engine and drivetrain Have you heard of a hardy&beck valve cover?

[Meintii]

I saw this on an ebay auction for a red '02 and the guy said that the engine could have ben "tuned" by these guys.. WHO IS THIS? however, I really like the look of this valve cover...its nice and different... Any body know anything about them?

[Mars]

Hardy and Beck was an old BMW tuner company quite popular in the late 70's - 80's. Think of them as an outfit like Hartge or Alpina.

They made several performance products for BMW's - particularly 02's. If you have any old Roundels laying around (assuming you are a CCA member and been around these cars for a while) you will see many ads in the old Roundels.

[Guest Anonymous]

(nt)

[SOUTHBAYeric]

They were known as Alpina West(windshield banner) back in the day and they were a main importer of Alpina parts and were also producing some of their own parts. They changed their name to Hardy & Beck but I not exactly sure why.

[Guest Anonymous]

They were Alpina West (West Coast Distributor for Alpina tuning parts in the 70's and early 80's, Miller & Norburn was the East Coast Distributor). As the story goes, Mr. Alpina (Burkard Bovensiepen) was out here (SF BAY area) in the Napa Valley check out our fine vintages (ALpina also is a wine broker or something....in the wine business). He drops into Alpina West and see's his Alpina parts being sold along with all sorts of "Hardy & Beck" parts that look astonishingly close to his own (Hardy & Beck three piece wheels, adjustable sway bars, camber plates, headers and on and on and on) - No more Alpina West. The two guys running the show then were Alan Hardy and Hans Beck. They tuned 02's of course, built Turbo Kits for 320i's (because you couldn't get a 320i with Alpina fuel injection past Cali emissions). 3.0's, imported 323i's etc., Their shop did great work then....and still does now. Just before I sold my tii I visited Alan Hardy (he is still in Berkeley on 4th street ) nice shop...still has a lot of faithful supporters that bring their 02's in their. He has a very, very (very) nice looking 74tii that is kind of a "goldish" color with H&B 6x15 and 7x15 wheels, Scheel seets and standard tii injection. The day I happened by they did have an Alpina A4 motor in their that belonged to someone down in....Bakersfield. I still have a whole bunch of thier old catalogues and price lists...cool memorabilia from the "old days".

[jgmgti]

Mark,

If possible I would be glad to buy a copy of any and all old Hardy&Beck

literature you may have in your stash.

Please feel free to contact me jgm at starpower dot net.

Thanks

Jonathan

[02Les]

Hardy and Beck was an old BMW tuner company quite popular in the late 70's - 80's. Think of them as an outfit like Hartge or Alpina.

Interesting. So, this Header that came with my parts car may be worth cleaning up then?

[oz_tom]

Looks like a job for electrolytic rust removal Les!

[02Les]

Looks like a job for electrolytic rust removal Les!

That's "patina" Tom. Most of it will fall off after the first bump!

[tjones02]

be the greatest!

I grew up next to Berkeley and with my parents involved in the Golden Gate Chapter of the CCA I remember Tech sessions at Hardy & Beck back in the day with a warehouse full of grey market BMWs, 323i's M635csi's an M1 etc...

[HarryPR]

Pic courtesy of Tim Jones

[CoastalCrush]

Anybody currently know the where abouts of this valve cover? Pm me if you do!

[conkitchen]

I scored this binder assembled as a tech manual from BMWCCA using roundel articles and tech tips from back in the day. Interestingly it has a Hardy 8 page suppliment typed-out and signed by Allen H. I found the funniest thing to be item #27 where he recently discovered Armor All. It has a page of hand written notes as well which spell out  inspection and servies to be performed on 1600/2002's. Likely a mechanics cheat sheet to follow.

 

Kind of cool info although I likely know alot of it from experience, there certainly is good advice contained, I just am too lazy to read, or for that matter photo copy the entire binder.

Edited June 3, 2015 by conkitchen

[markmac]

Very (very) cool, I love stuff like that.  I was a "wannabe" Hardy/Beck "disciple", my first o2 was a '69 somehow talked my father into letting me buy it (@ 19) - Alan was the original owner of the car.  My fist year at Berekeley his shop was humming (then on 4th street).  It was a sight to behold - especially the E-21 323i's that were fully converted with his suspension, wheels, scheel interiors etc.,  Great memories - thanks for sharing.

 

http://www.alpinabmw2002.com

[roadhog0]

Interesting, I've never been a fan of Armor All. Im use to it drying things out more than helping them...