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In 1974 came a french driver, Daniël Brillat, in contact with me and asked me if we can build a "group 2" racing car to drive the 24 hours of Le Mans.
He told me the amount of his budget and which companies sponsored him, included the French tyre brand Cleber-Colombes (Kleber) and Esso for the fuel.
Because his budget was not very high, I asked him to give me sometime to weigh all possibilities to fulfil his dream.
Pretty soon we found out that it was impossible to compete the cars of the fabric teams of BMW and Ford.
BMW's CLS and the Ford Capri's were not within our reach.
The budget was too low and it was not a good idea to buy an other car than BMW.
No other factory will approved when you go against their rules.
And after all for several years we are already BMW dealer.
But the factory team of BMW race their bets so high that we couldn't follow.
That is why I suggested Mr.Brillat to build a car that was on one side pretty fast but on the other side was also very relaible.
Because we had a lot of experience in 2002 racing cars and because we are a company specialiazed in producing formula 2 engines, we thought of a combination of this 2. Our thought was "many roads lead to Rome".
I explained to Mr.Brillat that a good BMW 2002 with an F2 engine was a racing car that was small, light, pretty fast and relaible. And one that he, and also us, could afford.
But our race could only be a good one if the big guys would get into trouble. I expected that the factory teams would fight each other til the bitter end.

I had heard that BMW Motorsport GmbH had developed a prototype, a 2002 with a F2 engine, but that the car was long forgotten.
So I called BMW Motorsport asking them if they would sell the car to me, because we had plans to modify the car to race it in Le Mans.
I suspect they had very big laugh about it, but the next morning we got the approval what we were waiting for. Immediately I contacted mr.Brillat and told him this.
I also explained to him what kind of adjustments we would do on the car, because Le Mans has its own rules.
He agreed with our offer. Then he paid his first payment, so we could start our "Mission Impossible".

We got the BMW from Munchen. We stripped it totally and examined every part of it. Next we made a list of all modifications we would do: brakes, fuel system, steering wheel house, dynamo driven by the cardan axel and of course modifications to the engine. We bought all the needed parts and start building.

After everything was done and the car was rebuild, we went to France for the tire tests.
Cleber-Colombes, later bought by Michelin, had almost no experience with a small car like this, but the tests went extremely well and everybody was very satisfied with the results.
To us the tests and the co-operation with Cleber-Colombes was totally new, becaurse until then we needed to adjust the car to the tires.
Mr. Brillat was very satisfied with the car. According to him the car drove as like a go-kart, only a little faster...
I mean, a car from that time, provided with our 1000 kg engine with 260 hp at 8500 rpm was certainly not bad.

One week before the actual race, to get everything in order and to be ready in time, two of our mechanics went to the circuit with the car. We wished them all the luck in the world.
Unfortunatly I was not able to join them, because at that same time it was extremely busy in my own company.
This was my living, so my friend and my chief went along with the mechanics to France.
They were in charge over the whole operation.
Later they said that when they arrived at the circuit, people laughed at them and began to ask silly questions.
There was even one who asked us if we in Liechtenstein really knew what Le Mans was all about.
Of course we knew, but we had no choice than to race with the given budget.

Eventually the day of the race was there so we could finaly start. The longer the race, the more my predictions came true. The speed of the BMW's and Ford's was much to high for us.
But when the night fell, all 4 factory cars were already disappeared from the arena, while our little flying machine was stil screaming over the circuit. Imagine the sound of that 4 cylinder engine!
The factory teams closed their pitsboxes and went to their hotels. To them the 24 hours of Le Mans was over.
Not to us...

After about 20 hours, the gentlemen of BMW saw that our little car was still in the race with the chance to win the race. They opened up their pitsboxes again and after 23 hours they cooled up the champagne and the beer, just in case...

In the end we won the race and our dream came true. The team of Mr. Brillat, his friends and our mechanics were extremely happy. I can't describe the feeling. When I heard this fantastic news, for minutes I couldn't believe it. Looking back this probably is the most important victory in our racing history. We arrived in Le Mans as the little David, but we came home as the incredible happy Goliath.

