1974 BMW 2002tii

The final iteration of the compact BMW 02 Series was the sportiest, and its timing couldn't have been better.

Preceded in the US market by the 1602, the 2002 was at least partly in response to importer Max Hoffman's pleas for a bigger-engined version of the 02 series that would sell well in America. In the late Sixties and early Seventies it was mostly the province of the sort of motoring nerds who also fancied British roadsters and had read the earnest paeans to the 2002 written by Car and Driver editor David E. Davis:

Down at the club, Piggy Tremalion and Bucko Penoyer and all their twit friends buy shrieking little 2-seaters with rag tops and skinny wire wheels, unaware that somewhere, someday, some guy in a BMW 2002 is going to blow them off so bad that they'll henceforth leave every stoplight in second gear and never drive on a winding road again as long as they live.

In the suburbs, Biff Everykid and Kevin Acne and Marvin Sweatsock will press their fathers to buy HO Firebirds with tachometers mounted out near the horizon somewhere and enough power to light the city of Seattle, totally indifferent to the fact that they could fit more friends into a BMW in greater comfort and stop better and go around corners better and get about 29 times better gas mileage.

Mr. and Mrs. America will paste a "Support Your Local Police" sticker on the back bumper of their new T-Bird and run Old Glory up the radio antenna and never know that for about 2500 bucks less they could have gotten a car with more leg room, more head room, more luggage space, good brakes, decent tires, independent rear suspension, a glove box finished like the inside of an expensive overcoat and an ashtray that slides out like it was on the end of a butler's arm—not to mention a lot of other good stuff they didn't even know they could get on an automobile, like doors that fit and seats that don't make you tired when you sit in them.

But the 2002 really came into its own when the dual-carb ti was replaced with the fuel injected tii. This bumped output from 118 to 128 SAE net horsepower. This might not sound like a lot, but consider a few things related to the car in the picture above: The bumpers indicate that it's a 1974 model. That means it was in the country just in time for the Oil Embargo of 1973. Meanwhile, domestic cars were having compression ratios lowered, emissions controls added, and advertising was changing from SAE gross to SAE net numbers.

All that means that for the '74 model year the base 302 2-barrel V-8 in a Mercury Montego MX was rated at 140 horsepower, and the Chevelle Laguna S-3 came with a 145hp 2-barrel 350 small block. Suddenly 128 horsies in a gnarly little sports coupe doesn't sound too shabby.

The '72 2002tii tested by Car and Driver managed a 9.0 second zero-to-sixty performance and put the quarter away in 16.8 seconds at 81 mph with a top speed of 115mph. Not only would it outhandle most anything from Detroit, but it would keep up with the more vanilla variants of even the sportiest cars. Remember that for every Super Duty 455 Trans Am and 460-4V Gran Torino, there were a bunch of lesser 350-engined Firebirds and 302-motored Torinos, all set to be surprised by this zingy little Bavarian.

This one was photographed in April of 2022 using a Fujifilm X-E1 and XF 23mm f/2 R WR lens.