Calling BMW 2002 experts

I've been looking for a car to go vintage racing for a while, and there is a sweet BMW 2002 in the classified right now for my kind of price.

Problem is, it's a 75 and the cut-off date for the class that interests me is December 31, 1972. It says in the rules that you can use a later model, as long as it retains the "appearance and details" of a model built before the cut-off date.

So, would it be hard and expensive to make a 75 look like a 72? What's involved?

Thanks for the help.

take off the bumpers

weld up square taillights

cut in round taillights

?

profit!

The '73 and earlier cars had different noses, tails, and bumpers. The earlier cars have simple chrome bumpers, three piece metal grills separated by sheetmetal, and round taillights. The later cars have the 5mph type bumpers, one-piece plastic grills, and rectangular taillights.

I think the real question is what they mean by "appearance and details"... A '75 looks a lot more like a '72 than it looks like a 320i, so I wonder whether it needs to be mistaken for a '72 by an expert from twenty feet away? Or does it just need to be basically the same car, more or less?

To really make it look like a '72, you'd need to cut off the entire nose and replace it with an early one (finally available reproduction, but I think they're north of $700, plus grills which are not currently being reproduced), replace the rear panel and taillights with later parts, and depending on the class, either mount earlier bumpers or run none.

The later cars also got door side-intrusion braces and other bits and pieces adding ~200lbs to the car, if what I've heard is correct.

Noses, early and late:

Tails, early and late:

To 'make' a newer one into an older one, you'd have to change quite a bit. The rear body panel below the trunk lid is totally different, for one. But, I am pretty confident that if you de-bumper the thing and change to round taillamps you won't hear a word from anybody except the anal retentives who don't actually race. Aside from the wiring, the tailight change is really quite easy; the quarter panels still have the round opening stamped in them. You just need to cut the round hole in the rear body. The newer one has that raised panel where the plate goes but nobody really notices that. Duplicating the grille treatment in the front wouldn't be that easy...but it's a race car, and I wonder if you painted the plastic grilles in some fashion anyone would care? I'd search the vintage racing world or ask on some BMW message boards if there is anyone racing a 'new' shell as a vintage car and see how they did it. It's purely about the appearance, because the newer car has no performance advantage; the opposite, actually, as it is heavier due to the doors and the added welded in baloney for the diving board bumpers.

I know there are guys racing Fiat 124 Spiders that were not made prior to the cutoff. It's a little easier to "fake" one of those (again, mostly light treatment) but the supply of good shells for early cars is pretty limited, so big bumper cars get back-dated.

Thanks guys.

I decided to ask the eligibility guru for the club, because I certainly don't want to change to entire car.

ddavidv: the tailight replacement was what I had in mind.