Turn Your Hymnals to 2002

"As I sit here, fresh from the elegant embrace of BMW's new 2002, it occurs to me that something between nine and ten million Americans are going to make a terrible mistake this year."..."Down at the club, Piggy Tremalion and Bucko Penoyer and all their twit friends will buy shrieking little 2-seaters with rag tops and skinny wire wheels, unaware that somewhere, someday, some guy in a BMW 2002 is going to blow them off so bad that they'll henceforth leave every stoplight in second gear and never drive on a winding road again as long as they live.

In the suburbs Biff Everykid and Kevin Acne and Marvin Sweatsock will press their fathers to buy HO Firebirds with tachometers mounted out near the horizon somewhere and enough power to light the city of Seattle, totally indifferent to the fact that they could fit more friends into a BMW in greater comfort and stop better and go around corners better and get about 29 times better gas mileage.

Mr. and Mrs. America will paste a "Support Your local Police" sticker on the back bumper of their new T-bird and run Old Glory up the radio antenna and never know that for about 2500 bucks less they could have gotten a car with more legroom, more head room, more luggage space, good brakes, decent tires, independent rear suspension, a glove box finished like the inside of an expensive overcoat and and ashtray that slides out like it was on the end of a butler's arm - not to mention a lot of other good stuff they didn't even know they could get on an automobile, like doors that fit and seats that don't make you tired when you sit in them.

...To my way of thinking, the 2002 is one of civilisation's all-time best ways to get somewhere sitting down...Feel free to test drive one, but don't tell any of those ten million squares who are planning to buy something else. They deserve whatever they get. So far as I'm concerned, to hell with all of 'em. Now turn your hymnals to Number 2002, and we'll sing two choruses of Whispering Bomb..."

The above was shamefully taken without permission from a 1968 issue of Car and Driver. It was written by the man I'd like to live my life like, with the exception of the face-deforming crash, David E. Davis. It will be removed upon request of the owners.

The

Not-So-Famous Mid-Atlantic 02-Fest

In the second week of August '99, a small group of people from the south brought their cars to sunny/traffic-jammed Greenville, SC. Nice town. The brainchild of one James Beach, we toured the factory, ate a lot of pizza, drove the nicest roads I'll ever see, and generally had a hell of a time, all with a great group of people I (or anyone else there) had never met before. Highly recommended. It should (and probably will) happen again. In the meantime, here are the pictures I took, with captions added, as well as a brief story about what went on. Just click on the picture below.