Category Archives: Projects

Saga of the Fraudulent TiSA 995193

Replicas, Tributes, and Clones. Oh My!

Forged or faked copies of valuable collector cars has long been a problem in our hobby. An auction expert recently told me about the MG K3 race car made in the 1930s. Only 33 of these cars were produced by the factory, yet today there are over 100 “survivors” that he knew about. 

Creators of these imitation cars can be motivated by several things. Perhaps they just admire a certain car and want to have one like it. The less scrupulous are often driven by greed. When a 1973 Porsche Carrera RSR is worth $1.75-$2.0 million dollars there is a lot of incentive to take a 911 chassis and  turn it into a gold mine.

There are legitimate classic car replicas and tribute cars that sell for far less than their authentic counterparts, and there’s nothing wrong with buying or selling one of these, as long as it’s priced accordingly and the buyer knows the car is not a genuine example.

Problems arise when someone claims a replica is an authentic example of a valuable classic car and tries to sell it for the high price of that original. Unfortunately this has happened too many times.

BMW Group Classic has tightened up their requirements for a certificate.
We had to jump through a lot of hoops to get ours.

To date BMW’s have been mostly immune to this issue. That is not to say that there have not been any problems in the BMW community. There have been quite a few cases of counterfeit 328 Roadsters made from a 319 chassis. Finding a third party VIN plate is not difficult, and getting a “Zertifikat” from BMW used to be much less rigorous than it is now. The result is that many of these fake roadsters can “look” genuine at first glance.

Regrettably I have run into this problem twice in my years as a BMW collector.

In the early 2000’s I was looking to buy and race a CSL. In my search I found a car that the seller claimed was a genuine Alpina racer driven in period by none other than Hans Stuck. It had a VIN plate that carried a correct CSL number. 

As further proof of its authenticity the seller showed me a photocopy of a WAGENPASS with the VIN of the car hand written in it and a race meeting entry listing Hans Stuck as the driver. It was a poorly done and blatant forgery. Plus a simple check of the records showed that Hans Stuck was driving a different car at that particular race.

There was also a stack of paperwork accompanying the car. Upon inspection of these papers I found a receipt for the roll cage installation dated 1992, along with a bill for building the race engine dated at about the same time. The clincher was a receipt from a European car repair shop in California for a service dated in 1990 that had the car’s VIN listed on it.

What became clear was that the car had been a street car until the early 90’s when someone had converted it into a race car.

When I confronted the seller with these receipts he just shrugged his shoulders and walked away. Why he had kept these papers and allowed me to look through was either stupidity or an act of immense hubris. He did continue to advertise the car as a genuine Alpina race car for another 6 months with a correspondingly high asking price.

Here is the fake TiSA that was being offered for sale. Lots of sexy race history comes with it.

More recently I was made aware of a car being auctioned in England claiming to be a genuine TiSA. As an owner of a TiSA myself I am always interested in these cars and the value they achieve at auction. So I followed the link and looked at the car.

I was impressed as I read through the glowing description of the car:

“— Acquired by Scuderia Bavaria (Dieter Quester) in the late eighties and one of four totally rebuilt for BMW’s semi-official entry to the FIA Historic Touring Car Championship in the early 90s

— Much success in ’91/92 with Dieter Quester winning the FIA Championship in ’92

— Owned and raced by our vendor since 2004 

— Expertly run and developed by marque experts, Laranca Engineering for Richard Shaw and Jackie Oliver 

— Triple European Touring U2TC Championship winner. Multiple class wins and impressive results between 2004-’17. FIA papers valid until 2026. Winner of the 2011 Goodwood St Mary’s Trophy

— Years of investment, time and hard work have gone into this car to make it probably the most developed and successful genuine Ti/SA out there. Recent fresh engine and gearbox”

Wow! It looked on paper to be a great car with a lot of provenance.

Then came the punchline:

“******  *********(name withheld intentionally) from Scuderia Bavaria had purchased a number of cars prior to the ’91 season including four of the genuine #995 prefix 001 to 200 chassis-plated original cars for Quester to prepare (our car today #995193 was one of those). They retained the car’s centre steel hull but, we understand, very few of the original panels remained in place. All four were prepared to the original spec to comply with the FIA regs.”

