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BEEMER
FEVER : "2002s elicit a certain fanaticism in their drivers"
By Sam Whiting
 Sean
Casey was 6 when the last BMW 2002 came off the in 1976. So
it wasn't nostalgia that drew him to this utilitarian car that
looks like a box with curves instead of corners.
"My next-door neighbor had a green 2002 and I fell in love
with that car," Casey says. He bought it when he was 14,
"too the owner's manual to school and read it probably
10 times front to back."
By the time he got his license three years later he had completely
restored it. "As soon as I drove it, I didn't want to drive
anything else," he says, and he wouldn't have it if he
hadn't flipped it a month later. That didn't stop him. He replaced
it with a maroon 1972tii and spent five years restoring that
one. When he finished in 1998 he took it to the annual 2002
Fest in San Luis Obispo and it beat 110 other cars for "2002
People Would Most Like to Own."
As a Novato teenager, Casey, now 31, was onto something - Money
magazine recently rate the BMW 2002 as one of the best investments
of $10, 000. "The car gets cooler as it ages," the
article stated.
BMWs have always been known for being sporty, smart and chic.
Never mind their handling, which has been likened to riding
the cockpit of a glider. But they've also been cult cars from
the start, and the 2002 will be at it's absolute coolest in
2002 when the big reminiscence wheel starts spinning.
"I think it's going to be huge," Casey says. "All
the 2002 car nuts will be out in force driving around."
If so, this will be the place to see them flashing their headlights
to each other passing.
"It's been my observation driving around the Bay Area and
talking to people in other areas that the Bay Area has more
2002s than anywhere else, "says J.P. Collins, 38, of San
Francisco. Owner of a metallic blue 1969, Collins is the founder
of Bay Area 02, a loose coalition with 150 - 200 members on
the email list and monthly rallies announced at Error! Bookmark
not defined..
Members of Bay Area 02 will be convoying up and down the state
to rallies and events next year, but one member, Evan Chong,
is going a lot further than that. He is planning to honor his
2002 in 2002 by driving his burgundy 1971 from San Francisco
to its birthplace at the BMW plant in Munich, Germany.
Eight years in the dreaming, Chong will drive to New Jersey
and catch a ship to a port in northern Germany. From there it's
a five hours to Munich, to arrive in time for the major 2002
celebration that starts May 29th, 2002.
Chong, 29, bought his first 2002 when he was 17, and growing
up in Danville. "It was a car that had a lot of style and
was easy to work on," he says. "But it's all about
the girls. Some girls love that car."
The lovable two-door sedan was introduced in 1968 and the body
remained unchanged until 1974.
The tip of the chrome nose is even with the tip of chrome on
the bumper. The radiator grill recedes back into a smile, and
behind it the driver sits high in a glass bubble behind a bus
driver's steering wheel.
"You have almost a 360-degree view," Casey says. "The
sight lines are excellent."
The front dash has a shelf beneath the radio for storing marijuana
paraphernalia, and the back dash was commonly customized with
speakers when tape decks appeared in the early 70's. The trunk
opens with a push-button, set beside the only model identification
-- "2002" in chrome next to the little round taillight.
Purists say the beginning of the end for the 2002 came in 1974
when those signature taillights were replaced by big rectangular
lights, and the accordion-like " baby carriage bumper"
was added. In 1977 BMW took the 2002 body, pounded it down and
flattened it out to make the 320I, followed by wider and heavier
models. For years there has been talk that BMW was planning
to bring out a commemorative 2002 in 2002. But BMW undercut
it by producing the even smaller and boxier Mini Cooper for
2002 instead.
Drivers like Casey and Chong are convinced there is a new 2002
sitting under a tarp in some laboratory.
"There was a buzz that they were going to do it,"
he says Casey. "I bet they even built a car."
Chong guesses that if there is a new 2002 it will be unveiled
at the 2002 celebration next May in Munich. "I would expect
them to unveil it at that event," he says. "That would
be good timing in my eyes. I'd probably want to buy one right
then and there."
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