Facebook and a Rare BMW 1802 Touring named “Lemon”

You’re on Facebook right yall?  No?  Get with the program!  That’s how MyRideisMe.com and Pascal Hein got together, through the MyRideisMe Facebook Fanpage.  Go check it out and join our Fanpage, right after you read this cool story of course.

Pascal is from Germany and he has shared his classic bimmer he calls “Lemon”.  A 1973 1802 Touring model.  Sit back, grab some Kugen (yummy pastries my German grandma Hecht makes for desserts) and enjoy storytime from the motherland.  Take it away Pascal!

“My Bimmer was built in 1973. The so called “Touring” was BMWs first try to build a hatchback and also the last try until 1993, when they introduced the compact edition of the 3 Series.

Actually people didn’t like this concept in the early 70s so just around 30,000 Touring models were produced and just around 970 of them were 1802 Tourings like mine, while there were houndreds of thousands of normal BMW 02 sedans.
So in 1984 my father managed to buy this car after he wanted to have one for many years. It had two owners before he bought it and had some damage on the rear left side. My father repaired the damage and then used it between 1989 and 1991 as his car for driving to work everyday.

Well he bought his 5 Series then and the yellow Bimmer was parked in the garage at my grandmothers house. As a kid I always saw it and was fascinated by it the whole time. But I never thought we could make it look good and get it running again.

In 2007 I passed my drivers licence test. At that time I thought about buying my first car. The problem was I didn’t know what to buy. Someday I said just for fun to my father, that we could rebuild the yellow BMW and then I could use it as my own car. Even though I wasn’t serious, he took it serious and said yes. Acutally it was his gift for my 18th birthday!

So in April 2008 we tried to get her running again to drive her up the trailer and to get her home. After some tries she actually started. But after sitting in the garage for nearly 18 years she really looked horrible. There was dirt all over and she looked like she nearly rusted apart.

In the Summer of 2008 we started working on the car. The plans were to get her done and to make her pass the safety inspection as soon as possible. First of all we got the engine and transmission out.

Both things were totally dirty so we cleaned them up as good as possible. The area around the engine really looked awful and rusty.

But after we scratched the old paint off it wasn’t as bad as we thought before. After some work it was repainted.

The next and most important thing for the safety inspection was the braking system. We bought all the parts we needed and the whole old original braking system was replaced with new parts. It got new brake discs and pads in the front, new drum brakes in the rear and all those brake lines were replaced too.

But the thing that took the most time was to clean up all the parts of the engine, transmission and the interior. There were also some parts of the body that needed to be welded (the footwell on both sides). And of course we installed a new exhaust and reworked the rims+got new tires (tires mustn’t be older than 10 years or you won’t pass the security inspection). We did all this work in just 3 weeks, because I wanted to go to Switzerland.  Well we passed the security test without any big problems, even though the car still needed some work.

The only thing that didn’t work out the way we wanted to was the vehicle license. Here in germany there’s a special license for vintage cars, which are older than 30 years. It costs less then a normal license (lower tax price) and has some other positive effects to. For example you aren’t allowed to drive into big cities with a car that has no catalytic converter. But with such a vintage car licence you are allowed. The big problem was, that the car must not look bad and has to be in a certain condition. We didn’t have any problems with the technical condition but with the visual. There were some parts of the car we didn’t repaint, so there was just primer on it.

Well, we didn’t get this license so we registered the car with a normal license. After test driving it for about 50 kilometeres, which isn’t really much, I jumped in and drove to Switzerland where I was driving many winding roads for a full week. I didn’t have any technical problems at all.

Later we repainted those primered parts and got the vintage car license.
In spring 2009 we took out the whole rear axle and differential to work. We replaced all the bushings and cleaned and repainted it. We also removed some rusty spots on the doors and repainted them too plus we changed the oil in the differential.

From summer 2008 until summer 2009 I also used it to get to school everyday, sometimes even in the wintertime. But after each day in the winter I washed her, because here in Germany they use too much salt on the roads, even if there’s no snow.

Since September 2009 I have used my other BMW (a 1994 5 Series station wagon), so now my 1802 Touring is my sunny day cruiser.
The first technical problem we got was on a tour with our BMW Club through Austria in June of 2009. One day the so called “Hardy”-Disk (a disk made of rubber which sits between the transmission and the cardan shaft) broke. Well we couldn’t continue our tour with this car so it was brought home to Germany on a truck. It wasn’t a big deal and we fixed it as soon as possible.