In 2004, 30 years after Daniël Brillat walked in at Heidegger, I thought of building a replica of the car that won the 24 hours of Le Mans. It was the only 02 that ever drove the race in Le Mans.
After I placed a call on the forum for getting information about this car, it soon appeared to be very difficult to retrieve information. After intensive searching and with the help of other clubmembers, I found out that Heidegger still exists and is situated in Liechtenstein.

First to have been in contact to Heidegger jr., Mr. Max Heidegger called me.
Nice anecdotes and a report of the race were the results. I was allowed to write him, asking for more information.
Because, as he said, there is nothing in paper, but everything was in his mind.

After a nice day on the circuit in Zandvoort, late september 2004, the DTM went back into the garage.
It would not see any sunlight again for a long time, the project could start.
We stripped the car totally and put all parts into boxes.
Slowly the bald body became visible and with that also the bad parts and pieces. There was a lot of work to be done.

The mountain of boxes grew, while it left a bit of steel with a piece of polyesther attached.
Maurice did show me that the polyesther was also damaged and at several places also needed to be repaired.
The front spoiler was damaged, but that could luckely be repaired.
The trunk cover with integrated rear spoiler needed to make place for a normal cover.
De doors had stand the test of time well, while the hood needed to be replaced.
Luckely Wilbert still had a nice sample.

When the doors, hood and trunk cover were ready, it was time to work on the body. The bad marks were grinded out of the build out set.
After that it could be repaired with new polyesther. Some spots where the build out set was attached to the body, appeared to be bad. Little cracks became visible. So also here it was grinded and repaired.
After that it was ready to be smoothed. There were already many hours of labour in this project, but Maurice was still positive and enthousiastic, while I sometimes wondered "where did I start with?"

To build a replica, you need a lot of information about the original.
But because Heidegger in the mid 70ties didnt do anything about PR,
this is a big problem. With the information we gathered untill then,
it seemed that the fuel filling opening should be not on the right, but in the middle of the trunk cover.
However this gave so much problems, that we decided to just move it to the rear panel.

The own made rear side was needed to be replaced by an original one.
So I did put an advert in the BMW 02 club.
Henk was just stripping a Sienna brown 02 voor parts and we were lucky.
The rear side was in pretty good shape and was cut out nice.

The car stood, in relation to the original car, too high on its feet.
So we lowered the car about 3 cm and widened it 20 cm.
Rally driving on forest lanes will probably not be possible anymore in the future.
The front spoiler was now pretty low to the ground.
I just hope that it won't go wrong.
Front and spoiler were made exactly tight fit to each other, so the brutal looks came out again.

Because lately the car has been used for daily purposes, there was in several places rust again.
Bits and pieces needed to be cut out. Probably caused because of using a not well attaching coating. I let myself be pursuated by a salesman to buy this coating, but this wont stay flexibel. It turned hard and solid. So the coating cracked in some places and humidity could enter between the coating and the metal.
A car will not look nicer with that, I can assure you.

During the work, that Maurice and me did on the future Heidegger
I was busy trying hard to get the needed stickers. Fortunatly I received from various sides nice tips and even authentic material. It was nice to see that the "Heidegger-project" began to make people interested and that feel with you.
For the both of us this was so stimulating, that it became nicer and nicer.

Beginning Januari I was called by mr. Max Heidegger and a nice conversation followed.
This conversation went very smooth, so we decided to travel to Liechtenstein to meet the "Big Boss" himself.
One month later we went travelling by camper to bring a visit to Liechtenstein.
Somewhat nervous on mondaymorning,
we entered the showroom where they offered us a cup of coffee while waiting for "father".
Within 5 minutes he arrived and came towards us with his hand stretched out and a big smile on his face.

Another very nice converstaion started in wich he explained how he did things back then.
I listened closely and made notes of the technical information he gave me.
The modifications to the cooling system, the fuel system, moving the dynamo, everything was told.
In the real car there was a formula 2 engine, but he advised not to put that now.
"Believe me, Tim", he said "That engine is too expensive and not worth your hobby"
He advised me to have a normal 8 valve, 2 liter motor and then he told me how to modify that.

From 1969 till 1990 Heidegger, next to the dealership of BMW and Alpina, also kept busy tuning BMW engines.
Aside of that he was for many years active in auto sports and the results were very good.
At the end Hiedegger took us with him to admire his private collection.
Because in a few years Heidegger will celebrate their 50th anniversary,
he started to collect cars that will be displayed then.

