BMW ETA 02 Cabrio Is A Coachbuilt 135i With 2002 Retro Modern Looks

Along with the New Class, the BMW 02 series forever shaped the Bavarian brand’s design and established it as a maker of sports sedans.

To this day it remains one of the most recognizable BMWs ever made and a sought-after classic. Finding a good one is not easy, though, as not many have survived and many of those that have are heavily modified.

But what if all you want is a car that looks like the classic 2002 and goes like a modern BMW? Well, you can count on Germany’s Everytimer Automobile to convert a BMW 135i Convertible into an open-air BMW 2002 lookalike baptized ETA 02 Cabrio.

The car features a bodywork made of fiberglass shaped to look like the 1971 BMW 2002 convertible. Compared to the 2002, the ETA 02 Cabrio uses modern iterations of the round bi-xenon headlights and LED taillights, bigger wheels, and a lowered windshield angle. The A-pillar and windshield are actually sourced from the E88 1 Series Convertible, as is the trunk lid for the soft top. All the other bodywork components were hand built from scratch.

Underneath the retro-styled bodywork, there’s a BMW 135i chassis meaning the ETA 02 Cabrio packs a 302hp (306PS) 3.0-liter twin-turbo straight-six engine that allows it to sprint from 0 to 100 km/h (0-62 mph) in about 5 seconds and touch 250 km/h (155 mph). Not bad for a car that looks cute rather than aggressive.

So far, Everytimer Automobile has built two prototypes, a blue one and a green one. The cars the company will build next will have carbon fiber bodies and will be offered for sale. As you can imagine, they won’t come cheap — the conversion will cost around €70,000 (about $80,000).