A girl we had a heart-rending crush on from the ages of 12 to 19's dad had a first-generation BMW M3 which he used to autocross. When she turned 16, he bought a couple of 2002s with the promise that he was going to build her a great little runabout from the carcasses. Instead, he built himself a full-on race car. Which we understand. Plus, his subterfuge probably saved our young life. In a 2002, she would've been so ridiculously hot that her resistance of our advances would've had us adopting Lane Meyer-style tactics to get her out of our head. We've always loved the little Bimmers that could, and The Car Connection's got a cool little retrospective of the vehicle that practically single-handedly made the Quandt family enough Deutschmarks to keep them in schnitzel and Franziskaner until Otto von Bismarck returns on Judgement Tag.
Memory Lane: 1968-75 BMW 2002 [The Car Connection]
Related:
Spy Photos: 2007 BMW M3, Ever Closer [Internal]