The BMW 02 series forever
shaped the Bavarian brand’s design and established it as a maker of sports
sedans. To this day it remains one of the most recognizable BMWs ever made
and a sought-after classic. Finding a good one is not easy, though, as not many
have survived and many of those that have are heavily modified.
But what if all you want is a car that looks like
the classic 2002 and goes like a modern BMW? Well, you can count on Germany’s
Everytimer Automobile to convert a BMW 135i Convertible into an open-air BMW
2002 lookalike baptized ETA 02 Cabrio.
The car features a bodywork made of fiberglass
shaped to look like the 1971 BMW 2002 convertible. Compared to the 2002, the
ETA 02 Cabrio uses modern iterations of the round bi-xenon headlights and LED
taillights, bigger wheels, and a lowered windshield angle. The A-pillar and
windshield are actually sourced from the E88 1 Series Convertible, as is the
trunk lid for the soft top. All the other bodywork components were hand built
from scratch.
Underneath the retro-styled bodywork, there’s a BMW
135i chassis meaning the ETA 02 Cabrio packs a 302 hp 3.0-liter
twin-turbo straight-six engine that allows it to sprint from 0 to 100 km/h in about 5 seconds and touch 250 km/h. Not bad for a car
that looks cute rather than aggressive.
So far, Everytimer Automobile has built two
prototypes, a blue one and a green one. The cars the company will build next
will have carbon fiber bodies and will be offered for sale. As you can imagine,
they won’t come cheap — the conversion will cost around € 70,000 (about US$ 80,000).
