1970 Ti - YES- TI Seatle

[TonyHavana]

Hi Vince

Yes that is the Edward I am talking about.

When I emailed the guy in Germany for my VIN info, I asked him if he knew how many Ti's were sent to Canada.

He didn't have any idea.

Somewhere there must be a record of this, maybe from BMW Canada's records from those days. It would be interesting to know.

[jgerock]

Edit FOUND IT!!

From the June 1974 Roundel in the "Readers Forum":

TI Reply

This is in reply to Stephen B. Maynard on his question in the Roundel concerning TIs. Only forty TIs were imported into Canada and I know of only one not running at this moment. Its body styling was modified by a truck making an unclear move on a nice and icy Canadian road last winter. But Richard Poole would not drive anything but a TI and was lucky enough to find a second one out of this group of forty. If Stephen Maynard needs some more information, I am certain we will be able to help him.

Michael Lenhardt, BMWCC, Station A, Scarborough, Ontario, M1K 5B9 Canada.

Footnote: (Michael Lenhardt is President of the BMW Car Club in Canada. The BMWCCA and BMWCC have always enjoyed a good relationship.)

Browsing thru some old Roundels from the 70's, there were a few for sale (also 1600ti), but back then, no-one included the VIN numbers.

TONY - is your ti out of hibernation yet???

VINCE - Are you driving the ti to V@V or your 5-er?

[TonyHavana]

Hey Jim

Great info....and the Richard Poole they refer to is the father of Jonathan Poole from this forum.

He has inherited his father's Ti.

My car is out of hibernation, but it went from hibernation into a shop for a new center hanger bearing and miscellaneous other small fixes.

Will post some pics later this week.

Thanks again for that info!

[jgerock]

Tony - I'd love to get my hands dirty wrenching on your car. Extremely small world of ti owners (someday I'd like to be one).

[vinceinIL]

I have seen the info about the 40 tis sent to CA, not sure if that is entirely correct as the independent dealers were probably not in that good of communication about the number of cars they ordered from BMW.

Andreas from BMW can tell us on a single car basis where the car was sent, but I don't think they have all the info set up in a format where that would be easy to figure out. And there were 16,000 plus cars built...

Tony, any chance you might be able to ask Edward if he still remembers the VIN of the car he had?

Jim, I am not sure yet if I'll be taking the ti or the 535 to VatV. I am trying to figure out how to straighten out the title issue with the 5 and may not have it settled by then.

Thanks,

vince

[edward]

is actuarily nearly impossible. In the last 5 years, I have laid eyes on 8 ti's or remnants thereof (complete cars,engine blocks, rusted shells with original vin stamps). between London ON and Montreal, Quebec. Remember this is 40 years after the original build dates. To think that I could find 1 in 5 ever imported, casually looking 40 years later would be a statistical longshot to say the least.

40 total....NO WAY say I......

Here is the list----

1)my old car, fully restored and living a comfy life in the hands of a Wisconsin surgeon

2)Jon Poole's car

3)Tony Havana's car

4)a complete driveline in Kitchener, ON( engine VIN id'd)

5)a rebuilt engine in Cambridge ON (engine VIN id'd)

6) rotted shell with engine, London, ON

7) a complete, easily restorable ti with CR 5 speed and original factory early recaros in a secret barn somewhere on the lake Erie shoreline (Sworn to secrecy)

8)Pierre's car in Montreal

[vinceinIL]

Edward, thanks for the delightfully teasing post....might you have noted the VIN numbers of any of the cars/engines besides Tony's, Jon's, etc?

Thanks,

vince

[TonyHavana]

Hey Edward, I think I know that barn near Lake Erie!

Seriously!

[edward]

My ti was 1696447....second last ti built according to McCartney.

The rest I will do my best to find out and email you.

[jp02ti]

there is also one in a showroom in Ottawa, the main dealer there had it.

John M found one north of Toronto that was ruined and parted out.

there was a black one in Ottawa that moved to Victoria, BC (Murray?)

there are at least 3 in Calgary. (slash?)

What my dad always told me was that the dealers got ONE ti, per dealer. ONE.

however, i since found out that Beach got more because they prepared the rothman's race cars, they may have had as many as 20? maybe more? some tricked in through the grey market/non-BMW importing, not through dealers.

there were a reasonable number of dealers around Toronto in the 70s. Northwest Motors, Beach, one in Kingsotn, one in Ottawa, Montreal, etc.

My dad's first ti (1970) came from Northwest, it was their ONE ti. After the first one was totaled, he got a second one (1969) on a trade in at Northwest. It was traded in for a CSL...

the '69 is still with us and should be running this summer when I'm back home for vacation. the plan is to bring it down to ATL for love and repair.

regards,

Jon

[TTyMiller]

A real Ti; priceless!

[jgerock]

Bill Riblett had one here in Arlington, VA. It was once a race car with roll bar and some unusual suspension components....

[BillyRay]

Jon, great to hear you are bringing the ti down! How many in the US?

I am one in CA

Who else?

[Guest Anonymous]

Back when I was in the market for a tii in 2003, Denis had this car advertised in Roundel. Asking price back then was $13.5K I believe. I made a day trip from eastern Washington to look at the car. The major issue is that the repaint that was done was an amateur job done by some friends of his and it had major fisheyes in the paint over the entire body. It was beyond what could be removed by wet sanding, etc. so I passed on the car knowing it would have been many thousands of dollars to get all the bad paint off and do it right professionally. Pictures of the car unless they are extreme close-ups in the right light and the right angle won't necessarily show this, but it's obvious to anyone within a few feet of the car in person. I don't see any evidence from his description that it has been repainted since then.

Besides that major issue, there are a couple of minor ones and some good points. The dash had a rally computer installed at some point and back in 2003 it was just a big hole where it used to be. The driver's door panel also had a tear in the vinyl from the seatbelt clip being slammed into the door frame. Other than that the interior was in very good condition for the age (carpets were original I believe and faded/flattened as one would expect after 30+ years).

Mechanically the only issue was that upon braking from moderate speeds on up, the engine would almost die--perhaps some kind of vacuum leak from a bad brake booster? Hopefully he sorted that one out as it really distracts from a test drive when you have to keep your foot on the gas when braking to keep the engine from dying. On the plus side, the suspension was really well sorted--tighter even than the restored '74 tii I did end up buying. Those wheels were options back then for European 02's I believe. My 2002 restoration guide shows them. They are just smaller versions of the standard U.S. version E9 wheels.

The Colorado orange color has to make this one highly desirable as it was to me back then (the thought of an authentic 2002ti really had me wanting to overlook the paint issue). At $23K though it's pretty ambitiously priced. Having imported a '73 Alfa Romeo Giulia Super from Europe a couple years ago myself, I tend to think that being persistent, one could find an example in the fatherland without the same issues for a better price including shipping, 4% import duty, and the other minor expenses. That price difference would probably also cover a trip to Europe to inspect the car if someone didn't have contacts over there already.

Gary

[70ti]

Wasn't this car for sale about 12 years ago in Seattle? I remember getting the contact info from one of the Seattle guys that came up to one of our Spanish Banks gatherings and thought that I should know about my Ti's twin in the Emerald City.

I'll be really interested to see if this sells for 23k. I could only imagine that restoring one properly would be crazy expensive - then again who would be crazy enough to restore a 70ti?

:-)

The money pit gets deeper by the day