'02 Love

The racing season got a bit hectic in the last couple of months and the poor old 2002 has been neglected. In fact it refused to start back in Aug/Sept and I just haven't had the chance to look at it. It's been fixed now - a new distributor cap took care of it - and I've been blasting around the back roads this fall, reminding me of why I love this car. Just a sweet little car that's so much fun to toss around. With minimal sound deadening and a blistering 105 hp, it feels like you're really going a lot faster than you are. A speedo in KPH doesn't hurt either.

But it's time to show it some love.

First up is a Elefant front strut brace. I put in a rear strut brace and combo battery box a couple of years ago, but neglected the front.

This is a nice piece, powder coated in black, and should tighten up the front end considerably. A 1970's car stiffness is a bit lacking shall we say.

Strut bar installed

Next step is to install the "Appearance Package". Time for some wheel and tire upgrades. The car came with 13" E30 BMW wheels which was a popular style. I hope to end up with a what an enthusiast would do back in the 70's. Bigger wheels and brakes, upgraded suspension, a bunch of Alpina upgrades, etc. This isn't a pristine original car when I got it. The turbo flares, front and rear spoilers were added sometime in its earlier life. So while I won't be turning it into a Restro-Rod, I don't have to worry about the purity of originality either.

 Panasports and MinLites were the hot ticket for race cars and race car wanna-be's back then. So let go with some 15" Rota RB's in gunmetal. Some nice sticky Kumho Esta 225x45's will replace the wimpy US Generals junk currently on. Of course, that will mean I will actually go around corners with some grip instead  of tortured squealing.