What caught my attention was the VIN given in the ad- 995193. There were several pictures of the car, including the VIN plate showing 995193. 

That happens to be the same VIN as my TiSA. I was dumbfounded.

The shiny new VIN plate on the fake TiSA. You’d think a 56 year old VIN plate on a race car would be just a bit more worn.

I immediately shot off an email to the auction company informing them that the car they were going to offer for sale was not the genuine TiSA #995193. To substantiate my claim I included photos of my car, its VIN plate, matching engine block stamping, matching VIN stamp in the radiator shroud, and the certificate of authenticity from BMW Classic.

Genuine TiSA VIN from 1965. It looks the part.

I also told them that my car had been one of the 54 TiSA’s imported by Max Hoffman, a fact almost unknown in Europe. It was sold by the BMW dealer in Portland, OR in 1966. I told them that the car had remained here in the Northwest its entire life with a documented chain of ownership from new.

The auction company had an obligation to pass my email on the the owner of the car. They said he was shocked to find out his car was a fake.

I don’t know what story he was given when he bought the car. Nor do I know how much research he did into TiSAs and how to verify their originality. Neither do I know what he paid for it 17 years ago. But given the high estimate listed in the auction description ($117,000-$138,000), he clearly hoped to benefit from the sale based on the claim that the car was an original TiSA with a lot of sexy race history.

Fortunately the owner realized he had a problem and wisely decided to withdraw the car from the auction to spend some time contemplating his options.

I think there is a lesson here for us. As the values of rare BMW models such as 328 roadsters, CSL’s, and TiSA’s start to climb there will be an increasing temptation for less scrupulous people to make a proverbial silk purse out of a sow’s ear. 

Right now you can buy a nice 1800Ti for less than $25,000 and with a little work and a few readily available parts you can turn it into something that may pass for a $100,000+ TiSA to someone who doesn’t know much about the cars.

The VIN stamp in the radiator surround is very hard to fake.

Let the buyer beware! If you intend to invest in one of these rare cars from BMW do your homework! Know who you are buying the car from. Know where to look on the car and what to look for to verify its authenticity. Check with the BMW community for helpful information about and verification of any rare BMW you may want to buy. A great place to start is with the BMWCCA!

I don’t know if the story of #995193 is over yet or not. I have written several posts on the various BMW forums to create a digital record of the story. My hope is that any would-be buyer of the car will do an online search and so find the information, should the car be put on the market again as my car.

Update on OFF-SEASON PROJECTS

We have a bunch of projects going on this winter with the cars. Some are repairs. Some are for fun. In no particular order here is what’s happening.

Street 2002- This project has been going on for 3 years. It is one of those projects that has taken much longer than I had hoped. It is now finished and on the road. I’ll do a separate post on it soon.

Koepchen 2002- This winter I decided it was time to refurbish the Koepchen 2002. I have been racing it for about 12 seasons and it was beginning to show its age.

After being stripped down the car spent several weeks at the body shop being cleaned up, straightened up, and made to look new. It received aa new coat of paint from the belt-line down. Here’s how she looks:

Back from the body shop and ready for re-assembly.

M3- We have been waiting for weeks for parts for the transmission in the M3. You may remember that it broke at the September race at Road America. The shift linkage broke and fell on the spinning output shaft and tore things up. The repair parts come from England, and between COVID and the mess in the shipping world it is taking forever to get them.

Fortunately the internals of the transmission were not badly damaged.

NSU- I found a guy who can build a race engine for the NSU. He lives in Eastern Canada and grows grapes for wine. What a coincidence! He has been busy preparing the parts he has and ordering parts from Germany. Unfortunately he has been experiencing the same delays in shipping that we have had with the transmission parts for the M3.

Used barrels, pistons, and heads from Switzerland. Thomas will perform some magic on them.

The block assembly is just about done, along with the installation of the timing chain housing, timing chain, and tensioner. I hope to have the engine back and in the car in time for the June SVRA race at The Ridge. The car should be much more competitive with its new, full tilt race motor.

CSL- Luigi has been taking the winter off. He has been on display in the showroom of BMW of Salem. He had a fresh engine built over last winter and only had a few laps at Oregon Raceway Park. He will need a race prep and he will be ready to rumble.

