Car of the Month

October 2007

Edwin Tieden's from The Nertherlands 1966 1600-2

(Absolute honour to have this lovely original 02 featured - enjoy)

Want to see your 02 featured here? Email me any 02, any condition.

In 1966 the 02 was launched, it was a much needed breath of fresh air to the motoring world. Originally launched in 1600-2 format equating to a 1600cc engine in two-door coupe saloon styling. Based on the 1600 four-door saloon with shortened floorpan & new styling by Wilhelm Hofmeister spiced up the handling nicely. So it’s a rare honour to feature a very early 02 on these pages, lucky owner Edwin Tieben prepared this beautiful 02 car for the 40 year celebrations in Germany last year (2006). The 1600-2 had 6 Volt electrics & very basic features, but was about driving the car that mattered. When originally sold it cost £1298 compared against the Ford Cortina 1600 which was £767, nearly twice the price. However, the price reflected the quality with forged steel crankshaft & better quality steel panels. With reasonable maintenance the 1600-2 could easily go well over 100,000 miles, when the Cortina was well on it’s second engine by then.

Only a handful of these early cars survive today, at one point 30,000 02’s were scrapped every year.

Edwin brought the car in 2005 & only started the restoration in February 2006. The bodywork wasn’t that bad & the car was unmolested. Replacing the front-end & front wings, little else bodywork was required. Friend WinVan Der Ridder who knows his 02’s, this 02 had to be put right back to “fresh off the production line” state. Several parts couldn’t be sourced for example the piston rings, were used with the original pistons & cylinder head. The brightwork & interior were all in very good condition & cleaned & polished to restore them to there former glory, giving the car a nice Patina.

Being a 6-Volt car electrical faults weren’t too much of an issue, most parts were sourced from BMW Dealers or specialists like Walloth Nesch & Jaymic, the voltage regulator runs a bit hot but otherwise everything works well. The car will cruise at 90Mph (where allowed) without straining, what makes this 02 stand out though is the little details like the front Kidney grill which were more rounded than those on the 1967 models, & the rear “1600” badge was replaced with a more plain item in 1967 with the roundel next to it.

This 02 feels solid & everything works, performance is slow by today’s standards (0-60Mph 11.5 secs, top speed 102Mph) but would leave a Lotus Cortina standing. A few years later a “Ti” twin-carburettor version spiced up the performance nicely & later on of course the 2.0L variants added to the emission regulations for passing emissions.

As you can see Edwin made it to the 40 year celebrations & was centre stage in Munich.

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