Healy-Guttman Blog

After a few seasons driving my 1969 BMW 2002 - #068 - I decided that although it was a great car to learn in, there were a few areas that could be improved. The opportunity came about after finding a ‘69 2002 shell in Idaho in August of 2006. Jim Froula, owner of Racecraft, was in the midst of partnering with Terry Forland (a fellow BMW 2002 enthusiast) and the timing seemed right to have this pair build a new car for the 2007 season.

Although it might seem crazy to build another ‘69 BMW 2002 since the original still runs well (and you gotta love the #068 paint job!), but after outlining the goals for an improved car, it became clear that starting from scratch would actually be less expensive in the long run. My #1 goal with the new car is reliability. Vintage car racing is a blast and I didn’t want to miss an event because of yet another problem. I would rather finish mid-pack and make all the events than win a few races but suffer through mechanical issues and get sidelined for the weekend… In addition, as an “02″ enthusiast, I wanted the car to be prepared not only period correct but as a testament to the beauty and performance of these amazing cars. I had the right team to pull this off in Jim & Terry and knew they could meet all my objectives and more.

… so after scouring the countryside looking for a 1969 model (the last year Sovren allows for FIA Group 2 cars) I found one on Ebay and quickly snapped it up.

After acquiring the car, Jim picked it up in Idaho, brought it back to his shop in Snohomish and within a few weeks the entire body shell was stripped and media blasted to bare metal. Minor rust repairs were made to an otherwise very clean shell. An N.O.S. nose panel was installed. Body seams were welded and engine compartment triangular bracing installed.

A custom roll cage was fabricated, mandrel bent and TIG welded into place using 1 ½ “ seamless D.O.M. tubing. Additional bracing to various places has been tied into the cage. For those of you that know Jim, you are probably aware that he is a master at this and the cage is amazing! It became clear that this car was going to be special.

Here are some shots taken prior to sending the shell in for painting:

…needed a new nose panel:

Before going to the painter the shell was mounted on a cart and sent to the powder coater. The entire engine bay, underside, interior compartment, trunk area and roll cage were all powder coated a light silver color. The roll cage:

The front and rear fiberglass flares came from Korman automotive and are the “Alpina style”. The front flares were molded to steel fender shells and made to be installed or removed just like a stock steel fender. A rear roll pan was fabricated to fill the area where the rear bumper vacates. :

Trunk prep:

Final prep work before painting:

When we started the project, one of the difficult decisions was the paint. I wanted to include my favorite color red, but wanted to emulate an actual car ran “in the day”. After some searching, Terry Forland sent me this picture of a car patterned after the “Team Schnitzer” color scheme ran in the early ’70’s:

We agreed to a few minor changes, the exact silver & red to use and sent the shell to the paint shop. Here are some photos taken in the shop:

There were some delays in the paint shop which is now putting some additional pressure on the Racecraft team to get the car back together and ready for the first Sovren event on April 14th, followed by an SCCA event at Laguna Seca the following weekend. However, Jim & Terry did a great job of anticipating delays and had done a lot of work on suspension bits, tranny, engine, etc. to have everything ready to go in quickly when the shell returned to their shop.

Now the real fun begins:

All the suspension components have been disassembled, sand blasted and powder coated in a satin black finish. The steering box below is a “close ratio” style which is great for the track:

The all important fire suppression system - thankfully I have only had to use this system once (2005 at Laguna Seca):

The following picture shows an 8 gal. Fuel Safe fuel cell with aluminum can. The original trunk floor was removed and a new flat one was fabricated out of 16 gauge steel. Also in the trunk is an Accu-sump and Cool Shirt cooler(not pictured). We’re using a Carter electric fuel pump. All the hard brake lines, Accu-sump lines and fuel system lines are stainless steel and mandrel bent to follow the body shape as necessary. :

Ready for engine:

The car in the background of this next photo is a 1966 BMW 2000CS being converted to a race car by a fellow vintage racer and BMW enthusiast:

The motor is a standard size 2.0 liter just completely freshened and dyno tuned by Loyning’s Engine Service in Portland, Oregon. The radiator was custom designed and fabricated by Ron Davis radiators in aluminum with a built-in oil cooler. A Canton remote oil filter system is used. An English made “Filter King” fuel filter/regulator is installed. A Stahl long tube header is used with a custom polished stainless steel exhaust system fabricated using mandrel bends and all TIG welded into place. :

Just 4 weeks before the first Sovren race weekend, I went to Racecraft to sit in the car and make sure the seat, pedals, mirrors and gauge layout were going to work for me. Luckily Jim Froula is about my size, so everything was almost perfect. …only a slight pedal adjustment was necessary. The seat is a Sparco EVO (very comfortable) on custom brackets. The VDO gauges are mounted in a custom aluminum dash. All the electrical systems are controlled by dash mounts switches and aircraft style circuit breakers. The steering column has been lowered and a new Momo Prototipo steering wheel added.

Here is the interior at this stage - note that custom aluminum front and rear door panels fabricated by Jim - very nice!:

This next photo was met with great resistance by the camera shy duo of Terry Forland (left) and Jim Froula (right). The clock in the background is ticking away the hours left to complete both John Murray’s 2000CS and my car for the April 14/15 Sovren Defrost race.

By the first of April, the car was rolled out for it’s logbook photos:

The first event is now just a little over a week away!