from Mopars to 2002 BMW

[HarryPR]

Welcome to the madness!

The honeycomb wheels you mention are probablythree-piece BBS RS wheels. They are not available new and used sets in good condition go for $1000 and up. Reasonable facsimiles are available, as are other BBS wheels which are similar, but one or two piece. They come up for sale often on the VW Vortex forums, but beware of scammers there.

A great looking alternative is the Rota RB wheel. Take a look at Cris' group buy thread.

http://www.bmw2002faq.com/component/option,com_forum/Itemid,50/page,viewtopic/t,283694/

BTW, I used to own a Dodge Demon 340 way back when.

[Mike Self]

version to be built. Earlier '02s were mostly stick--they outsold automatics about 4-5 to 1. If you e-mail BMW's Mobile Tradition (check archives for e-mail address) and give 'em your VIN number they can tell you the exact assembly date.

And BTW, welcome to the madness! But I should warn you, once you catch 02itis, it's a permanent condition. I've had it for 38 years!

mike

[Guest Anonymous]

I want to find some nice rims do you know where to look i cant find them anywhere -are they running 13" rims 14" or bigger .

thanks

jeff

is identified, a bit of background on bolt circles and offset may help too - early (through 1992) small BMW's use a 4 x 100 millimeter wheel bolt pattern. Most models (except the E21) use an amount of positive offset that's similar to front wheel drive cars; the amount of offset is usually identified by a number preceeded by the letters "et" - a wheel with an et of "0" would have neither positive or negative offset.

Depending on wheel width, the nominal offset for standard 13x4.5 or 13x5 '02 wheels runs around et18-20, but if you move up to 14 or 15 inch diameter rims with greater width, you may wind up fitting wheels with considerably more postive offset - I recently sold a 71 sunroof that had 15x6 et30's on the front and 15x7 et 35's on the back (no interference with either suspension or wheel arches). Going the other way (toward et0) usually results in tire to fender lip interference problems - for example, Alpina made beautiful 15x6 & 15x7 et 12 wheels for the E21/320 series, but it's almost impossible to fit them to an '02 without cutting out the wheel arches and adding flares.

The other dimension that's critical is the diameter of the center hole - most euro cars are "hub-centric" so the center hole has to exactly match the "nipple" in the center of the brake hub for the wheel to align properly.

Given all that, there are lots of options - factory 14x6 E30 "bottlecaps" and 14x6.5 E30 325iS BBS look-alikes, factory option E30 15x7 6 spokes, several sizes of Panasports, several styles of 13" alloy wheels that were used on E21 320's, reproductions of the factory option 13x5.5 alloys, quite a few factory and aftermarket wheels for watercooled early VW Rabbit/Golf/Jetta/etc (the 15x6 and 15x7 combination on the 71 were BBS's for VW's) plus some rare and REALLY rare early wheels from ATS, Campanolo (sp?), Ronal and others.

It's kinda short notice, but if you could get down to the SF Bay area this Saturday for the Bay Area 02 Swap & Show, you'd see just about every possible wheel/tire combination imanginable............

[SteveJ]

Welcome!

Now brew a pot of coffee, get a notepad and start searching this site and making notes.

Try to get a plan of what it is you want your 02 to be. Garage/trailer queen show car, non-licensed race car, daily driver/beater... Post up your location. You may find there are other 02 owners nearby. This will come in handy, because while you are trying to figure out what to make your car, you will need to look at or drive other cars with the similar mods to see if they suit you.

I threw many, many thousands of dollars into my first 02. I learned a lot, ended up with a very nice car, but I overspent and had to undo/redo many things as I went at it with no real plan.

My current 02 is basically rebuilt all stock with just shocks and springs being upgraded. It's a daily driver for now until I get the M3 finished, but we also use it for several one and two day vintage car rallies. Not all WRC off road stuff, but a good mix of paved, semi-paved, and dirt roads. Eventually it wil get new paint, but for now I am just having fun with the spray painted hood and no worry of rock chips. It doesn't need to be the prettiest or the fastest or the most rare to have fun with it.

[bigmcfry]

I ordered the Panansport 14" i trie to get the gray with polished rim but they said they are on back order from japan 3-4 month wait ,I love this forum everybody is great and so helpful, I am learning these cars fast from reading this board. I AM LOCATED IN FORT Lauderdale,Florida ,I`ll be using this car as a recreational driver I like performance so i will be doing the mods not too crazy CARBS ,HEADER,SUSPENSION, THE 1ST THING is a auto to 5 speed conversion.