys wet themselves over them.(they do).  There were a couple of folks over in Europe that were making / re-making the glass door / frame / sliding plex door/window assemblies, working on getting my blog back (rescued from Google), I can try to find the names for you.  Its great to see that these things still seem to surface from time to time.  Have fun with your project!

Edited December 28, 2016 by markmac

[Clay]

Not sure if you want to hear a second opinion, but here it goes....Race cars that have a long history should be left alone and enjoyed on the track. The suspension is not set up for street driving. If the car has the long history you mentioned earlier, your efforts would be best spent getting it ready for track days and maybe even vintage racing. This car would fit great into the B sedan Trans-Am 2.5 Challenge revival series. Anywho, just a thought.  Great Car!

Edited December 28, 2016 by Clay

[M3M3]

7 minutes ago, Clay said:

Not sure if you want to hear a second opinion, but here it goes....Race cars that have a long history should be left alone and enjoyed on the track. The suspension is not set up for street driving. If the car has the long history you mentioned earlier, your efforts would be best spent getting it ready for track days and maybe even vintage racing. This car would fit great into the B sedan Tran-Am 2.5 Challenge revival series. Anywho, just a thought.  Great Car!

agree.   race cars with full roll cages are not good street cars.  put that thing back on track where it belongs!

 

so what is the backstory on how you found it?  where was it hiding?

Edited December 28, 2016 by mlytle

[craz_azn]

6 minutes ago, Clay said:

Not sure if you want to hear a second opinion, but here it goes....Race cars that have a long history should be left alone and enjoyed on the track. The suspension is not set up for street driving. If the car has the long history you mentioned earlier, your efforts would be best spent getting it ready for track days and maybe even vintage racing. This car would fit great into the B sedan Tran-Am 2.5 Challenge revival series. Anywho, just a thought.  Great Car!

 Totally agree!

 

Awesome score! Keep us updated on the project. 

[NickVyse]

great find!

[jgerock]

Peter,

i continue to be amazed by your collection of cool vehicles. Adding this 70 race car to your stable is even better (for me) since I can watch someone else labor over a project rather than me.  As mentioned above, please delve into how and where you found this one.  If the ignition switch is still present, please advise if it has a "garage" position like my 69 originally did.

 

Jim

[rich2002tii]

Want those BBS wheels!

[tisalover]

My BMW brothers, forgive this tardy response-- the holiday, family, and work have devoured much time and I did not want to give a rushed answer as regards the backstory on this car, as it is interesting.

Jim the car does have its ignition switch, and it seems to have the garage section on it, I have not picked the car up yet as it needs the front suspension, wheels and brakes on  it before it can be moved. Jim -I am not as compulsive about my cars as you are, and I have a beyond tremendous respect for the incredible beauty and build Quality of your blue 1969 restoration TI and the Tii.

Mike Self, and Steve,thank you both as always for your expertise and wisdom. I was confused by the anecdotal history that the car was a 1600. Now we know better I can get a title for it.

 

I sent the race car brake calipers out to an excellent place which Mike Pugh recommended, (thanks Mike! ) under car express  "UCX" in Cleveland Ohio, for full caliper rebuilds. I too highly recommend them and they have done great jobs on several sets of calibers at this point.The car has old fashion aluminum front 4 piston front calipers, and two piston aluminum Girling rear calipers-vintage state of the art, they fit into extra wide ventilated rotors, sort of like a 1980s Porsche 911 style, inside the 13 inch wheel.

 

The backstory: this car belonged to a friend of my late father's named Alan,  they were both BMW enthusiasts in the 1960s, 70s and 80s. My first car was a four-door BMW 1800 which had all of the 2000 Tilux running gear and twin 40 Weber carburetors purchased from the owner of this GT three car, Alan, after a friend of his rolled his minty Tilux end over end. My dad bought the remains of the Tilux and that was the beginning of my long NK BMW sports car obsession/illness.(I was around 12 years old at that time, and enthralled by the sound of the Weber carburetors. I had tried to get my dad to buy a 2002 Dual St./Hillclimb car which was Alan's first race car. I also tried to get dad to buy a perfect Lotus Elan with the knock off wheels in British racing green, but he was becoming more practical at this stage of his life.)

Alan raced in the GT three class against a famous Volvo racer name John Flannery all through the 70s, on the Pennsylvania SCCA Hillclimb championship circuits. Unfortunately John Flannery died just this last year, and as we all grow older we are losing important, respected elder friends. I'm feeling sentimental, as many of the people who knew my dad and would tell me stories about him are now dying off.    I often feel that after everyone who has known You dies, You will cease to exist.

 

So this robins egg blue 2002 race car is closely entwined in my own past, as I have known Alan for over 40 years. About eight years ago Alan gave the car to his nephew who is also a BMW enthusiast. His nephew recently decided that the car needed more work and attention then he wanted to spend on it, so I offered to buy it. Surprisingly, the car had moved from the coal regions(Wilkes-Barre) and wound up-only 20 minutes away from my home in Lancaster Pennsylvania.

 

As regards Marshall and Craisins comments on keeping a racecar a race car, I mostly agree. My problem is that I hate needing a trailer and a Chevy suburban in order to get something to the track. Over the years I have found that my favorite vehicles were dual purpose race Street cars, given that all my racing has been in historic classes, I won four years of SCCA  championships in the 80s, but then realized I am more interested in sliding around corners without going to jail then winning per se. This car would likely be run at summit point, the beaver track, and places like Pittsburgh vintage Grand Prix and historic classes in the Pennsylvania Hillclimb series. I have always just put the race tires and wheels on a roof rack I have (left over from when I went surfing regularly in Santa Barbara California), and have modified to carry slicks. I drive more carefully When I need the race car to get back home. I also enjoy being able to take something out of the garage and blow the snot out of it on some of the more desolate roads in the local countryside. I have done this happily for many years with my 1972 Porsche 911  and the BMW TISA. Part of the plan for this new 2002 racecar is to have something which I can drive more aggressively and not worry about, as the TISA has gotten to be very rare, there don't seem to be more than 30 or so of them left on the planet.

I can also put period Correct parts that I have collected on to the robins egg blue car, as I very much like that early BMW time period, predominantly the pig cheek flare era When people would drive cars across Europe to get to different tracks. This will allow me to put an old TISA seat in it, and other appropriate vintage parts which I've collected.

 

So the reason I got this car is because A. I love old BMWs B. I love old BMW racecars and C. it is one of the only vehicles which dovetails with friends of the family and my own earliest BMW motorsport involvement.

 

Best regards, I will keep you posted and let you know when it's up and running. Peter

 

 

P. S. Apparently WFO stands for Wide F***ing Open

 

 

 

 

[Conserv]

Great background story, Peter, as I knew you would provide!

 

Sorry to hear about John Flannery's passing.  John serviced my first BMW, a '70 model, in the early '70's.  I recall John and the inside of his shop well, the shop was on Linden or North 14th Street, just south of Reading High. (I was born in the Reading Hospital and reared in Wyomissing.)

 

Best regards,

 

Steve

 

[jgerock]

Peter - thanks for the kind comments.  I was just on a business trip visiting a customer in Leola, PA so I was very close to your place.  Maybe next trip I can swing by and shoot the breeze.

 

ps:  If you ever need a low buck car battery, take your old core to the East Penn Mfg. battery store in Lyon Station.  East Penn makes the Deka brand and private labels many batteries.  Their store offers basic black batteries without any stickers on them.  

http://www.eastpennmanufacturing.com/about/history/

 

 

Jim