Car of the Month

February 2008

Fay MaCartney's 2000 Touring

Want to see your 02 featured here? Email me any 02, any condition richstern@hotmail.com.

BMW number 3440388 started life in mid-1972 as a reasonably typical 2000 Touring, in those days wing mirrors were an optional extra but luckily for us the first owner was nice enough to buy them anyway, as well as having fantastic taste in colours! Over the years he passed through our way a few times, the third owner having bought him to replace his 1602 then eventually offering him to Jaymic as a part-exchange on a rather nice cabriolet, which I believe he still runs.

His next lucky owner, who had previously bought Mike Macartney’s old touring (which Fay originally learnt to drive in) took him under his wing and started enhancing it as soon as he could. Out went the old-fashioned belt driven fan and in with the trusty Kenlowe electric kit, which certainly came in handy, as when we got stuck in the rush-hour traffic around Utrecht in the Netherlands this year (on route to Lelystad 2007) he was certainly cooler than my temper! Obviously even some 2002 owners like to see when driving at night, and the four H4 headlamp kit certainly lets you do that, its certainly brighter than my old E34 and is ideal out here in the wilderness where we don’t believe in street lighting.

Another “adjustment” made by John (Owner number four) was to replace the original induction system with a unusual set-up broadly based on an E21 intake manifold and a meaty SU carb (don’t ask me which one) teamed with a K&N high intake filter and an electric fuel pump, which is “great” because you can always hear whether its working or not. The old cylinder head was replaced with a nice one off a Tii, since it didn’t need the fuel pump hole anyway and I presume it saved a few grams somewhere. The stock steel wheels have gone in favour of the 14 inch Minilites and a lovely set of Yokohama tyres somewhere along the line, despite my best efforts I’ve never yet managed to spin the wheels!

After:

Last year we were lucky enough to be offered him at a very reasonable price indeed, as soon as Fay saw a picture she was sold, having been looking for something nice to replace her aging Triumph Herald which she had recently parted with. He’s been restored before at least once, but is now rather in need of some work to the paint in a few spots, and the tailgate is also on the list of bits to replace with a very good one off Ebay, just soon as the Jaymic workshop have a bit of time to do it all.

The standard four speed box might go in favour of a nice five speed overdrive, but certainly not until it needs replacing, which is hopefully many years away. Oh yeah, and the stereo system got switched for something a bit more modern pretty quickly, as its hard for us young types to listen to music quietly, and besides we were fed up listening to the fuel pump whine constantly.

Before John started playing with the engine:

Personally Fay and myself have always preferred the Touring to the Saloon models as it has such a gorgeous profile and is a hearty reminder that BMW not only invented the Turbo-charged road car but built one the first hatchbacks as well. Owning a 2000 is a real joy, and I would heartily recommend it to anyone, especially if you need luggage space since its capacity to carry stuff and things is beyond belief, we’ve taken it to a few shows now, and have never run out of space, even with all the bits I insist on bringing, tables and all.

This car has never been any bother mechanically, not bad given he hadn’t been run other than for his MOT for quite some time before we bought him, and he happily covered the 150 odd miles back from Birmingham with no trouble at all – other than a bit of pulling from the brake callipers which we soon had sorted out (Thanks Mike!). The interior’s is getting a little aged now but should clean up well enough when I have a day or two to spend on it (or if any nice Recaro seats pass our way, hint hint), plus there’s a small leak from the windscreen seal somewhere which will probably cost us a new set of floor pans if we don’t replace it soon.

The wipers aren’t much cop and if I can ever establish why they’ll be straight to the top of my bits-to-fix list, any suggestions would be most welcome. Like many 02’s he’s instantly become part of the family and our daily driver (except that we don’t have to travel very far to work – about 6 feet), and besides, what else would the people behind Jaymic parts drive?

And if you thought you recognised the name - Fay is daughter of 02 God Mike MaCartney who founded the world famous Jaymic

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