A 1972 BMW 2002 stands on a quiet Houston street, its Golf Yellow paint giving off a warm glow with the afternoon sun in the same manner it did half a century ago. This two-door coupe, which had only 19,000 miles before heading into a Munich workshop for a tune-up a few years ago, appears like a battle-hardened survivor from a time when cars had true character. Edgar and Nicolas Navarro run Bavarian Econs Tech out of a generic small garage in Munich; they removed the ancient 4-cylinder engine, which used to purr along in traffic, and filled the empty area with batteries and wires. What eventually emerged on the other side is known as the 2002te.
