Another Touring Owner Checking In!

[roberttran]

Hi! Finally got around to collecting my thoughts and posting to introduce myself as a proud new owner to a 1974 2002 Touring. 

 

My first car in college was a one owner 1998 328i sedan and I had two dream cars on my list at the time. E39 M5 and 2002 Touring. Fast forward 15 years, I’ve owned quite a number of vehicles since then including several BMW, Mini, Porsche, and Mercedes cars. 

 

Almost two years ago, I decided I wanted to check things off my bucket list in life. Including getting all the cars I wanted, but couldn’t afford when I was starting my career. I sold my expensive modern Porsches (991 S X51 and 981 GT4) and started to go through the list of all the cars I thought were cool when I was young. Started with a 2004 Mercedes S600 which needed a massive amount of work (Here is the saga: https://mbworld.org/forums/s-class-w220/694380-my-first-w220.html). Then found a 66k mile 1998 M3 sedan that was a garage queen. It had some paint work done on a quarter panel, but it was immaculate. Normal E36 things were needed. 

 

Then it was onto tracking down a 2002 Touring. I kept an eye on the market for them. Was in contact with someone who was importing them into the US, bid on one in the Netherlands, and bid on 2 on BringATrailer. Auctions didn’t work out so I was ready to move on to getting a 1972 Porsche 911T instead. Then out of the blue, I got an email from Bob Breed in North Carolina who was thinking about selling his car. I was in NC for an annual conference a few weeks later so I arranged to check out the car before flying home. Long story short, I cancelled my plans to go up to NorCal to see a silver 1972 Porsche 911T and bought the 2002 touring from Bob. The car was shipped via a covered carrier to California. 

 

I’ve been having an amazing time daily driving it. I’ve been bitten by the bug and have already started to go over everything to get to know the car and do little things here and there. The hoarding of spare parts has begun too. My partner loves the car and most of my friends are enamored by it. They’ve all been around my fancy or weird cars, but nothing has ever evoked such emotions. I’ve never gotten so many thumbs up or random people coming up to me to ask about the car. I knew the car would get weird looks, but never expected to get so much attention. As an introvert, that’s probably the only downside to the car ?

 

On my list of short term to do’s:

• Window felt replacement
• Replace random interior and door bits that are worn
• Dual sheer selector rod and new joint for shifter to reduce some of the side to side play
• Update fuse box to modern blade style fuses
• Paint correction to remove some of the duller spots on the paint
• Rebuilt vintage Blaupunkt Frankfurt radio /w bluetooth from London Chrome
• NOS BMW front seat belts and reproduction (Vintage Warehouse UK) 3 point rear belts
• ICE A/C system: it was a little too uncomfortable daily driving the last few days

 

On my list of medium term to do’s:

• Picked up a set of touring interior panels as templates. My partner use to do glass fiber composite work and we might try to see if we can reproduce some of these panels in fiber glass
• I have a set of Supersprint headers being made in Germany that should arrive in November. Plan is to have an O2 bung welded in, ceramic coat the headers, and media blast + ceramic coat the current Abarth exhaust
• Continue hoarding new or new old stock parts

 

Looking forward to many more years of fun with this car and meeting other touring owners!

 

PS: Before anyone asks, the Silver GT3 Touring, Brown '72 911, and Orange '55 356 aren't mine and belong to my boss whom I share the shop with. My other vehicles include '06 Cayman S, '18 Golf Alltrack, '98 M3, '06 S600, '08 BMW F800ST

[ray_]

Very pretty car, and from a well-respected PO!

 

You done good!

 

Cheers,

[FunElan]

Hey Robert, welcome to the faq! I saw the car at PECLA last week, looks great! We're around the corner in MB with some 1600s, we should connect soon. 

 

PS your garage is amazing

[02Les]

Well done Robert, always good to see a Touring Owner here.

The car has a great lineage, Andy Stuckey, Mike Pugh and Bob Breed.

