After being a year off on yesterday's DOTS car, I'm not going out on a limb with this BMW; I think it's a '73, but those damn Huns didn't change the tii's design much, it's not in the state's smog history database, and I'm too damn lazy to walk four blocks and look at the dashboard VIN plate (if it even has one). So, BMW fanatics, here's your chance to kick your Bayerische Motoren Werke kuh-nowledge by telling us all the year of this Alameda East End Beemer.
The tii was the top-of-the-line 2002 imported into the US; the '73 came with a 125-horse 2-liter four-banger, bigger brakes, and other goodies you didn't get on the base 2002.
Badass as this car may be, I've always thought of the 2002 as the rich man's Datsun 510; the '73 2002tii listed at $5233, more than twice the price of the $2306 '73 510.
Of course, the 2002tii would blow away the stock 510... but, as we all know, most 510s didn't stay stock for long. Still, there's something to be said for a genuine factory hot rod straight from Germany.
This car is pretty straight, though it is on the weathered and battered side. But, like so many DOTS cars, it's someone's daily driver and parks every day on a busy street.
It's great to see a performance car from decades past still out there where we can see it in its native habitat. No doubt someone will restore and garage it eventually, but for now we can still enjoy seeing it on the street.
The famous Hofmeister Kink! Jeez, the trees on Encinal Avenue leak a lot of sap.
BMW managed to deal fairly gracefully with the ever-growing crash bumpers mandated by mid-70s US vehicle regulations, though worse was to come in following years.