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German Old School: Tom’s 2002

Filed under: Featured Cars and Projects,Performance
by Alvin G @ 11:33 am on June 12, 2013

 

Part 2 in a series: ZCG also supports vintage cars of non-JDM origin!

Tuning The Datsun 510’s Rival

Alfas and BMWs have long been rivals of Datsun 510s.  Fighting against both BMW and Alfa for the 1971 Trans Am 2.5 Challenge, a certain red, white and blue liveried BRE 510 coupe took the championship that year and in ’72/’73.  So, at the shop it’s no secret we LOVE 510s and know for a fact that they are much cooler than their Euro counterparts 🙂   Tom H. is a gearhead and ran a 280zx in the 24hrs of LeMons last year with some help from Z Car Garage. Tom recently came to the shop to help tune his beautiful, modified BMW 2002 and we readily accepted the challenge.

 

The 2002 is a 1973 non-Tii “roundie” in Sahara paint with very subtle exterior mods for a clean, pre-’72 Euro look:   shorter chrome bumpers, no lower trim on the doors, deleted side marker lights and  basic BMW steelies.  A great stance and handling comes from Ground Control coil-overs up front and Ireland Engineering Stage II springs in the rear with Koni shocks all around.  Tom turned the ’02 into a total sleeper by modifying the motor with a ported head, custom 9:5:1 CR pistons and Megasquirt EFI.  He recently converted to TWM 45mm throttle bodies which complicated tuning so ZCG came to the rescue!

On the dyno, baseline numbers were 98hp/129tq to the wheels. Great plateau of torque available from low rpm but still in need of tuning and full rev range:

After Rob’s tuning the mighty  ’02 made 131hp/139tq to the wheels! Here is a short clip of the Bimmer on the dyno:

Just for kicks we even weighed the BMW to see how it compares to a Datsun 510: 2297lbs vs 2160 for Rob’s SR20DET-powered dime.

 

We enjoyed working with Tom and his very pretty(and potent!) 2002. Enjoy the Ride Tom!


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