Swift- The swift had an engine change over the winter. The previous engine had an unknown number of races on it and it was beginning to loose power. I found a spare YAC engine and had Jay Ivey rebuild it for me. It has now been put in the car and is ready for the first race in March.

I have attached our proposed race schedule for this coming season below. Hope you can make it out to an event to cheer us on.

Winter Projects Update

I thought I would update some of the projects we have going on with the cars this winter. Racecraft has been working hard on almost all of my cars. Here’s a rundown.

Koepchen 2002

New engine and new headers and we’re all set to race.

After 3 seasons it was time to freshen/rebuild the motor in the car. I had a spare motor which we sent down to Terry Tinney for some Tinney Performance magic and he delivered in spades! A few more HP’s and a little more torque. Thank you Terry!

I also had Racecraft install the Elite transmission I had purchased for Luigi but have since decided not to use in that car. The Elite is an exact copy of the ZF 5 speed transmission that was homologated for the 2002 back in the early 1970’s but with modern, stronger internals.

The Elite transmission required some minor changes in the transmission tunnel.

Getting it in the car required some modifications to the transmission tunnel and a new exhaust manifold for clearance. The car is all done and ready for our fist event next month.

Swift DB-2

The seat in the Swift is just the aluminum tub with a little bit of foam. It has never fit me well and the lack of support makes driving the car very uncomfortable. So we decided to fit a bean-bag seat in the car.

Here is the finished bead seat ready to go into the car.

This type of seat is made up of tiny beads of foam that has epoxy resins added and then it is molded to fit my backside. Its a lengthy process but it works very well and the end result makes fitting in the car wonderful.

The only problem is I have to sit in the car for an hour without moving while the epoxy sets up. That is a small price to pay for the comfort I will have now. And that comfort should translate into lower lap times.We will be taking this car to the first race next month as well so I will know quickly if the new seat helps.

Luigi CSL

You may remember that at the Rolex Reunion last August we ended the weekend by finding bits of metal in the oil in Luigi. Fortunately we caught it in time to salvage the block and major internal bits.

The engine is currently down at Tinney Performance getting rebuilt. It should go smoothly as no major parts will be needed and the machine and porting work have all been done on the head and block.

#34 Hyde Park 2002

This old war horse took a hit at The Charity Challenge too.

Unfortunately the #34 2002 was the victim of a brain slip by a Datsun driver at the Charity Challenge. The Datsun hit its LF wheel on the RR wheel of my car. When the tires touched the Datsun was lifted into the right side door, traveling down the side of the car and ripping the RF fender.

Fortunately we had a spare right side door, and the rest of the metal work was fairly minor. The fiberglass fenders were fairly easy to repair. The RR wheel was damaged but we were able to find someone who could repair it.

Back from paint and good as new. All we need is a few decals.

The car is now back from the paint shop ad ready to have the decals put on it and it will be ready for its first race at the David Love Memorial race in April.

Asahi Kiko M3

Unfortunately I had a brain fade at the Charity Challenge with the result that the front bumper was severely damaged on the M3.

Replacement bumper cover came from New Zealand. Not cheap!

Jim was able to find reproduction parts in New Zealand which we had air shipped to Seattle. Racecraft had to do some metal repairs to the supports and brackets, but that was about all.

The car is at the paint shop and should be done in a week or so.

The NSU is sitting out the first part of the season as Jay & Colin Ivey work on a fresh engine for it. They have torn the engine down and ordered parts from Germany. This is their first experience working on an NSU engine but are hopeful they can get it ready by mid-season.

Our first race is in just a couple of weeks down at Laguna Seca. We will be running 12-14 events this summer so check back often for updates and results.

Off Season Project Updates

Just a quick update on winter projects. All of this work is being done up at Racecraft by Jim and his fantastic team.

The before picture. Ouch!

NSU- The repairs are coming along nicely on the NSU. You will remember that I crashed the car in its initial race at Seattle in July. I lost the car in the rain and hit the dirt embankment outside Turn 2.

We were able to find a rusty but useable donor car in Seattle. Who would of thunk it. It had all the bits we needed plus a spare engine and transmission. I was able to donate the rest to a friend who is restoring a street car.

