Hurricane Ian claims a 2002 Turbo

dang · October 12, 2022

I think it's real. Not sure where they got the ACV amount though.

https://www.copart.com/lot/62250222/1974-bmw-2002-fl-punta-gorda-south

autokunst · October 12, 2022

Someone needs to save that car. First thing, remove those ridiculous speakers from the console.

conkitchen · October 13, 2022

From the picture of the cluster, looks as though the high water mark was just below the tripometer knob.

Watch it will still sell for $100K

Edited October 13, 2022 by conkitchen

Henning · October 13, 2022

Never heard of turbos being assembled in Belgium. Is #151 the only one? There may be interesting paperwork if not blown away.

henn

Mike Self · October 13, 2022

It's the real thing--all those unique-to-Turbo brackets in the engine compartment are there...plus all the other Turbo-unique stuff--seats, auxiliary instrument panel etc.

IIRC BMWs of that era were assembled in Belgium CKD, but I suspect this one was imported into Belgium for sale and a new VIN plate was installed at that time. Other Belgian 2002s have appeared here on the FAQ over the years so I suspect someone here has a more complete story of those Belgian cars--kinda like the 1802s assembled in Israel and the 200 or so '02s assembled in Uruguay.

mike

Conserv · October 13, 2022

6 hours ago, Henning said:

Never heard of turbos being assembled in Belgium. Is #151 the only one? There may be interesting paperwork if not blown away.

henn

+1

That was pretty surprising to me as well, Henn! I’m waiting for a “turbo specialist” to jump in and explain VIN 4290151’s Belgian history!

Mike’s description may be accurate, but why would BMW swap VIN tags on a car that must have been manufactured in Germany.

Was this perhaps an SKD (semi-knock-down) car — as opposed to a CKD (complete-knock-down) car? That would allow more of the manufacturing process to reside in Germany. Still, why would they do a single turbo? Or are there a few turbos that received this treatment, designed to solve some huge import tax issue for the Belgian-delivered examples?

This car will be restored, certainly! Unlike a modern car with oodles of computers, even if you need to rebuild the engine, trans, diff, steering box, re-pack every bearing, whatever, the combination of an ‘02’s simplicity and the car’s inherent value justify a restoration.

Best regards,

Steve

adawil2002 · October 13, 2022

Looks like a restoration VIN tag to me from the 'engraving' instead of being 'stamped'.

Brian Ach aka Achman has a Belgium CKD 1973 2002Tii with 2 VIN plates, a proper one from BMW & also one from Belgium. It is the only 2002 I have seen like that.

Conserv · October 13, 2022

On 10/13/2022 at 6:49 AM, adawil2002 said:

Looks like a restoration VIN tag to me from the 'engraving' instead of being 'stamped'.

Brian Ach aka Achman has a Belgium CKD 1973 2002Tii with 2 VIN plates, a proper one from BMW & also one from Belgium. It is the only 2002 I have seen like that.

Andrew,

There are also some single-VIN-tag Belgian cars around, although not tii’s. And this may relate to the difference between SKD and CKD examples.

But… say you’re restoring a turbo. Why would you create a Belgium VIN tag unless you were duplicating an original Belgian VIN tag?

Here’s a brief explanation of the SKD/CKD differences:

Knock-down kit - Wikipedia

EN.WIKIPEDIA.ORG

From the above article:

”The term SKD for semi-knocked-down refers to a kit with a complete, welded car body, usually coated or already painted.”

Were a few tii’s and turbos “SKD’ed”, meaning very little was actually assembled in Belgium?

I’m guessing that true CKD cars received special local-country VIN’s while SKD’s may have retained their Munich-assigned VIN’s.

There’s a good story here. Too bad we don’t know that story!

Best regards,

Steve

dlacey · October 13, 2022

I guess there might have been some Belgian local laws requiring replacement of original vin tag with one including this "PVA No" ...I am just guessing...there's a few other VIN tags from that part of the world with this local tag. There was no CKD production...all 1672 cars made in Germany.

redrumm3 · October 13, 2022

I'm going down next week to preview the car.

conkitchen · October 13, 2022

The thing that really sucks about this now is that the salt water likely only drained out of the obvious places. Then the car was totaled in-place and towed away by the insurance company. NOW all that salt water that was not drained from the engine, trans, brakes, rockers, and anywhere else is just festering. Time is of the essence to get this thing totally cleaned out. I want it and have the chops to do it. May attempt to buy if at the right price. There are far too many fools out there who will just get this thing running and flip it over seas where the buyer may not be aware of the flood issue.

The folks at the auction house will at the end of the sale think, WOW that 50 year old car sold for how much?!