BMW 2002 Turbo and Japan’s 1970s Coca-Cola Cap Craze

BMW 2002 Turbo Coca-Cola Crown Cap, Japan, 1970s

A Bottle Cap Designed to Be Collected

This is a metal crown cap — the type crimped onto the neck of a glass beverage bottle — produced as part of a Coca-Cola promotional series in Japan during the 1970s. The caps were printed with illustrations of notable automobiles along with each car’s name and country of origin, turning everyday closures into a run of miniature collectibles. This example depicts the BMW 2002 Turbo and carries the label “West Germany,” the Japanese name at the time for what was officially the Federal Republic of Germany.

The caps were not sold separately. They came on bottles of Coke, obtained simply by buying a drink — which is part of what made collecting them so accessible to children across Japan. The specific series name has not been confirmed, though the foreign-car subject matter suggests it was part of a lineup featuring vehicles from multiple countries.

The BMW 2002 Turbo

BMW AG manufactured the 2002 Turbo in Munich from 1973 to 1974 as the top-of-the-range model in the 02 Series two-door sedan lineup. Its place in automotive history is secure: it was BMW’s first turbocharged production car, and one of the earliest turbocharged passenger cars sold in Europe. The engine was a 2.0-liter inline-four fitted with a KKK turbocharger producing around 170 horsepower.

Production was brief. The car arrived just as the first global oil crisis struck in autumn 1973, and the headwinds of fuel economy concerns brought production to a close in 1974. Total output is generally cited at around 1,672 units, though figures vary slightly by source. One other feature that drew public attention — and still does — was the mirror-image “2002 turbo” lettering on the front air dam, designed to be legible to drivers ahead via their rear-view mirrors. The styling was considered aggressive and attracted criticism at the time.

The “West Germany” text printed on this cap is a small but firm date marker: Germany reunified in 1990, and any item bearing that geographic label predates that event.

Crown Caps and Japan’s Supercar Boom

The habit of collecting bottle caps had grown organically among Japanese children from the 1950s onward. Drink manufacturers recognized this and began deliberately issuing caps as thematic series — automobiles, athletes, characters — discoverable inside every purchase. By the mid-to-late 1970s, Japan was experiencing what became known as the Supercar Boom, a cultural wave in which European and American sports cars dominated popular imagination, especially among young people. Foreign car-themed collectibles flourished in that environment, and a cap featuring a turbocharged West German BMW fit the mood precisely.

As a physical object, this cap belongs to the same tradition of small Showa-era collectibles as shokugan (candy-toy miniatures) and bromide cards — affordable items distributed through everyday channels rather than toy shops or vending machines. Because the caps arrived attached to drinks and were usually discarded or played with, well-preserved examples are uncommon compared with purpose-made collectibles sold in packaging.

Today the item connects two separate collector communities: those who focus on Coca-Cola memorabilia — bottle caps occupy their own dedicated niche within Coke collecting — and enthusiasts of classic BMWs and vintage European automobiles. Its Japanese-language text and domestic distribution add a further dimension: it is a market-specific promotional item that never circulated outside Japan.