Needle in Haystack - 1970 2002 Alpina

[grbbenny]

7 hours ago, mongo3251 said:

I am the guy that bought the car from you and took it to Dearborn. I kept it for a few years and then sold it to my brother. He kept it for a few years and sold it to a family friend. After that it ended up somewhere on the central east coast.  We all did mostly good thing to improve it as well as a few dumb things along he way. Best thing I did was install a close ratio 5 speed. I will try to find some pictures of when I had it. 

Anthony - amazing! How did you hear about this post?

 

Graham

[JsnPpp]

Sounds like this car could still be tracked down!  Love the photos, perfect stance, beautiful car.

 

Jason

[Mike Self]

11 hours ago, grbbenny said:

What kind of steering wheel is that?

Could be a Raid--a lesser known aftermarket wheel company from France--more often found on (French) Alpines and Renaults....but that's a guess too.

 

mike

[mongo3251]

The steering wheel was definitely a Moto Lita. I stripped and polished the spokes to shiny aluminum when I had the car.  That car was the one I wish I still had....it was very nice but deserved to be fully restored by somebody.  I also remember my father throwing out the steel Alpina wheels that were cluttering his garage. I was away at college at the time it happened and didn’t realize the travesty at the time. 10-15 years ago I saw a tiny picture of the Alpina on a page of a Bav Auto catalog. No question it was it because it had the dual rear side marker lights. It was a “track” photo from I believe was VIR. Maybe somebody can track down that photo. I think it even showed the owners name next to the photo. Graham, crazy that we are discussing this 32 years later! 

[mongo3251]

Here are a couple of pics I found. I remember having to modify the base of the panasport center caps to accept the chrome BMW caps that are shown in these photos....

[grbbenny]

Response from BMW Archives:

 

The BMW 2002 US VIN 1675426 was manufactured on June 10th, 1970 and delivered on August 28th, 1970 to Canada. The original colour was Colorado, paint code 002.

We hope this information is helpful for you.

Yours sincerely,

Andreas Harz

 

The eleven week delay between manufacturing and shipment must include its detour through Alpina's shop.

[ClassDavid]

On 6/1/2019 at 10:18 AM, mccusername said:

@grbbenny Do you know the name of that BMW dealership in Calgary? I just bought a '68 1600ti out of Alberta and I'm trying to track down as much of its history as I can. Apparently the original owner said he purchased it at the 'first' BMW dealership in Canada-- but it might have been the first dealership in western Canada. I'm not sure if it was Calgary or Vancouver. The dealership raced the car for a year or two before selling it. Seems like the kind of dealership that would order two Alpina cars.

Thanks,

Michael

 

Hey Michael! I'm the idiot that sold the 1600ti to you! ? Your ti was actually sold at "the bmw store" In vancouver. It was the first official BMW dealership in Canada and started in 1968. What makes your car even more special is that it would have been used as a promotional vehicle. Hence the racing and upgrades. It is quite likely one of the first 02's ever officially imported here.

 

As for the Alpina 2002 That is an unreal car! I might have some history on the other car. There was a 2002ti for sale a few years ago on the far that had Alpina upgrades but I am unsure if they were done from factory. The 2002ti is on the left In this picture and the one on the right was supposedly an Alpina car! This was in Calgary in 1971. 

 

 

 

Edited June 3, 2019 by ClassDavid

[Conserv]

1 hour ago, grbbenny said:

Response from BMW Archives:

 

The BMW 2002 US VIN 1675426 was manufactured on June 10th, 1970 and delivered on August 28th, 1970 to Canada. The original colour was Colorado, paint code 002.

We hope this information is helpful for you.

Yours sincerely,

Andreas Harz

 

The eleven week delay between manufacturing and shipment must include its detour through Alpina's shop.

 

Very possibly. And if you wanted to do more research, you could contact Alpina and see if they have any record of it. (Markmac, and, now, coloincaalpine, could probably provide a person to contact.)

 

Great. Let’s get the car, the Archives report, and all these photos, into the Registry!

 

A car with a very close VIN, 1676010 (June 23, 1970), appears to have a similar Alpina history. The facts don’t quite align, but I’m already thinking about the other Canadian Alpina car from 1970, as possibly shown in ClassDavid’s photo above... ?

 

(I’d love to see the Archives report for VIN 1676010. Does it, similarly, show a large gap between manufacturing date and legal delivery of title to the Canadian importer? Could that explain the odd occurrence of a 1971 emissions sticker on a June 1970 car, as in “it was imported post September 1, 1970, and thus, therefore, got a 1971 sticker”... )

 

Regards,

 

Steve

 

 

Edited June 3, 2019 by Conserv

[grbbenny]

28 minutes ago, Conserv said:

 

Very possibly. And if you wanted to do more research, you could contact Alpina and see if they have any record of it. (Markmac, and, now, coloincaalpine, could probably provide a person to contact.)

 

Great. Let’s get the car, the Archives report, and all these photos, into the Registry!

 

A car with a very close VIN, 1676010 (June 23, 1970), appears to have a similar Alpina history. The facts don’t quite align, but I’m already thinking about the other Canadian Alpina car from 1970, as possibly shown in ClassDavid’s photo above... ?