In the two meetings we had with mr. Max Heidegger, I already learned so many things.
When we left he gave me a letter. Here he wrote down everything he just told me.
He also gave some unique pictures from his private photoalbum about the victory on Le Mans.
It was a great honour for us to meet this man.

After we got back from this vacation and not being able to work on the project for 2 saturday, there waited me a big surprise. Maurice had been working like an ox and he already had the car finished with the polyesther.
I didn't believe wat I saw. The rear side, that was still heavily damaged when we left, was already been replaced and smoothed. On the outside the car was already as we wanted it.
It really began to look like something now.

Because the car was already in a far state, Maurice asked me with urge to get the stickers a.s.a.p.
He first wanted to paint the car with the base color,
then put the stickers and then provide it with several layers of transparent paint.

Meanwhile we searched the internet for the parts we needed to rebuild the replica as good as possible.
After a long time of searching for the original ATS wheels we found out that it was still possible to order them new.
It took some time for delivery, but it was worth waiting for.

One thing that was high placed on my "list of the presents" was a rolbar.
One with four mountingpoints, later versions had six of them.
This one was only for the backside. On internet I contacted a man who bought a 02 with a rolbar and didn't want that thing in his car. I was able to buy the thing, scoured it, repainted it and at last mounted it into the car.

Finally the time was arrived to show what we had done for the last monthes.
Time to go to spray the first colour.
Alpine-weiss with as a finishing off a robust clear laquer.
After months of preparation, this would become a beautiful crown on all the work we had done.

The last small unevennesses were smoothed yet even by Maurice smooth.
After that the future Heidegger was ridden in the sprayer cabin and prepared to be sprayed.
The painting could begin. The temperature in the cabin was pretty warm.
After a few hours it was finished, the BMW was shiney and brand new. It looked as if it was reborn.

Now was the time to paint the lying parts in the colour black.
It took quit some time to smooth the parts before painting.
After that the parts could be mounted on the car.
It was a hell of a job to fit the parts on the car but Maurice was a prof and knew exacly what he was doing.

In the letter that Mr.Max Heidegger wrote me, he told me a big surprise.
He promissed me a full reprint of the "Heidegger-stickerset" because, as he wrote down, the project was worthwhile supporting.
After a few weeks a little box arrived in Holland within a full set of stickers and the original Heidegger Rev.counter!
What a honour that this was realised by Mr.Heidegger himself.

The only thing that was missing were 6 stickers of Kléber.
This was not a big problem becaurse Tanco Reclame from Naaldwijk Holland could take care of this.
Thanks to Cees and his men my stickers were complete at the last moment.

The last part of painting the car could start.
It was again a lot of work to do the striping on the car but the result was more then good.
Now it was time to place the stickers onto the car.

Finally the car was ready to be sprayed with the clear laquer.
But becaurse it was late in the afternoon we decided to wait with this to next week.
It was quite a surprise for me when I opened my emailbox
the next day and found some photos of the Heidegger shiny and brand new.
Maurice went back the next day to give the car his last protection!
I can not tell you how greatfull I am to have such a good friend with so many passion for rebuilding this project.

Now the last part of painting was done,
it was time for the replica to be moved to the garage.
After 10 month of restoring and painting, we could finally start with rebuilding.

While the car was visiting Honour Car Repair for 10 month, I did a lot of pre-work.
I prepared the 2-liter engine that would be build in for a while,
during the time I needed building the Heidegger 2-liter engine.
11 years ago I bought a set of headlights and they were still waiting to be mounted on the car.

The electric wires were also 31 years old, so they had to be checked for damage.
Some new plug were needed for a good electrical contact. The old tape was gone and had to be replaced for original new.

The front flasher lamps were no good anymore, but Jan, from the 02-club, had a pair of new ones for me.
The outside doorhandle on the left side didn't had the glory of 1974 anymore, so it had to be replaced aswell.
The inside of the locker was taken of the old one becaurse we still could use the old key.
On a show in Essen (Germany) we had been able to buy a new set of stickers.
This was the time to bring them on. And it looked very nice. Shinny and brand new!

This car could be for sale at the right price - Substanial offers to Tim at; tpoesiat@kabelfoon.nl

Car of the Month

October 2008

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