Car of the Month

(Dedicate to my Father, Ron Stern who sadly died on the 5th July)

July 2009

John Cradden's 2002 Tii 1974

Want to see your 02 featured here (any condition as long as there's a story)?

Email me any 02, any condition richstern@hotmail.com

This car isn’t my first 2002. As an Irish 02-er I’m proud to have increased the 02 contingent here by no less than three.

I bought it on impulse in March 2005 because it was a good deal but also because I didn’t get on with the 1973 gulf yellow automatic 2002 that I owned at the time. That car had replaced a 1975 left-hooker imported from Sweden that I now regret selling only because it needed a bit of work and I didn’t have the mechanical skills (at the time) to do it myself.

When I bought it was in superb condition. It was owned by Stanley Harris in Perth, Scotland who had run it for some 10 years, driving it only at weekends and in dry weather. When he bought it in 1996, it was fresh from a nut-and-bolt restoration by ETA Motorsport in Kent.

There is pretty much no history for the car prior to the restoration, although I believe the original colour was Sienna Brown, which was changed to Ford burgundy red.

Since I’ve owned it, it has required some mechanical attention, such as replacement brake servos and master cylinder, new alternator, radiator, water pump, warm-up unit, new shocks, distributor, heater blower motor (bugger of a job) and various other bits and pieces too numerous to mention. I source parts mainly from Jaymic and Walloth und Nesch.

But it remains totally standard apart from too-soft oil shocks (a new set of bilsteins is on the wish list), an E30 alternator, electronic ignition and a set of old wolfrace alloys.

Also on the wish list is a new set of suspension bushes and a set of recaros, but the chances of finding a reasonably priced set in beige are slim enough. And maybe a respray in a couple of years time. And a 5 speed gearbox.

I use the car at least three or four times a week and has never let me down (apart from once when the original alternator packed up) and always starts first time.

I hang out with a few chaps living in and around Dublin and County Kildare who all have old beemers (mostly 2002s) of some description.

I bought the car just in time for our first BMW 2002 St Patrick’s Day run in 2005, which we’ve done every year since. The weather for the first year (see pics) and in 2006, 2007 and 2008 was typically Irish. This year was the first time we had the sun, but we didn’t take that many pics, stupidly enough.

After four years of regular use (not to mention the lack of a garage), some cosmetic rust is starting to appear in the usual spots on this car.

But while its no longer pristine as it was, it was good enough to feature in the April edition of Total BMW in a comparison test with a BMW 2002 Turbo, owned by fellow Irishman Larry Armstrong.