19-05-2025
Why Is This Carbon Fiber BMW 2002 Worth $200,000? Because It's Incredible.
Sliding open a garage door in sunny Costa Mesa, California, to reveal a pair of aging BMW chassis, Paul LeFevre's life these days is a far cry from his origins in Normandy, France. But long before he reached the Golden State, LeFevre's destiny of of building high-end Bavarian restorations was already beginning to set.
"I built some American cars in Europe before I moved here. I had a '68 Fairlane and then a '64 Ford Falcon," LeFevre explained in an interview with Road & Track. " I had an E21 in France, and I really wanted a [BMW] 2002, but I never had a chance to buy one in France because they were pretty expensive back in the day. And they were all rusted out."
The Frenchman moved to California back in 2016 to pursue a career in surfboard production, hand-crafting the wave-riding vessels out of the very same garage in Costa Mesa where his BMW builds began. But it was his lifelong yearning for a 2002 that kick-started his new business, Son of Cobra. After finding a 1972 BMW 2002 in Verona Red north of Los Angeles — and surviving a harrowing drive back to Orange County without properly functioning brakes — LeFevre set off to improve the nearly 50-year-old coupe. Which, in turn, birthed his joint BMW restoration and surfboard building shop.
At its core, Son of Cobra is focused on squeezing every drop of driver feedback and capability from the 2002 platform. The beginning of this process takes a well-kept 2002 shell and strips it of its steel and aluminum body panels in favor of carbon fiber ones. Initially, LeFevre was using a fiberglass provider to shed weight but found the distributors too unreliable and the weight loss negligible. Peering over a Son of Cobra structure is, well, awe-inspiring; the sheets of structural carbon fiber are eventually hidden underneath an Alpina-inspired widebody kit that is also made of carbon fiber. Curb weight is reduced to around 1800 pounds by the time LeFevre is finished, with the 2002 shedding around 400 pounds in the build process.
"Basically, I wanted to have a 2002 race car feel on the street without the bad things. Just keep all the good things. So a very low and very lightweight car with a very high horsepower ratio. Keep it minimal, but still keep it comfortable," LeFevre said. "I started with the hood, because the hood was one of the heaviest parts of that car, especially carrying all that weight on the front. I ended up doing the whole body."
The addition of all that carbon fiber wasn't just about losing a few pounds. Improving the structural rigidity of the 2002 chassis was key for the rest of LeFevre's dream build, which included a complete overhaul of the steering system, transmission, pedal box, and engine. It was honing the steering system that took the most effort, as LeFevre explained simply that upgrading the stock system wasn't going to cut it. After many rounds of trial and error, he settled on a steering rack from a late-model Ford Escort, but this swap comes with its own challenges, too.
"We can still find them to rebuild and reinforce, so it's easy to source. The problem is that it requires a lot of modification on the subframe, on the steering arm, on the steering column, the firewall, and the pedal box. A lot of people ask me if I was able to sell a kit, but it's just so many little details and too many parts involved. It's a whole thing," LeFevre said.
Other than the bastardized steering rack, Son of Cobra is all about taking the idea of OEM+ building to the next level. Power is delivered to the rear wheels via either a stroked-out version of the stock M10 powerplant or an E30 M3-sourced S14 engine. Both powerplants offer the pleasure of wringing out a raspy, hyperactive BMW inline-four, but the overhauled M10 is what LeFevre is most proud of. Working with a local engine builder, LeFevre turned the 1.8-liter, barely 100-hp inline-four into a 2.3-liter, 180-horsepower beast. The notable boost in power is worthwhile on its own, but LeFevre says that customers who opt for the M10 benefit from a more factory-spec weight distribution. Even so, he admitted most customers opt for the exotic S14 engine.
Becoming a Son of Cobra customer is, as you might suspect, an exclusive club. LeFevre chooses his customers as much as they choose him, and there have only been five complete builds to date. There's an interview process and a setting of expectations that LeFevre has to establish before moving forward; the process of finding a proper 2002 shell is getting harder by the year, and finishing the build doesn't cost quickly or cheaply. Those who pass the test are granted access to owning what appears to be the BMW 2002 equivalent of a Singer-customized 911.
"I'm selecting only the nicest cars I can find, and that's getting a little hard," LeFevre said. "I like to provide the donor, so that the customer doesn't have to hunt for a car and bring me a car that I can't do anything with."
"I like to select my customers, too, because there's a big variety of people out there. And then I feel like my customer is part of the family, and more in a friendly zone than on the business side. The customer and I have a really strong connection to get that car back [to life]."
So, what's the grand total for a Son of Cobra BMW 2002? It all depends on what engine you opt for and how you want the interior adorned, but LeFevre said all five of his customer builds so far have run about $205,000. That's a lot to pay for what was once a 50-year-old BMW with not much performance to its name, but the Son of Cobra is absolutely more the sum of its parts. That's a good thing to have established... especially when LeFevre is turning his attention to a new chassis, the E9, soon.
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