 

(I’d love to see the Archives report for VIN 1676010. Does it, similarly, show a large gap between manufacturing date and legal delivery of title to the Canadian importer? Could that explain the odd occurrence of a 1971 emissions sticker on a June 1970 car, as in “it was imported post September 1, 1970, and thus somehow got a 1971 sticker”... )

 

Regards,

 

Steve

 

 

I do know that the other 'Calgary Alpina' was white. It came up for sale when I had mine and I went and had a look. It had not received the same love as the Colorado car and was really rough. It had one Weber and one Solex at that point.

[grbbenny]

56 minutes ago, ClassDavid said:

 

Hey Michael! I'm the idiot that sold the 1600ti to you! ? Your ti was actually sold at "the bmw store" In vancouver. It was the first official BMW dealership in Canada and started in 1968. What makes your car even more special is that it would have been used as a promotional vehicle. Hence the racing and upgrades. It is quite likely one of the first 02's ever officially imported here.

 

As for the Alpina 2002 That is an unreal car! I might have some history on the other car. There was a 2002ti for sale a few years ago on the far that had Alpina upgrades but I am unsure if they were done from factory. The 2002ti is on the left In this picture and the one on the right was supposedly an Alpina car! This was in Calgary in 1971. 

 

 

 

So interesting! That looks like the exhaust that was on the car when I bought it.

 

I know that the original owner of the Alpina did compete with the car. In fact, he put the car on its side at one of the hillclimbs that the Calgary Sports Car Club used to run on the CFCN Hill!

 

The ti that was 'sort of for sale' on the FAQ in 2013 was restored by the Sales Manager at T&T BMW - really nice car with all the right stuff. My brother worked there at the time and helped him jet the Webers. It may well be the same ti as that shown above. I wonder where that car ended up? Very strange sale process!

Edited June 3, 2019 by grbbenny

[Conserv]

2 minutes ago, grbbenny said:

....It had one Weber and one Solex at that point.

 

 

Now that’s a configuration I’ve not yet seen....

 

Regards,

 

Steve

 

[Conserv]

1 hour ago, ClassDavid said:

 

Hey Michael! I'm the idiot that sold the 1600ti to you! ? Your ti was actually sold at "the bmw store" In vancouver. It was the first official BMW dealership in Canada and started in 1968. What makes your car even more special is that it would have been used as a promotional vehicle. Hence the racing and upgrades. It is quite likely one of the first 02's ever officially imported here.

 

As for the Alpina 2002 That is an unreal car! I might have some history on the other car. There was a 2002ti for sale a few years ago on the far that had Alpina upgrades but I am unsure if they were done from factory. The 2002ti is on the left In this picture and the one on the right was supposedly an Alpina car! This was in Calgary in 1971. 

 

 

 

 

The left car, the ti, has Campagnolo’s. This particular model, in a 4x100 PCD, was available in a 7” width, and a rarer 5 1/2” width. The front rim certainly looks like a 5 1/2” version, but the rear rim seems to have a bit more dish, although I can’t imagine it’s a 7” version, based on the inset of the tire from the fender lip.

 

The right car, the “non-ti”, indeed, has a rear exhaust with dual center exits. But, beyond Alpina, there were many suppliers of this style exhaust back in the day, including Stebro and Ansa. I had an Ansa on my ‘70 — or was it a Stebro... ??

 

The non-ti also has Euro-spec rear license plate lights, rare back in the day on U.S.-spec cars (there were fewer “U.S.-to-Euro” bumper conversions back in the day). Given the simultaneous lack of the factory U.S.-spec license plate lights — there appear to be substitutes with small reflectors — I suspect the non-ti started its life as a Euro-spec car.

 

Regards,

 

Steve

 

Edited June 3, 2019 by Conserv

[grbbenny]

14 minutes ago, Conserv said:

The non-ti also has Euro-spec rear license plate lights, rare back in the day on U.S.-spec cars (there were fewer “U.S.-to-Euro” bumper conversions back in the day). Given the simultaneous lack of the factory U.S.-spec license plate lights — there appear to be substitutes with small reflectors — I suspect the non-ti started its life as a Euro-spec car.

 

Regards,

 

Steve

 

You are correct - a different car. I went and looked at the photos I have of the rear of my old car and it has the NA market license plate lights.

[mongo3251]

 

I never knew the original owner competed with the car.....I can confirm that when I stripped the rocker panels to refinish them and check for rust that I found the drivers side rocker was heavily dented. I'm guessing that came from the racing damage.  I also seem to recall the drivers door was not original.

 

Also, I contacted the owner after my brother and I. He is going to chime in here shortly with more info and pics from his ownership. Now if somebody could find that picture from an ancient Bav Auto catalog!! This is fun. Thanks everyone for your input!!

[rcf925]

12 hours ago, mike said:

Could be a Raid--a lesser known aftermarket wheel company from France--more often found on (French) Alpines and Renaults....but that's a guess too.

 

mike

 

Here's an Italian Raid I have on my 68