We also have some plans for the future: The next step is to replace the old and worn out wheel bearings and drive shafts. We also want to remove the rust in the rear fenders and well…someday it’ll get a new paintjob, but it will be repainted in the same color.

The color is the reason why we gave her her name: “Zitrone”  (German for “Lemon” ). But it all takes time. We still got some other Bimmers who want to be repaired too.

Some technical details:
1,8L 4 cylinder with ~90 hp
4speed manual gearbox
Top speed: 165km/h (~102mph)
Weight: about 1000kg

Words and Photos by Pascal Hein

If you have a cool car, hit us up on our Facebook Fanpage!  We love cars and others will dig your ride too!

Hechtspeed

A rocket ride to oblivion…

…and a trade that rocked the world.Twenty years ago this week, the Edmonton Oilers traded Wayne “The Great One” Gretzky to the LA Kings, marking the day that Hockey stood still. August 9, 1988 is a date that still elicits a response in any Hockey fan, and for good reason. I’ll throw in another date: December 12, 2000, the day that GM announced that they were pulling the plug on Oldsmobile. Two very different events with very different outcomes… yet, they share a few key things in common, and a valuable lesson that a carmaker could have learned from a Hockey player.Consider the impact that Gretzky had on the game (if not a community): 1851 points… 200+ points in each of four seasons… 92 goals in ONE season! (hell, being a Sabres fan, I have to point out that Alexander Mogilny came close once… at 76 goals in the early ’90’s) Take a moment to fathom that, then, consider that his record has stood since being set in the ’81-’82 season. The man’s photo should appear in the dictionary under the word “Hockey”. I could spout off stats here, but you can find those easily enough… Suffice to say, he dominated the game on the ice. Yet, what he did OFF of the ice would forever change the game as well.In 1988, the Great One was traded to the LA Kings.The deal was monstrous to begin with, but the terms were astounding in their own right: The Oilers gave up the league’s reigning superstar for $15 million, three number one draft picks, Krushelnyski, McSorley, and negotiating rights to minor league defensemen, along with LA’s Jimmy Carson (a recent pick who just put up 55 goals).Take a second to drink in that trade.Not only was that big money in ’88, but it broke up a team that had “dynasty” written all over it… If you’re a Hockey fan, then you know all about the Oilers of that era, with Grant Fuhr, Jari Kurri, Mark Messier… Man, I remember collecting cards and stickers of those guys like they were gold (in some cases, they were… Remember the gold foil stickers?). To take Gretzky to LA?! What were they thinking?Granted, number 99 in Los Angeles wasn’t the ticket to a cup victory (or a dynasty) on ice… But what the deal did for the sport itself?! Far-reaching and dynamic are two words that scratch the surface… Barely. Here was an uber-talent, wrapped in a marketing dream. Great personality, incredible with words, and a look that could move product. His assimilation into US pop culture was the stuff of legend. Consider: If, like me, you grew up in the ‘80’s, you knew Gretzky (even if not from Hockey) from ads for Campbell’s, Coke, Ford, American Express, an action figure, hell… the guy even had a Saturday morning cartoon with Bo Jackson and Michael Jordan! (remember “Pro Stars”?) Add to his clout an ambassador status, bringing the game to numerous new fans… A fact to ponder: When Gretzky hit US soil as a player, there were 15 franchises of the NHL in the US. Today, there are 24. Talk about opening a market!Back to Oldsmobile for a spell here… Consider that in 1897, the carmaker was forging ahead, pushing design and technical innovation to create a dynamic new car. It was to become GM’s shining star, the brand that pushed innovation for the corporation. Being GM’s “innovation brand” meant that other carmakers would often study their products, and attempt to mimic them. Not only was Oldsmobile the first mass-produced car (the 1901-1904 Curved Dash), but was the first with an automatic transmission (1940 – the Hydromatic), the first overhead valve V8 (’49 – also leading the way with a hardtop and wrap-around windshield that year!), the first turbocharged engine in an American car (’62!), the first front wheel drive car in America (the ’66 Toronado), and so on… Ponder this: in the 50’s and ‘60’s, makers like Mercedes would buy and dissect Oldsmobiles (and other GM cars) to see what made them tick. At the time, there was truly no substitute for an American car.Oldsmobiles were the choice of the techie crowd… they had the advanced features, and appealed to the more technologically hip consumer. Olds and GM capitalized on this for a bit, but then lost the vision somewhere along the way. Rather than build on a success (see Gretzky above), GM stuttered, and down-graded the brand to compete with foreign cars on their own level. Rather than push the envelope, and allow Oldsmobile to bloom into the leader in technology and design for GM, they pulled funding from the coffers for projects like Saturn, among other things. (don’t get me wrong here— Saturn is a fine make, and having worked for Saturn, I am grateful for the food and shelter my career there provided… just still suffering the “WHY??!!” over pushing Saturn into Oldsmobile territory, and giving the little plastic-clad cars all of the cool advancements) GM dropped the ball, and took what should have been a bright Oldsmobile future, with great new cars that would have rivaled Lexus, BMW and their ilk, and let it slip into the old folks home of the corporation. One notable exception was the Aurora (I have a very soft spot for the first-generation units… Remember the first time you saw the ‘95’s… Man were those cool when new!), which led the way 20in innovation, and sat at the crossroads for a trek back to greatness… yet, sadly, it seems that the higher-ups were too busy looking into overpriced, oversized SUV’s to haul fat-ass suburbanites around the mini malls. By the time that last Alero rolled off the line on April 4, 2004, the fire was definitely gone. The rocket was more of a lawn dart, sadly…Adding insult to injury, GM decided to kill off more jobs and cars with potential to concentrate on… Trucks.At the start of a new environmental awareness, the good General concentrated on big old SUV’s, targeted at vacuous housewives who have no clue how to drive them. Another well thought out plan. Rather than attack the future and hold an upper hand, doing some good for the entire brand, they concentrated on one small niche, which ironically, has become the proverbial Achille’s heel of a car-making giant. Presently, they have no true marquee in brand that does what Olds once could. Who’s to say that Oldsmobile may have been the leverage point for GM in the escalating hybrid wars? I’d like to entertain that notion. Had they stayed on path, who knows? We may have seen George Clooney cruising a Cutlass versus a Prius.Consider the effects of the Gretzky trade, when applied to the Oldsmobile (and subsequent GM) debacle: While Edmonton sacrificed a pillar of their team, they still managed winning seasons and a Cup victory, and gained a fairly stable ground (player-wise, not so much owner-wise) to build on. Bigger than that, Hockey itself won, big time. By allowing a great talent to continue down a road that he himself forged, great things happened all around. Had number 99 stayed in Edmonton, I have no doubts that we’d have seen a number of Oilers Stanley Cup years… it’s a given. Yet, what that trade accomplished for the future of the sport was incredible. Am I suggesting that had GM invested resources into allowing Oldsmobile to progress on the brand’s original course that it may have had a similar effect on the corporation at large? You bet your ass I am.All told, I’ll bet that there will be a moment of silence this week as Edmonton fans and residents recall the day the Great One left the Great White North… and that, at the same time, a few tears will be shed by GM shareholders as they look back on the rocket ride that could have been…Need more insight and opinion? Just want to look at cool pictures and hot rod designs? Head on over to PCK Studio at www.problemchildkustoms.com.

