Does This 47-Year-Old BMW 2002 Turbo Have The Best Decals Ever?

From the Pontiac Trans Am’s screaming hood bird to the Porsche lettering running down the door of an old 911, the car world has given us some seriously memorable decals. But the stickers on this BMW 2002 Turbo might just be out favorite.

The BMW Motorsport tri-color strips look fabulous against the white paint, and we love the little ‘turbo’ lettering on the hockey stick portion that butts up close to the riveted front wheel arch extensions.

But it’s the graphics on the front air dam that clinches it. The legend ‘2002 turbo’ is written in reverse so that drivers looking in their mirror could tell what was about to happen before it actually did.

Introduced at the 1973 Frankfurt Motor Show, the BMW 2002 Turbo was Europe’s first turbocharged production car, predating Porsche’s 911 Turbo by a year.

Related: BMW M2 CSL Turbomeister Edition Has 2002 Homage Concept Looks

Adding a KKK turbocharger to the 2.0-liter M10 four-cylinder engine helped it produced 170hp – a big jump from the next hottest version, the fuel-injected 2002tii – and that was backed up by a solid 180lb ft of torque.

We’ve driven a Turbo and the lag is as bad as you’d imagine, but that’s part of the fun. Get the motor spinning and they’re fairly quick. Moreover, a top speed of 130 mph (210 km/h) was pretty respectable by mid-1970s standards.

Only 1672 cars were built between 1973 and 1974, all with the steering wheel on the left. This example is one of 52 originally delivered to the UK, but in 1986 it was imported in the U.S. and is being offered for sale at Mecum’s Glendale auction this month.

These are now seriously valuable cars and this one has an estimate of $135,000-165,000. That’s pretty steep, yes, but you might struggle to find a better example.