The car will head off to the painter next week!

All the metal work has been completed and the car will head off to the painter soon.

The spare engine and transmission is up at Ivey Engines in Portland. Jay Ivey is the premier FF engine builder in the country. He will be using his considerable experience to build a hot-rod motor for the NSU. All the go-fast parts are available for these engines in Germany.

Asahi M3- Terry Tinney has completed the rebuild of the S14 engine for the M3. You may remember that we cracked the block during the Rolex Races in Monterey last year. We were able to find a donor block for the car along with a complete race motor. The race motor came from England and will serve as a spare in case we have another problem. The new motor will be shipped up to Racecraft next week and go back into the car.

The wrap guy came through finally. Here’s the mock-up of what the car will look like.

Swift- A new color wrap is going on the Swift DB2. The new color is turning out beautifully. The guy doing the wrap is tough to keep focused. We have been waiting a couple of weeks for him to come back and put on the accent stripes and numbers. He does great work, but  .  .  .

Luigi CSL- Luigi is getting a new transmission this winter. The original Getrag is getting pretty long in the tooth. I have decided to replace it with an Elite transmission out of England. It is a modern recreation of the old ZF 5 speed but with stronger internals. These transmissions were homologated for the CSL back in the day so it is a legal replacement. It has been ordered and should be to the shop sometime next month.

The Elite 5 speed transmission is an exact reproduction of the old ZF transmission from the early 1970’s but with stronger internals.

Street 2002- Terry has been hard at work on the street 2002 he has been building for me. The S14 engine is in the car after some complications. Terry had to fabricate custom engine mounts to get the engine back and lower in the engine bay. One issue when putting an S14 into the 2002 is clearance between the oil pan and the front crossmember. This is solved by fabricating a new oil pan. It also requires moving the engine back to give clearance between the front pulley and the radiator.

The fuel injection guru stopped by the shop last week and went over everything with Terry. Terry has everything we need ordered and once it all gets here he will install it. The FI Guru will then come back and do the fine adjusting. 

The #34 2002 is in transit back from SC. Once it is back at Racecraft Jim will swap the transmission with the transmission in the K2002. I won’t be racing the #34 much this coming year. I am thinking about taking it back to its original Hyde Park black and orange livery.

Installation of the S14 engine is going along smoothly.

That about wraps up the winter projects. Our first race of the season will be the HMSA Spring Event at Laguna Seca in early March.

New Car in the Garage

I have always felt like I had some unfinished business regarding the beautiful Chevron B16 I sold. I never felt like I got the most out of the car because I was never completely comfortable in it. I guess trying to stuff my 6′ 3″ into a space designed for someone 5′ 10″ had something to do with it.

I need more headroom!

If you look closely at this image you will see that my helmet completely fills the Gurney Bubble in the window above my head. That meant that my head was about 3-4″ above the roof line of the car. This was in spite of taking the padding out of the seat and spacing the window open 1″ more than stock.

At my other end, my feet were too large to fit comfortably in the pedal box. I had to really do an awkward dance to work the pedals. Heel and toeing was difficult at best and I would occasionally miss shifts because of this complication.

After talking with Jim extensively about cars/classes/options I settled on a S2000 class car to replace the Chevron. S2000s are relatively inexpensive to buy and pretty inexpensive to operate, but are every bit as quick as the B16.

1986 Swift DB2 fitted with DB5 bodywork.

After some searching I bought a car from Tacoma, WA. It had a good history, having run in the American City Racing League for many years. Having run in the ACRL meant that it had the Cosworth 4 valve, twin cam head on the Ford Pinto based 2 liter engine.

The Cosworth 2 ltr. Ford. This engine features the twin cam, 4 valve head and makes about 220 hp.

The first thing you will observe is that I have a lot more headroom in this car compared to the Chevron. The former owner was 6’3″ tall like me so the car is already set up for someone my size.

My new Swift arrives at Racecraft’s shop.

The car arrived at the Racecraft shop where Jim and Co. will give it a thorough going over prior to our first event in the spring. I have also commissioned a new wrap for the car as black has never been my favorite color for a race car.

I will post additional pictures once it is ready to rock & roll.