 

Look up member BlueDevils (Al Erkanli) for refurbishing your existing seat belts; they end up like new. He did mine for my Touring; great job.

[AceAndrew]

Good Morning,

 

Congrats on picking up the great car from a great seller, and welcome to the FAQ.  Hope you can make it out to SoCalVintage this year, since you are local.  Interesting you had a GT4.  My "new" car bucket list includes the 987 Spyder.

[roberttran]

2 hours ago, AceAndrew said:

Good Morning,

 

Congrats on picking up the great car from a great seller, and welcome to the FAQ.  Hope you can make it out to SoCalVintage this year, since you are local.  Interesting you had a GT4.  My "new" car bucket list includes the 987 Spyder.

 

I'm signed up ?

 

Newer cars are fun, but not the same. Hard to tinker with them since I have to take so much apart just to get to the engine. 981 Caymans require interior to be disassembled to get to engine. 991 requires rear bumper to be removed just to change the air filters. I felt like I spent more time taking the car apart then working on it. I also always worried about crashing the car on the track so never pushed it to it's limit. I found that my lap times in a 987.1 versus a 991 or 981 were very similar because I was pushing the much cheaper 987 harder and faster. Consumables were much cheaper too (18" tires versus 20", brakes, track insurance, etc)

[roberttran]

3 hours ago, 02Les said:

Well done Robert, always good to see a Touring Owner here.

The car has a great lineage, Andy Stuckey, Mike Pugh and Bob Breed.

 

Look up member BlueDevils (Al Erkanli) for refurbishing your existing seat belts; they end up like new. He did mine for my Touring; great job.

 

 

I'll have to post a picture: Mike and Bob autographed the inside of the rear hatch ?

[zinz]

Beautiful car.  Welcome to the family!

 

That's an interesting muffler...

 

 

Ed Z

[iinca]

Damn that is a nice Touring'! You did good picking that up

 

Welcome to 2002 FAQ show. It's a friendly knowledgeable place and Porsche Snob Free zone

 

* is that 2 resonators in line?

Edited September 16, 2019 by iinca

[hellayego]

I can’t wait to see your car at SoCal vintage, I’ll definitely come say hi. Very very very cool, Robert.


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[roberttran]

11 hours ago, FunElan said:

Hey Robert, welcome to the faq! I saw the car at PECLA last week, looks great! We're around the corner in MB with some 1600s, we should connect soon. 

 

PS your garage is amazing

 

PM me. I'm in Hermosa, I work in El Segundo, and my shop is in Gardena. 

[roberttran]

12 minutes ago, zinz said:

Beautiful car.  Welcome to the family!

 

That's an interesting muffler...

 

 

Ed Z

 

It's the Abarth system. I'm very happy with the sound. Mounting points are to be desired, but one can work around it. The paint on it is worn out so that's why I want to get the whole thing ceramic coated. 

 

[iinca]

it's looks I talian'. When you have a moment maybe post up an exaust sound video

[BobBreed]

Hi folks, Yes, please welcome Robert to the FAQ and to all the information you guys have available.  Between Mike Pugh and I, that car has been all over the eastern seaboard. It was tough to let it go but I watched all the folks that were bidding on tourings on BAT plus a lot of comments from the FAQ and then reached out. I wanted to find a another person who could take over the stewardship of this car and keep refining it as Mike and I have done. I think I've found that person.  I've retired from 2002's and racing . My only involvement is now helping support Apex Vintage "drive and drive" clients at VIR several times a year. I've actually cleaned out my garage of all 2002 parts! 

 

Good luck Robert and stay in touch!

Bob

    

[AceAndrew]

I hear you on the “old cars are more fun to tinker with”.   I spent nearly a decade at Ireland Engineering, and just a year at GMG.  Coincidentally I have recently taken a job offer in El Segundo while back in school.

 

again, good to have you around.