History/driving impressions originally published in AutoWeek November 19, 1984; republished by the author

The BMW 2002 Cabrio was less than elegant when opened up.

The hard top section of the BMW 2002 Cabrio lifted off and stowed neatly in the trunk, as demonstrated on take-your-daughter-to-work day.

The roofline of the BMW 2002 Cabrio was more practicality than a thing of beautuy.

 

Putting the top down. It’s a delight, it’s a fascination, it’s a ritual. It’s a compulsion so persistentthat it has bowled the safetycrats right off their swivel chairs, with a new ragtop appearing almost every week.

It’s also cross-cultural. It’s not just we Americans who favor al fresco driving. Ask any Tibetan yak herder, selected at random, which car he’d rather ride in, and our probability tables say he’ll head for the one with the top down.

So is it any wonder that the BMW 1600-2, a nice little two-door sedan with a perfectly good steel roof, lost it for fabric top and a cabriolet moniker (AutoWeek, April 25, 1983)? Or, when more strudel was desired under the hood, that the 2002 cabriolet was born?

The 1600-2 Cabrio was what we normally think of as a “real” convertible: The top goes down and away, out of sight and out of mind, with no post other than the A-pillar to remind us that there ever was anything overhead. And that was fine for the 1.6-liter car. A few well-selected reinforcements to the unit-body chassis gave the car sufficient rigidity to cope with the engine’s 85 hp. (Read more about the BMW 1600-2 Cabrio here).

But the 2002’s 100-hp engine was another matter altogether. The increase in horsepower was just too much for a chassis that was originally designed with the lid as a structural member. Then for good measure add in the nervous nellies who are crying out for an end to convertibles for safety reasons (mainly their notoriously poor performance in rollover tests). What one gets is the 2002 Cabrio, a semi-targa with a hard top and a soft rear window.

Like the 1600-2 Cabrio before it, the blue-sky 2002 was built by Bauer, a coach builder with a history of work on BMW chasses. The Stuttgart firm, founded in 1910, actually antedates the Bavarian car builder, the long association beginning in the ‘30s with the production of BMW 320 and 326 cabriolets. After the war, BMW and Bauer leaned on each other for support, with Bauer producing bodies for the 501 sedan, getting BMW back into the car business earlier than it would have otherwise, while giving Bauer much needed business. Bauer went on to build coupes and convertibles on the 501 and 502, a prototype for an awkward-looking sports car that fortunately did not become the 507, and convertible version of the BMW 700 Sport. Bauer was a natural to provide the Bavarian sedan with the breath of fresh air.

The venture was one of full cooperation between the two companies from the very start. Finished cars could be bought through normal BMW outlets in Germany, and BMW shipped Cabrio-designates directly to Baur’s works. These were hardly “bodies in white.” The cars were missing only a few minor items such as headliners, and designed to involve no painting or repainting of the body.

For the 1600-2 cabriolet, Bauer designed a conventional convertible top, but for the 2002 Cabrio retained the chassis strength by linking a relatively conventional targa bar to the A-pillar/windshield frame with siderails. The targa bar is “relatively conventional” because it is not simply a band over the car, but also includes flip-out quarter windows. Conventional targa practice is followed with the roof, however. A fabric-covered steel lid fits into the space between the windshield and the targa bar and clamps in place. Brackets in the trunk hold the top above the other trunk contents, which keeps things tidy, but it does interfere with access to anything in the trunk. A fabric rear section to the top unfolds from under a boot out of a compartment behind the rear seat, meeting the rear edge of the targa. The targa bar itself is fabric covered.

With the top completely up, the car looks normal enough. It would take a fine eye to note that the Cabrio is 2 inches shorter than its fixed-roof equivalent. Anyone familiar with BMWs, however, will notice what appears to be a wider-than-normal C-pillar and a more steeply raked and smaller backlight. With the top down, however, its profile is pure pickup truck, a result of the targa bar being so far forward. Its rear edge is in front of the rear wheel arch, giving the appearance of a long rear deck. Combined with the normally short hood of the 2002 and a shorter “cabin” than usual, one begins to wonder how to say “Ranchero” in German.

The car otherwise is pure 2002. No changes were made to the McPherson strut/semi-trailing arm suspension system, or to the disk/drum brakes, or to the 1990cc SOHC four-cylinder engine. Only the base version of the two-liter was available, and although it was capable of producing 100 spirited horses despite having only a solitary single-throat Solex carburetor, it’s no tii.

Bauer made the 2002 Cabriolet from 1971 to 1975, producing only 4,199 during that period. By way of comparison, BMW produced almost 340,000 of the 2002, and that’s not counting the ti or tii models and other variations. From a collector’s standpoint, the price has already begun to rise in Germany for both the 1600-2 and 2002 cabriolets.

There were waiting lines in Germany for the Bauer-created convertible when they were new, and therefore BMW saw no reason to send any to the US. Any in this country have been imported privately, such as the 2002 Cabriolet owned by Lothar Schuettler, owner of Excluservice, a Rockville, Maryland, auto service and repair facility catering only to BMWs. Lothar made his 2002 available to AutoWeek for photographs and driving.

(It is actually one of two 2002 cabriolet Lothar owns, the other equipped with the factory’s contemporary “turbo kit,” which includes everything – flares, spoilers, etc. – but a turbocharger, but which unfortunately needed engine work at the time of our visit: The shoemaker’s children go barefoot.)

Not surprisingly, the car goes and handles like a BMW. The four is smooth and responsive and, especially in its yet-to-be-de-smogged form, very smooth. The difference comes in when the top goes down, or in this case perhaps, off. Unless you really look for it, you will never know it’s not a full convertible. You’ll still smell the fresh air and hear the exhaust, you’ll still be able to tie your hair in knots, you’ll still be able to freeze your ears and fry your feet on cool autumn evenings… With the added option, for the weak of heart, of just lowering the rear section while leaving the top on.

It is as close as you can come to having your cake and eating it, too. It’s a sports sedan with the top that comes off. It’s a sports car that doesn’t have to leave the kiddies behind. And in a world full of rotten compromises, it’s a compromise that works.

The story should end here, except for one postscript: Bauer is still convertible converting several BMW models, but there is a waiting list that is months long. As long as the demand holds up, Cabrios are exclusively for the home market – and the gray market.

Addendum to the original addendum: The BMW 2002 Cabriolet is still desirable, with auction prices averaging just under $40,000, but with a range from $17,000 to $75,000.

Unfortunately after 40 years the original photos/negatives have gone adrift so I’ve recovered what I could from copying the photos from the newsprint. Should the originals surface, I’ll update the photos here.

Where's more like this:

BMW 1600-2 Cabriolet: Blue-sky Never BMW 502: Delicate Sparkle of a Bavarian Princess Social climber: The BMW 507 was upwardly mobile 1939 BMW 321: From bureaucrat to burgher, the war changed many things