What started off as the family sedan that I got for my birthday in 1997 has slowly turned into the ultimate track car. After being married for a couple years my wife and I started thinking that four doors would be nice to have in one of the cars we drove daily. I was driving a 1989 Ford Bronco II that was my work truck and my wife was driving a 1985 MR2 that I got when my father died. The BroncoII was...well...a truck. I had been driving a 1984 GTi before that so it was not what I was used to. The Bronco II was my wife's from before we got married. So neither of us was driving what we were used to. In late 1997 we wandered over to the local BMW preowned lot just to dream and they happened to have this green 325i that was five years old at the time. Typically they did not have cars this old but this one was a recent trade. Hey, this might be in the price range we have been thinking about. Sure enough a salesman told us it was within our price range. Unlike most used car vultures our salesguy was nice and we were able to strike a deal. Just like with my GTi the upgrade bug was soon running amuck. I had always wanted to try autox so I started to look on the net for local events. I found the local SCCA group and started chasing cones. The car soon found itself on the receiving end of some upgrade love. When the shocks needed to be replaced it received some Bilstein sports and some H+R Sport springs. I nervously started working on my own car to help offset the cost of the upgrades but quickly learned that BMWs are very easy to work on compared to the VW and the Ford I had. Upgrades continued in the finest under the Wife's radar tradition. Autoxing continued also, and I managed to get myself into D Street Prepared inadvertantly with the springs I put on.

As I got more involved in autox the rulebook suddenly became my new best friend. By 2001 I was the North Carolina Autocross Champion in DSP. Sometime that year though a friend told me about these events called drivers schools. I managed to find one at a local track and after attending a Sandlapper chapter HPDE at Carolina Motorsports Park I was addicted. As soon as I got home I was looking for the next one to do.

Fast forward a couple years to 2003 and the 325 is looking similar to when we last saw it as a decently prepared DSP car. My wife and I have decided to try and have a kid. I have been to about 12 schools at this point and I am looking to do more all the time. We get lucky on the kid front and the baby is due in June of 2004. I know that life will be real different after that happens. So will the money situation. Kids being a tad bit expensive and all. I get the idea that I should become an instructor. They get "free" track time right? So I talk it over with the wife and she agrees to an increased DE schedule to get the prerequisite time to become an instructor. Child number 1 arrives in June on schedule and with a little time off for her, I make instructor with one of the clubs I have been running with a lot. The Carolinas chapter of the PCA. I use that rating to do some work with some other clubs at tracks accross the southeast. Our family car became a 1993 525 wagon in late 2004 and I was now free to make the 325 what I really wanted. The car continued to evolve a little with a roll bar, harnesses, and a race seat being installed in early 2005.

With the roll bar in the back seat becomes pretty useless.

I tried my hand at time trials in mid 2005 and put a TC Kline double adjustable Koni coil-over setup on it.

I continued to instruct at DEs and the car continued to evolve.
Opportunity knocked and I was able to sell the non-vanos(read torqueless)motor out of my car to someone who really needed it and do the swap for him. This money allowed the purchase of a 2.8 from a 97 328. I installed it along with a 3.38 LSD from an M3 on a Thirsday and on Friday left for a NASA DE at Summit Point. That weekend went well considering I had just swapped motors. It went well until the drive home anyway. On the way home I hit a deer on I 77 just north of the VA border. I only hit her head but it mashed in the left front of the car pretty good.

She rolled down the drivers side of the car and punched in the rear door's window.

I pulled off, assesed the damage, screamed the usual obscenities, made the usual phone calls, and broke out the duct tape. One NASCAR duct tape job later I finished the run home. With a due date of February 2006 for child number 2 my last scheduled DE to instruct was an Audi Club event at Barber Motorsport Park. With a long hiatus looming I was determined to make the Barber event. The car was repaired but not painted in time and I made the event. After a rough pregnancy and during a really rough first 6 months of having 2 kids, driving took a back seat. But I was able to continue to work on the car some. The interior came the rest of the way out.

Gauges took the place of the radio and on board computer.

Sunroof was removed and the panel was secured in place.

First DE post child number 2 was at Road Atlanta and the car was in great form. It ran flawlessly for three days sporting a primer hood and fender. Many laughs were had at the BMW 1 Deer 0 scrawl on the primered fender.

Late in 2006 the primer was starting to wear off the panels so some paint was needed. A trip to the local auto paint store and a few days of work in the driveway produced the interesting paint job we see now.

It is not perfect but when I am blazing down the track you can't tell.
New paint means new decals too!

In late 2006 I resumed a semi regular DE schedule. I hit VIR for the November PCA event and was able to instruct for my younger brother who was in town from NY for work. Since he had left his BMW in NY he got to use my car. Lucky him. He managed to keep it on track the whole weekend, lucky me.

I also continued to help out a friend who was developing a turbo system for M50 motored E36s. He used my car and a spare head I had to develop the manifold

An M3 bumper has to go on to help house the intercooler.

The charge pipes have been sent off to be fabricated from the pre-production pieces. Initial dyno at low boost was right at 300RWHP so once the boost is turned up and final tuning is done we should be in the 375 to 400RWHP range. As of mid April the first production pieces should be be back by the end of April and Simple Green should be force fed by mid May. I am looking forward to it.