1974 BMW 2002 Turbo

This car, Lot 173, sold for $168,000, including buyer’s premium, at the RM Sotheby’s Arizona sale on January 22, 2021.

While we live with a variety of turbocharged options today, when BMW announced the 2002 Turbo in 1973, it felt revolutionary to this then-14-year-old. Porsche actually showed a 911 Turbo across the floor at the very same event, but it didn’t publicly unveil the production 930 until a year later in Paris. With the benefit of hindsight, these cars now seem a fairly obvious evolution. (The pioneering Chevrolet Corvair had offered turbo power from 1962 to ’66.) But at its introduction in Europe, the 2002 Turbo was simply “Wow!”

Behind the wheel of any 2002, you are immediately struck by its great visibility; you really can see everything, thanks to the upright seating position and wide expanse of glass in front of the driver. The utility of this arrangement became even more valuable in the Turbo. BMW’s already-hot sports sedan had become an absolute scorcher, using a KKK Turbocharger to give the little two-door 170 horsepower from its 4-cylinder M10 engine.

It was raw, rudimentary, and a hell of a drive, sure to have its pilot grinning like the Joker while absolutely terrified at relatively innocuous speeds. The 2002 Turbo is among the cars that foisted the term “turbo lag” upon us, so often spoken about, but hard to understand from a modern perspective. Like the gunfight at the O.K. Corral, there’s lots of anticipation and then, bang! All hell breaks loose.

Going shopping

If you are looking for a Turbo, your shopping list is a bit different from other 2002 variants. First, check that cylinder head, as they cracked under pressure more often than Huggy Bear. (Millennials and others who don’t get the reference can Google “Starsky and Hutch.”)

Does the front nose section have a snorkel? Because it shouldn’t. BMW quickly ran out of the correct front clips, i.e. no snorkel, so many cars (after the inevitable mishap) would be repaired with the wrong front clip. Thankfully, our subject car does have the correct one.

Indeed, BMW is not Mercedes in its classic-parts supply department. BMW is trying, yet is still not there. Be prepared to find that some parts are unobtainable for now, although if you get involved in the 2002 community, you will find good people doing runs of some of the most-needed parts on occasion.

Unofficial M

The 2002 Turbo is not an official M car, but as it was developed by the Motorsport team, which started in 1972, it borrows some of that prestige. We are in a strange place with BMW M cars and recent price increases. Most BMW Motorsport cars have only truly come into their own in the past decade, which has brought about an inevitable “be careful what you wish for.”

Understand that for a long time we BMW lovers wept into our hankies about why our cars are so undervalued compared to other marques. And we’re still crying. Except now it’s that “our cars are getting so expensive.” Many of the people who really know these cars can no longer afford them, and vice-versa — many of the people who can afford them don’t know them. Eventually, as with Porsche, Ferrari, and so many other marques, the two will come together, but until that time, we can expect some rather unfortunate misses.

That may be what we have here. This car claims a three-year “rotisserie restoration,” but I believe they should have turned up the heat. I didn’t have the benefit of seeing the car in person, but working from the pictures alone, anyone who knows these cars will immediately point to issues that would cast doubt on the quality of the restoration, starting with the shut lines.

A mixed market

Unlike many important BMW Motorsport cars (E30 M3s, CSLs, etc.), which have largely bucked the downward trend of classic cars in general since its 2014–15 high, the market for 2002 Turbos has recently been all over the place. Turbo prices have huffed and puffed since the recent high sale of $192,500 that Gooding & Co. achieved at Amelia Island in 2018, but they seem to run out of wind whenever approaching that magic $200k barrier. The SCM median value currently sits at $108k.

This wide range of prices (and limited production, with only 1,672 made) makes any sale interesting. This one was for many reasons, not the least being its high price. That said, as one of the first European-production Turbos, and with the upward tilt of BMW Motorsport cars, perhaps this buyer has just bought really early. Because on the day, the seller was definitely the winner. ♦

(Introductory description courtesy of RM Sotheby’s.)