Date:         Fri, 19 Oct 2012 22:27:07 -0700
Reply-To:     Don Hanson <dhanson928@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Don Hanson <dhanson928@GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Re: Still Friday, sort of OT...why I like BMWs
In-Reply-To:  <8A5CBB54-3BBC-4BD2-AEE9-9D0972E002E5@gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

On Fri, Oct 19, 2012 at 9:20 PM, Ben T <syncro@gmail.com> wrote:

> The last powertrain project manager for BMW and now running the BMW hybrid
> division drives a tintop Syncro with a Subaru SVX engine. I'm paraphrasing
> but he essentially said it was the right tool for the job. :-)
>

  I like the Beemers, too.   I have, in my barn yard, a 2002 that my wife
owns....Not a model year 2002 but an actual 2002 model BMW sedan '77, I
recall, maybe..--...the old boxy one with the simple 4 banger, much like my
inline VW 4 motor.   I owned that vehicle for some years as my Good Car,
but I used to come home from work (in my carpenter's truck) and find it
gone from our yard....my wife would be driving it around, rather than HER
truck (back in Wyoming, everyone drives trucks)....So I asked her to take
it over and she's loved that car for 15yrs.....but never wanted to take
care of it at all...As mentioned, many small electrical issues with the
lights and signals....nothing with the dead simple carbed motor till it
finally needed rebuild....She  had a rebuild put in and kept driving it and
driving it.....Hauling bales of hay in the trunk, took the back seat out to
carry around all the dogs, HER new truck.......
   That car handled like a dream when I owned it, and was pretty darn
fast....

One day she goes..."Hey my car's been making a weird noise, can you look at
it?"   One of the corners had rusted away, the rear suspension was no
longer attached to the body.  The left rear wheel was rubbing on the top of
the trunk inside. For a week or two...

 She goes...."I love this car, can't you fix it?  You build race cars and
boats and houses....can't you fix it?"  After some thought, I called my
chassis building friend, the guy who did the cage in my racecar...tell him
the problem and ask if he'd take a look.....Trailer it to the shop, come
back in a week and he's bent and welded in some tubes inside the
trunk...they carry the suspension attachments and she's good to go for
another 5yrs or so..But Rust Never Sleeps....
  It's now like a Flintstones car....you can see through the floor to the
ground....A real shame that that era German cars have so many rust
issues...Someone gave her a Subaru, a Forester with big dimples all over
from a desert hailstorm and about a million miles on it....More her style
car...gas it and drive it,,,,nada mas..... So now the Beemer sits, all
forlorn, unused....Nobody loves little shoeboxes those like we do with the
Vanagons, though I do see some that are restored and there are a few racing
still....
   Friday post.
  Don Hanson