BMW’s ’02 range was born as a logical two-door extension of the well-received ‘Neue Klasse’ 1600 saloon range when the 1600-2 (‘2’ for two doors) was launched on May 7, 1966 – BMW’s 50th anniversary. The 1600-2 was joined by a twin-carb’d, higher-compression 1600ti in 1967 and was popular in Europe, but couldn’t meet emissions regulations for the US market, which was already crying out for a faster version of the small BMW.
The answer was the BMW 2002, created by dropping the 2.0-litre version of the M10 engine into the two-door shell. In 1968, a twin-carb version of the 2002 was unveiled, badged as 2002ti, but this was just a taste of what was to come, for in 1971 the 2002tii was launched, available in the UK from 1973. Running mechanical high-pressure Kügelfischer fuel injection, the 2002tii was good for 130bhp and could run rings round many much more expensive purpose-built sports cars.
Meanwhile, 1971 also saw BMW change the rear lights to square items and had launched the first of its ‘Touring’ models, in this case a hatchback version of the 2002 range. Available as 1602, 1802 or 2002 in standard or tii flavour, this was a
