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Don’t Blame me, Officer, it was that LEAD car…
My first ever BMW of my own, had actually been one of Cousin Edwin’s project cars that never got finished. I bought this junky ’69 1600 with a 2-liter motor from him that I had driven as a favor to him: together we ferried two of his cars from Kansas to Dallas when he was discharged from the military. Both cars were loaded to the gills with car parts, guitars and baggage. We both had C.B. radios (remember those?) and would chat back and forth, "how much ‘ya turnin right now," he’d ask. I, in the 1600, would shoot back, "oh, somewhere north of 5 grand right now", "how ‘bout you?". His reply would be somewhat lower since the gearing on the 1600 was numerically higher. The concern was for my rickety old unproven car being overstressed by the blistering illegal pace we set. Both cars did the trip just fine and I was impressed.

NOT recommended practice….
The clincher was when I took the MUCH nicer 2002 on from Dallas to Indianapolis. I was a madman that night. 14 hours non-stop except for gas’n-go. This included a ½ hour side of the road thawing of fuel lines. I had to be in Indy at a certain time, and I had started three hours late. I drove the car in excess of 100mph most all night, and made it home on time. What was more amazing was the car never felt like we were too fast (traffic in the middle of the night was much less in those days). I arrived reasonably rested, and the car trouble was not the car’s fault. I got 25 MPG, and couldn’t believe it. When he later arrived with the 1600, I bought it from him. What a piece of junk. I loved it. Every weekend for as long as I owned it I loved on it with shiny bent shapes and odd-looking objects marked "12mm" and such.

The Tan 1600/2002...
This car was a mess. It had been thoroughly thrashed all its life. It was beat up. The interior was trashed and it had 240,000 hard miles on the clock. The engine had been replaced with a strong 2-liter version at some point. The suspension had been upgraded with heavy sway bars and lowered, as well. According to Edwin, the car had been "Autocrossed" many times (whatever THAT was) and was used to commute 100 miles every day. The last year of this commuting was done in 3rd gear since top gear was out. (Edwin had replaced the tranny). I quickly learned I needed another car beside the garage as a donor. My own little BMW junk yard, with a ’37 Ford and several flathead Ford motors thrown in for effect. And so it was, right up to the end. The parts car became a skeleton, especially after the accident. Thankfully, the neighbors were very understanding. I was a "certified car nut".

Thank God it wasn’t worse...
It could have been a LOT worse, too. A drunk in a heavily laden full –size ‘70’s Dodge wagon failed to stop as my wife and daughter were legally turning left in front of him. They were 40 miles from home when I got the call: "We’re okay, but the car’s a mess. I’ll see if it will run, though, and get back to you". Sure ‘nuff did run, too. It was literally bent double. My Daughter had to ride home in the back seat because the passenger door was nearly into the shifter. The steering wheel was canted at nowhere near straight in order to proceed straight down the road. The Family was really okay, just "a bit shaken up". My first wife was given to understatements. With the use of several jacks, chains, a rented Port-a-Power and a very big tree, I had the car straight enough to have a white door on a Tan car. The next day I drove it to work, just like nothing had happened. "sscchhLLUMMmp" was the nice sound the door made when it closed, too. While I was at it, I added a dual side draft carb set-up to it and turned it into a monster. I drove it another year, and found that Krylon Tan was a very good match for BMW Tan.

FLASH!
GTO OWNER TERRIFIED BY PROWERESS OF 122 CUBIC INCHES!
One of my new friends of the time was a young man who wanted to learn about cars. How to build them, fix them, MODIFY them. I was his ticket, and he loved GTO’s. We built a nice ’67 Goat to his liking, then at one point he got a ride in The Bimmer. After the brief ride, some of it on two wheels (alternately side wheels, then fronts, then rears and never out of control), he was absolutely Ashen. He simply couldn’t believe a 4-cylinder car could do those things. Actually, I was a little surprised myself, but I was at the top of my game that day. The car was running well, too. BTW, we never endangered anybody in these antics.

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