NSU Fulfills a Dream, and Answers Questions

Looking a little like a Corvair, these cars have many similarities with their US cousins.

Along with BMWs and MBs my father’s dealership sold NSUs. So when I started racing he suggested I find the holy grail of NSUs, a 1200 TTS. I found one for sale in NJ and went with my friend Peter P. to collect it and bring it back to MN.

NSU was an old manufacturer. They began in the late 1800’s as a knitting machine manufacturer. Soon they became a bicycle manufacturer, and then in the early 1900’s began making cars and motorcycles.

After the war they continued making excellent motorcycles, winning races in Europe and setting many speed records at Bonneville. Their cars were small, but of high quality, and were also quite successful on track.

Their most successful model on the track and at hillclimbs was the TT and its successor the TTS. These cars came as 1,000 ccs and 1200 ccs, and were named for the race where NSU had had such success, the Isle of Man TT races.

Power comes from a 1,200 cc 4 cylinder, OH cam, air cooled motor derived from their motorcycle engines.

In the late 1960’s they developed a Wankle engined car called the Ro-80 that was a marvel. It was a beautiful design, but the engine proved unreliable, and the warranty claims put the company in jeopardy.

VW/Audi took over the company in 1969 and the NSU brand disappeared.

I ran my TTS in a few auto crosses in the fall of 1969, setting several FTDs, and then raced it on the Ice in the IIRA series in 1969 through 1971. I never got a chance to race it on a track because I sold it and bought a Mazda RX2 to race in 1972.

The question of how well these cars go has always rattled around in the back of my empty skull, so I decided to take steps to find out before I was too old to care.

Here are some pictures of my latest acquisition. It is a 1970 1200 TTS. It has a OH cam 4 cylinder air cooled engine, sitting on a 4 speed transmission. And no, I will not be doing any bump drafting with that oil cooler hanging out there.

It has independent suspension all around. Up front are unequal length arms, with coil springs and a sway bar. In back are swing axels locate by trailing arms, with coil springs and shocks.

I found the car in the Netherlands, and it is on its way via ship to Seattle. No Baby Corvair jokes please.

Stay tuned to follow the adventures of this little Bad Boy!

Moving Parts

This week finds I have a lot of cars on the move.

First car is the M3 race car I bought a few weeks ago. It has been loaded into a container and onto a ship. That ship left Australia on January 9th headed for Seattle. It should arrive sometime in early February.

The Willis and all its extras left Racecraft’s shop yesterday morning. It will head south to Arizona where it will be photographed for the Bonham’s Auction catalog for their Amelia Island Auction that is happening on March 8th. Here’s a link to the auction site.

The Willis is not yet listed among the Lots on offer but should be soon:

http://www.bonhams.com/auctions/24809/

Last but not least, my Hyde Park Motors Trans-Am 2002 is headed back to the BMWCCA Foundation museum in Greer, SC where it will be a part of the display honoring the 50th Anniversary of the 2002.

I spent a couple of days cleaning him all up. I then took him up to Portland to meet the same truck that is hauling the Willis.

The car will be on display starting in March through January. He will get a well deserved rest for this summer.

Update to My Garage

Goodby Dorothy. You will be missed.

With the recent sale of Dorthy, my Chevron B16, a space was opened up in my garage.

For some time I have been looking at ex-DTM M3’s, but they have become scarce and very expensive.

About a month ago Jim Froula from Racecraft sent me a link to an ex-JTCC E30 M3 in Australia that was for sale.

http://www.ecuriebowden.com.au/1992-group-25-evo-bmw-m3-ex-anthony-reid

The car was spectacular, and had the exceptional history that I prefer. The price was well below a comparable DTM car, so I made the purchase.

Here’s a brief synopsis of the history of M3 1/60

In 1987 BMW produced what is the most successful racing / touring car of its type – the M3. During its 5-year reign it achieved 1436 victories and continued to dominate well after 1992, winning races in the Group A’s events in Europe, Japan and Australia.

In all 260 cars were produced in Touring Car trim, which could race in Group A, DTM and Group N. An additional 40 – 50 rally cars were also built.

The M3’s were built for the express purpose of winning the European Touring Car Championship (ETTC), but were rushed into production to challenge for the World Touring Car Championship (WTTC).

