2 years ago (technically Sunday) I replied one final time to a man from Holland in a string of haggling emails, “Ok, deal. Check your PayPal for the deposit.” A day before that I was actually jumping up and down in my office like a lunatic during the final minutes of the auction for what would become my car.
Most of you know the rest (otherwise I am happy to tell you all about it). Not a day goes by that I don’t roll up the door to my “car tent” and think, “I cannot believe I have this thing!” I often say it aloud.
A BMW 2002 of one model or another had been a dream of mine since childhood. I remember my father telling stories about his college roommate’s 2002. He always touted how tight and solid it was to drive, particularly when you consider other cars of the time. I remember him telling lots of similar stories from the driver’s seat of his green E32 735i. I already thought that car was super special as it was the nicest vehicle I had ever been in, but listening to 2002 fables from the passenger seat allowed my young imagination to really run wild. My mom hated that car, calling it the BMtroubleU, haha. I always remember my dad LOVING that car and everyone giving him a hard time about it. I remember quietly thinking, “you guys are idiots, that car is AWESOME”
Anyway, sometime in high school one of my teacher’s asked me to drive his car over to the baseball field. His car was a 1984 325 5-speed...I drove it around the school lot/loop 4 times. It was soooo good. I went home and told my dad, “Dad! I just drove an old 3 series and it was better than anything!” Years later working as a valet, I got to drive another E30 325 and this one was MINT. After that I decided that I had to finally get my drive in a 2002. When I finally did, it was a BEAT one. I told the owner that I had driven a few E30s and he said, “Oh well 2002s are the same, but just lighter and better! You won’t miss the power.” Even as banged up as it was, I liked it. It was enough to know that I would LOVE a well sorted one.
Over time my love for the 2002 grew and changed. A friend of mine has a concours level 2002 Tii. I went over to see it one day, and another 2002 guy pulled up in his...His was different though, like really different it looked so badass, but I couldn’t put my finger on why for a second...NO BUMPERS! At this point I knew the difference between the US spec and much more tasteful Euro spec bumpers, but I had never seen one with an air dam instead. In addition to the trimmed up bumpers, this was a “pig cheek” fender model (below).
It was at that moment that I knew I had to have an “outlaw/hotrod/anti snoot” 2002. I began to scoff at the perfect, museum quality examples and lust after 02's that had been S14 swapped (E30 M3 engine). Still, years went by cars were bought and sold until one day in November, the fall after I had just sold my S3 out of convenience...I get an email notification from Bring a Trailer, a new BMW 1502 has just been listed. “Cool”, I think as I click the email. “It’s not often you see a 150.....” That was my brain trailing off as it tried to comprehend how possibly the car being advertised can exist since it has only ever been a thought”
I immediately called my dad:
Me: Dad CHECK this MFer out
Dad: Wow, yeah that is definitely your car
Me: I know its everything! The color, the fenders, the seats, FUCKING MINILITES
Dad: Laughs, it’s pretty far away
Me: Yeah I can’t believe it, car crawled right out of my dreams but it’s a million miles away
Dad: How much could it cost to get it over here? Can’t be that much?
Me:.....I’ll call ya later
This whole process took a lot of work and caused me a lot of anxiety, but it’s worth mentioning that I could have been stopped dead in my tracks. Not by cost, distance, or logistics, but by my wife. She sat holding our 3 month old when I said. “I know there are a lot of things up in the air right now, but I’d like to buy a 44 year old BMW from a man in Amsterdam and then pay some other people to ship it here to me”
“As long as it’s cheaper than the Audi”, she said.
Me:
The car:
Also for those of you looking to save your old posts. During the last time they said we were getting shut down I used an extension called, “Save Page WE” for chrome and firefox. It worked better than saving/printing to PDF.
Happy Friday