Ludwig is 47 today

[Mike Self]

Assembled 18 December 1972, sold new at Mill Valley Imports in Mill Valley CA.  Came to Ohio with its original Air Force owner, under my care since June 1978.  Undergoing minor surgery for a nice 3.64 limited slip, and new seals for the (very) leaky steering box.  

 

That's Ludwig on the left, and his first cousin, Franz on the right--Jim Denker's car, assembled a few months after mine.

 

mike

 

 

 

 

Edited December 18, 2019 by mike

[jscaptura1]

Very nice Mike!  Congratulations and have a Merry Christmas!  Hope to meet up with you again in Beavercreek in the New Year!

[02fanatic]

Congrats to Ludwig and Mike!  I always forget that my "Hugo" was born on 12-17-71 (yesterday!).

 

Merry Christmas to all!

 

John

[Preyupy]

Congrats Mike,  my 1600 was born a couple of years earlier but last Saturday we celebrated our 45 anniversary.  

[FunElan]

happy birthday Ludwig!!

[mvliotta]

Congratulations! 

 

Only a few more years and the big 50 will hit all our ‘72s!!

[john02md]

Ah.  To be only 47 again.  Oh, you mean the 2002. 

John

74 2002 Polaris

[Steve Tochi]

My 1974s birthday is today, delivered to NYC on 2/14/74, at least that's what her birth certificate says. 

[Gordon]

Mike, Ludwig is looking great as always. Thanks for the reminder. My Sahara 74 turned 46 yesterday.  Hopefully you'll bring Ludwig to the Vintage.  l look forward to seeing Ludwig (or your sweet E30 318is) there.  Sahara rocks!

The BMW 2002 tii US VIN 2780763 was manufactured on December 18th, 1973 and delivered on February
22nd, 1974 to the BMW importer Hoffman Motors Corp. in New York City. The original colour was 
Sahara, paint code 006.  

[Steve Tochi]

23 minutes ago, Gordon said:

Mike, Ludwig is looking great as always. Thanks for the reminder. My Sahara 74 turned 46 yesterday.  Hopefully you'll bring Ludwig to the Vintage.  l look forward to seeing Ludwig (or your sweet E30 318is) there.  Sahara rocks!

The BMW 2002 tii US VIN 2780763 was manufactured on December 18th, 1973 and delivered on February
22nd, 1974 to the BMW importer Hoffman Motors Corp. in New York City. The original colour was 
Sahara, paint code 006.  

 

Gordon,

I'm 2780764, so our cars our "twin sons of different mothers".  My DOB was the next day 12/19/73, but delivered to Max on 2/14/74, a week earlier than yours.  Is this simply a matter of LIFO when loading/unloading the boat and getting through customs?  We need more data so we can determine how often shipments came across the North Atlantic air gap, how many cars per ship, how long to get through port.....for important cocktail party conversation stuff.  Bet Conserv already has this data.

[Conserv]

On 12/19/2019 at 11:31 AM, Steve Tochi said:

My 1974s birthday is today, delivered to NYC on 2/14/74, at least that's what her birth certificate says. 

No hard data, Steve, but the legal transfer to Hoffman Motors occurred before the cars left in ships, as liability shifted to Hoffman Motors. Thus, the legal “delivery” date is almost always within two weeks of the manufacturing date, and frequently within one week. The legal delivery says nothing about the U.S. Port of Entry, (POE), where the car physically entered the U.S. and passed U.S. Customs.

 

Time from manufacture to physical delivery at the dealerships ranged from 6 to 12 weeks, depending on ship schedules, weather, POE (particularly East Coast vs. West Coast), Panama Canal traffic (for West Coast POE’s), distance from POE to dealership (e.g., a couple miles, or five states inland), trucking schedules, etc.

 

Occasionally we see these awkward gaps between the manufacturing date and the legal delivery date to Hoffman. I don’t know what caused them. Missing paperwork? Car had something that needed fixing before shipping? I don’t know. There was one example where there were many months between the manufacturing date and the legal delivery to Hoffman. But the owner also had the original retail purchase documents and the legal delivery date was the day before the retail sale, as in “Oh, sh*t — the customer is picking up the car tomorrow and the factory forgot to process the transfer to Hoffman!”

Pure speculation, but hard to believe it was just a coincidence! ?

 

Best regards,

 

Steve

 

Edited December 20, 2019 by Conserv

[Steve Tochi]

I knew Steve would have answers, he's like rain man and a beautiful mind combined into one.  I therefore find the language in Julia's emails is misleading. 

[Conserv]

3 hours ago, Steve Tochi said:

I knew Steve would have answers, he's like rain man and a beautiful mind combined into one.  I therefore find the language in Julia's emails is misleading. 

Steve,

 

The language was, no doubt, designed for their usual, i.e., European market, where there was no separate importer involved. Thus, for a typical German delivery, the letter says, “was delivered to XYZ dealer” or “delivered to ABC town”. And, here in the U.S., because legal ownership was being transferred to an importer — who would be keeping records — BMW AG neither knew nor cared to record what dealership sold a particular car, to which buyer that car was sold, or the date of that sale. So when Hoffman went out of business, all this valuable data was lost.

 

Best regards,

 

Steve

 

[OriginalOwner]

Happy Birthday to Ludwig !!

 

Cheers,

 

Carl

 

[tjones02]

Happy Birthday Ludwig!

 

In February my parents will celebrate 48 years since they their Tii. It was born Oct. 20th ‘71.