This is one of Alvin Tan’s web-finds from ebay in Atlanta. As strange
it may seem, the seller was asking less than $10K for this rare (one
of approx. 1500 units produced) example never imported to the USA.
This one in the rarer, Polaris silver color was originally sold in
Italy and came equipped with factory supplied sport seats and dogleg
five-speed transmission.
Even though Alvin had another 2002Turbo restoration in process, he
“pulled the trigger” and purchased the car without a visual
inspection.
After dismantling and stripping to bare metal, the car was found to be
surprisingly rust-free and straight. The interior and original
one-piece carpet were removed and cleaned. The engine was rebuilt and
the final assembly completed by Sean Casey of Casey Motorsports in
Petaluma, CA.
The results are stunning. Great care was taken to preserve the subtle
sheet metal creases and panel fit — good enough to win first place in
the Original 02s category of the 2009 BMW CCA West Coast Summer
Concourse in Monterey, CA.
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