1976 BMW 2002

Welcome to Down On The Street, where we admire old vehicles found parked on the streets of the Island That Rust Forgot: Alameda, California. Ready for yet another street-driven BMW 2002? This car belongs to 24 Hours Of LeMons Assistant Perpetrator and Ecurie Ecrappe member Nick Pon, better known around these parts as TheEastBayKid. He's an Oakland guy, but he had some business to attend to in nearby Alameda and I took advantage of the opportunity to shoot his daily-driver/vintage-rallyer 2002 while it was parked here. It's a good solid car, but BMW restoration fanatics would likely find much to frown about here. The engine is dead stock, except for the air cleaner (1976 model year cars are subject to California's super-strict emissions-equipment laws), but the suspension has some upgrades that wouldn't please the numbers-matching crowd. This is our sixth Alameda DOTS 2002 (after this pretty nice '72, this total beater '72, this '73 2002tii, this automatic-equipped '75, and this work-in-progress '75), and I've got a few more photographed and ready to go. The 2002 is actually one of the most commonplace old cars on Alameda's streets, though not as easy to find as Beetles, Mustangs, or Darts/Valiants.