It’s Official: BMW Superbike

On April 16 Hendrik von Kuenheim announced that BMW will be building enough S1000RR’s for homologation into World Superbike. He did not mention too much about the machine, except what is obvious. It’s an inline 4, chain drive with front forks rather than any kind of superduperparatelepythagorian-lever design that they have developed.

There is no telling what the price tag might be for one of these beauties. They talk about being competitive with the Japanese manufacturers. However, it was not clear whether that means a $45k bike like the Honda RC’s of old or a $15k bike like any of todays superbike base machines.

This is great for WSBK, but probably not so good for the regrouping of AMA SBK.

I’m sure there will be plenty more information to come, but they just gave us a teaser! Enjoy the pictures for now.

My Ride is Me Sponsors First Race Car!

After selling both the Nissan 240SX race cars he had owned and saying, “I’m not getting another race car…” Brady Dohrmann of Tempe, AZ picked up this race prepped BMW M3.

I work with Brady, so it was only natural to make him the first officially sponsored MyRideisMe.com race car! It also helps that with his previous cars, Brady pretty much won every event he raced in and was featured in a couple of magazines. He won his class at the 9/22-23 Track Day at Phoenix International Raceway (PIR) and was 3rd overall. It’s a big responsibility being Brady’s sponsor. We had to show up late and bring 3 cold Burger King Whopper Jr’s. With backing like that, I’m sure Brady will continue to be successful.

To see more pictures of Brady’s car, check out his Brady’s garage.

To see all the pictures I took from the race, go HERE:

If anyone would like the high res photos, please get in touch. There yours free.

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