In the first race at Monza in 1987, M3’s filled the first 6 places but were later disqualified for running what was known as ‘cheater panels’.

The success made everyone sit up and take notice especially the Ford Motor Company who were campaigning some fast RS500 Sierras and were determined to win the WTCC.

The racing that year was close all season and battles were order of the day right down to the last race with the Schnitzer M3’s of Charlie Lamm, just beating Ruedi Eggenberger’s Texaco Sierra, BMW only just taking the title.

BMW were still considered the underdog and they were aware that they needed to do something special if they were going to keep in front of Ford’s RS500 Sierra, hence the ‘Evo’ (evolution) label was added to the M3’s various improvements.

These included more grunt from the engine, better aerodynamics, lighter body panels and more amenable driving positions.

The ultimate Evo package was developed in 1990 for Group A cars. At that time Australia had created their own Group A, as had DTM.

Japan, however, stayed faithful to the original Group A concept and followed FISA (FIA) rules for racing. The reason why is not too clear and could have been for many and varied reasons, after all Nissan (for one), had spent an absolute fortune developing the R32 GTR which dominated Group A.

Whatever the reason, the ‘golden age’ of Japanese racing saw tracks filled with BMW, Ford, Honda, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Toyota plus the occasional Mercedes 190E joining in the fun.

Middlebridge Racing purchased two of the top spec EVO BMW M3’s and prepared them to run in the 1993 season of the JTCC.

Chassis M31 / 60 was campaigned by Anthony Reid, who was a well known stunt driver, BTCC contender and British Land Speed record holder. Anthony also managed to get on the podium at the ‘Le Mans 24hr’.

His 1993 JTCC campaign was backed by Tomei Sports, with Asahi Kiko and Valvoline sponsoring him in what was the last and most exciting year of the JTCC Group A.

The car was painted in Valvoline’s corporate colors and had all the latest Evo upgrades. Reid achieved many podium places, including a win in round 5 of the JTCC at the Ti Circuit Aida. At the 1993 season’s end, Reid was in second place behind the Auto Tech M3.

That was the end of that particular racing class, and the car was bought by a businessman who continued racing it in the Valvoline livery. Valvoline requested that he changed the paint as he was clearly no Anthony Reid.

The car was then bought by a Swiss racer who used it in hill-climbs back in Switzerland. It was later sold on again to Classic BMW-expert, Alex Elliot, who sold it to Australian, Adrian Brady. Brady, who had a number of special BMW’s, sold it on to its current owner, Ecurie Bowden.

The car was extensively restored over a 12 month in 2011 and in its racing debut in 2012 came 3rd in feature race at Muscle Car Masters. It has been raced in the Australian Group A Historic races since.

The car is currently in transit from Australia to the US. It should be here in early February. Stay tuned for additional updates.

Luigi Gets a New Heart

You may remember that last year at the Rolex Pre-reunion races the #1 main bearing in Luigi let go with catastrophic results. The failure was due to oil starvation, which was caused by the inability of the old Alpina dry-sump pump to keep up with the demands of the engine.

Oil starvation caused the #1 main bearing to let go.
Oil starvation caused the #1 main bearing to let go.

 

After some careful consultation with Terry Tinney we decided to build an engine based on the European M90 block and a modern oil pump.

The new engine went on the dyno last week, and the results are impressive.Luigi On The Dyno

The new engine displaces 3.5 liters and is putting out 360 HP, with between 260 and 290 pound feet of torque between 4,000 and 7,000 RPM.

Here’s a link to Tinney’s Facebook page with a short video of it running:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Terry…483343?fref=ts

Dorothy Arrives!

Dorothy on her pallet arrives at SEATAC.
Dorothy on her pallet arrives at SEATAC.

Mary and I went up to SEATAC last week to collect the new Chevron.

The car was trucked from Perugia, Italy up to England, then put on a plane from Heathrow to Seattle.

She arrived with no damage despite being longer than her pallet. All 4 pallets of her spares came too.

Mary meet Dorothy. Dorothy meet Mary.
Mary meet Dorothy. Dorothy meet Mary.

One of the boxes of spare parts that came with the car.
One of the boxes of spare parts that came with the car.

Here’s a short video of the event: