Is This Turbo’d Honda S2000-Powered BMW 2002 Super Cool Or Sacrilege?

The BMW 2002 is one of the German automaker’s most coveted vehicles, but what if its stock capabilities aren’t enough for you? One 2002 owner swapped a turbocharged Honda F-Series motor into it. The car is for sale, but are its newfound upgrades enough to justify what some might consider a sacrilegious engine swap?

The 1976 BMW 2002 is listed for sale on Bring A Trailer, where its Honda-sourced odometer reads 109,000 miles (175,418 km), although the seller claims the total mileage is unknown. The car was purchased by California-based tuning shop CATuned in 2010, where it had many of its modifications (including the new engine) installed, and it was given a turbocharger after being purchased by the current seller in 2014.

The exterior was refinished to its current red paint, which has faded a bit over the years. The car rides on silver 15-inch Rota wheels mounted on 195/55 Michelin Premier A/S tires, behind which are a set of Wilwood disc brakes with slotted front rotors and an E21 3-Series dual-piston master cylinder. Stance is provided by a set of coilovers with adjustable camber plates at the front, and Bilstein rear shocks with Ireland Engineering sway bars at the rear.

Inside, the car features tan-upholstered Recaro sport seats and door panels from an E21, and a 15-inch Alpina steering wheel frames a Honda S2000 gauge cluster. Additional equipment includes an AEM boost gauge, an AEM air-fuel ratio gauge, and a Pioneer CD stereo head unit. The lower parts of the interior remain unfinished because the seller wanted to make it a good driver’s car first before worrying about the aesthetics, but pushback from his wife on the project caused the latter to come to a halt.

Finally we get to this car’s standout modification: its engine. Under the hood is a 2.0-liter Honda F20C inline-four with a ceramic-coated Garrett GTX2867 turbocharger bolted to it, and additional modifications include custom headers, a downpipe with a race catalytic converter, and an AEM Series 2 engine-management system. A dyno sheet included with the purchase rates the car at 275 hp (279 PS / 205 kW) and 182 lb-ft (247 Nm) of torque, which is sent to the rear wheels through a six-speed manual transmission and a limited-slip differential.

That’s significantly more than anything this car was making when it was new, but would it be considered heresy to put a Honda engine in a BMW, especially one with as much heritage as the 2002? Let us know what you think in the comments.