Don Salama repeatedly made it clear during our interview that seat time is more important than anything else in the sport. Obviously, maintaining your car so it can handle the excessive stresses of motorsports is a key factor as well. Maintenance and car condition notwithstanding, your remaining focus should be on driving, driving, and more driving. The difficulty here lies with the cost, so we asked Bill exactly what he did to get as much track time as he could on a limited budget.
The most important thing for beginners is to just get in the car, ideally unmodified, and drive it in a controlled environment. This is just what Bill did. He found a clean E46 330ci in the SE46 Facebook group and immediately began spending as much time in the driver’s seat on a track as he could manage. Bill landed on Spec E46 thanks to his neighbor and friends who introduced him to NASA spec racing. The purpose of that class is to provide competitive, high-performance, wheel-to-wheel racing at a cost-effective budget that is accessible to more drivers. You won’t start out immediately in Spec E46, though, so don’t worry about all those modifications you will need later on.
The E46 provided Bill a low-cost and relatively high-performance platform that would allow him to grow as a driver and eventually work his way into the class for which he purchased the car. After buying his car, he needed to spend all his free time in a seat. Bill told us that his method for running through ten to twelve track events a year hinged upon his willingness to volunteer and participate in the events in order to receive free track time. By offering some of his time to help the organization host these track days, Bill gained valuable track time and established an irreplaceable network of fellow racing enthusiasts that gave him necessary advice along the way.
While Bill received his licenses and passed through HPDE1, 2, 3, and 4, he worked constantly on improving his car in stages as necessary. As he grew beyond the limits of his car, he made conscious upgrades that would sensibly push him one step closer to his goal of Spec E46 with each change. Nothing happened ‘because he wanted to’. Bill’s spectacular racecar was brought to us by meticulous planning and an overall big-picture idea to compete within a certain racing class. This not only helped keep the budget manageable over the five-year span in which it took him to build the car, but it also helped Bill maximize his familiarity with the changes he made to the car and how they affected the E46’s performance.
The upgrades are few, but noticeable. As Don Salama said, just playing with one component’s settings and moving from one extreme to the other can help drivers learn tremendously behind the wheel as to what those upgrades actually do for them. Bill endlessly plays with his tire pressure, alignment, and suspension always looking to find the right settings for what he needs. As much help as resources like other drivers, forums, and even Turner Motorsport can be, the best information will come from experiencing the car on a track first-hand and paying attention to how the car behaves post-tweaking.
Bill progressed quickly thanks to a dedication to the hobby. Time and a passion are both required of potential amateur racers more so than any other aspect of the sport. Often, people carry the misconception that the car itself, the performance modifications, or the overall costs involved are what stands between them and track days. This could not be farther from the truth as Bill has shown us with his E46.
The best resource for BMW drivers to improve their knowledge of the platform and how modifications work in the real world is ultimately seat time in a controlled environment. People like Bill Griffin take that commitment to becoming a better driver and demonstrate the accessibility the sport actually has to anyone who is interested in improving their skills behind the wheel. We at Turner Motorsport provide this information and the resources to help you make your BMW perfect for you in hopes that it will be a tool for you to grow as a driver and BMW enthusiast.
If you want to set your car up like Bill's, here is a list of basic modifications:
Performance - Aluminum Water Pump Pulley
Interior - MOMO Steering Wheel , Racing Seat, Racing Harness, Racing Harness Fire Extinguisher
Suspension - H&R Sport Cup Suspension Kit, Turner 14mm Shock Pin Bearing Sleeve and Washer Kit, Rear Shock Mounts, Turner Race Monoballs, Rear Shock Tower Mount Reinforcement Kit
Radiator - Mishimoto Performance Aluminum Radiator
Brakes - HAWK HPS 5.0 Street Sport Pads, Stoptech Stainless Steel Brake Line Set, Performance Caliper Guide Bushing Set
Wheels- APEX ARC-8, Turner Motorsport Wheel Stud Conversion, 17.5mm Wheel Spacers
