engine and drivetrain Update of the Schnitzer 2002 Project.....Its hard to ...

[Guest Anonymous]

believe but its true. I had always been suspicious of all of the "ALPINA" bits on this car (wheels, steering wheel, shift knob etc.,) so it turns out this car is .....one of one, the ALPINA 2002 race car with the Schnitzer engine that was raced by the ALPINA factory in 1974/1975 - the only one built. In 1974 it had the White/Red Stripe (or what ALPINA refer's to as the "Langnese" livery and then changed in 1975 to the Black with the wide green/blue ALPINA Stripes.

In June of this year I had recieved some emials from a well informed gentleman in Europe that had seen pictures of my car and had taken the time to study them and also have quite a few pictures of the ALPINA race car to compare to. So many things were the same - too many to be a coincidence. I contacted ALPINA, vin numbers/engine serial numbers, injection pump number and probably 50-60 photos were sent. On July 4th of this year I recieved final confirmation that the car is the car. I am now working directly with ALPINA on the restoration of the car. My good fortune here is that at least one or two of the technicians that put the car together still work there. Aside from restoring the car back to its former glory I intend on obtaining the FIA Heritage Certificate for it. At least now I have it right and know the history. The bad news is that many changes were made to the car, body work and wings were all wrong (Gruppe 5 Stuff). ALL of that has been subsequently stripped off the car and sold - so I am starting from scratch on that. I was literally only a few weeks away from putting the car in paint in the Gruppe 5 flares. The flares and spoiler only one set was made so those have to be made from photo's -tedious, time consuming and expensive...but at the end of the day has to be done. The car was driven in 10 or so races in 1974 / 1975 at Norisring, Nurburgring, Monza, Zandvoort, Brno (European Touring Car Championship and DRM) and was driven by the likes of Thomas Betzler, Harald Ertl, Harald Grohs, Jorg Obermoser and a host of others. My picture site will be undergoing a major update over the next few weeks stay tuned. Attached is a well known shot if it competing in the 6 hours of Nurburgring in July 1974 (driven by Helmut Kelleners and Thomas Betzler).

[JohnN]

proper restoration.

John N

[Rick74]

Very cool stuff Mark. Thanks for keeping us updated. Keep it coming!

[mtriple]

Great news Mark. Great move to go with the proper restoration. Good luck and keep us posted.

Hamada

[dubois]

congratulations Mark, that is awesome!

[skipsfcr]

Simply put...Bad-ass! Thanks for sharing news on your piece of REAL Alpina/BMW 2002 racing history

[Guest Anonymous]

Thanks Michael. I feel pretty (really) lucky. I have always been a big ALPINA fan (back to my college days when I was at Berkely and paid regular visits to Hardy & Beck with my 69 2002) and always wanted to own a "real deal" ALPINA 2002. So to have a (or "the" as it is) ALPINA 2002 with Schnitzer power is frosting on the cake so-to-speak. The car looks pretty sad right now with its rear flares CUT OFF and everything else gone. Of course it would have been worse had I had all the body done and final paint on it....so really I am lucky from that standpoint.

[JsnPpp]

One word - WOW!

I can't wait to see the car in person some day. Hey, is it true that Alpina cut the wheel arches in the car to match the "font" of the Alpina "A"? I heard about that one time and indeed the photo you show seems to hold up that thought.

What is your site link? I didn't see it in your post (will look again).

Jason

[scestes]

Sweet buy dude. Very nice. However I think it's worth nothing and you should just give it to me so that you don't have to deal with it any longer. Gratz to you.

[Guest Anonymous]

Here are a couple of photos of the car. The black and white is in its 1974 livery (Langnese), mechanics are under it probably adjusting the sway bar end links - note the mechanics wearing "sandals"...pretty funny. The other is from 1975 from the Grand Prix of Brno (ETCC race). This car was pretty darn fast - it recorded some sub 9 min laps at Nurburgring which I understand to be very fast even in this day and age. I received about 7 or 8 photos of the car from ALPINA that have probably never been seen before, one of which the car is completely airborn - all 4 tires off the ground going over a hill at Nurburgring. As soon as I take care of some copywrite matters with those i will be posting them up.

[Guest Anonymous]

F-ME!

Nice...

[Mike Self]

for vowing to restore the car correctly--no shortcuts or maybes. Rare and one-off cars--especially race cars like yours should be preserved as they were originally raced, so that future generations can see what got us old guys so excited back when '02s were new.

You don't own a car like this; you're its caretaker.

Congrats.

mike

[Guest Anonymous]

You don't own a car like this; you're its caretaker.

Congrats.

mike

BS, You own the car...restore the car right and then beat it like a red - headed step child!

joking...well sort of.

[TonyHavana]

Simply put , that is fantastic.

I only hope that Alpina is financially contributing to the car's restoration. If they're not, they should be, IMHO.

[Guest Anonymous]

away forever, never to be seen again........NOT. It will be raced and I will be the one (at least most of the time) driving it. That is what it was created for and that is what it will do (at least as long as I own it). I have to go back to work unfortunately....last three of the day.

A cool shot of Thomas Betzler chasing the GS car driven by Jorg Obermoser (finish 6th at Norisring September 1974

A kind of neat but blury pic of it running in the rain at the ADAC 1000km race at the Nurburgring in January 1975

The CARNAGE - what is left after carving off the old flares (not much), you can see the "squared off" wheel arches that are left over.

back to work....