BimmerWorld: The Science of ‘Winter Upgrades and Overhauls’

In the relative quiet between the holidays and the quiet weeks following the New Year, performance shops throughout the country find themselves busier than ever. At the shop of Dublin, Virginia’s BimmerWorld, it presents the opportunity for the renowned BMW experts to play the role of ‘Santa’ for customers near and far.

“It’s ‘Winter Overhaul and Upgrade’ time at BimmerWorld,” noted shop owner James Clay. With the season’s racing and track day events having passed, wild street cars having retired to their garages for the winter, and 2008’s first events still many weeks away, a flurry of work on customer car and shipping of replacement and upgrade parts has Clay’s operations working overtime. Catering to his customer’s needs is nothing new, nor is playing the role of overhaul and upgrade advisor.

“Winter is when everyone typically wants to tackle the big mechanical projects – engine swaps, custom driveline work, etc.  My main suggestion is that while you are thinking big; don’t forget the small stuff that can really transform a good car into a great car.  I’ve seen far too many cars with exotic engine transplants and pricey components to make huge power, that have then overlooked the basics like a solid performance brake pad and stainless brake lines to properly stop that monster!  Likewise, we have had more than one car come through that had a big money coilover suspension but stock parts in the common failure areas – rear shock mounts, rear trailing arm bushings.”

A common approach by Clay’s BimmerWorld team is to look at the complete car, not just the ‘big ticket’ items.  “Just like street cars I mentioned before, there are often little parts that owners overlook that really make a big difference in the car.  Too many people (and often shops) focus on the expensive items that everyone knows it takes to build a modified street car or racecar and let the little ones fall by the wayside – plus let’s face it, $500 of new bushings isn’t half as cool as that flashy new part under the hood that everyone can see!  Rather than looking at that new $3,000 exhaust, maybe we should address about ten $200 items and get better overall performance for it.  I work with a lot of racers to plan ahead and build a balanced car.  With the winter downtime of the track schedule for most of our customers, it is a great time to do some of that planning with either myself or one of our technical sales staff.”

With the ‘Winter Overhaul and Upgrade’ services becoming an annual tradition for BimmerWorld’s customers, the popularity and expansion of those services have evolved over the years.  “We have started doing a lot more on the high end suspension side in the last couple of years,” noted Clay.  “Our track customers were the first ones that started going this route and putting $3,000 or more into a top quality coilover kit like our line of JRZ and Moton shocks.  It is a really hard concept for some to embrace—to spend serious dollars on something that isn’t obvious to the eye and doesn’t make any noise, but it can do more for making a car fast than the newest engine or exhaust technology.

“Now our street guys are getting more into the good suspensions as well because they want a car that corners on rails when they push it hard, but is still very drivable on a daily basis.  A lot of less expensive suspensions have to be a compromise due to the limited design and technology used for mass production.  We’re working hard to pioneer the development of street shocks that are directly related to pure racing shocks, but without losing all sense of ride comfort. We work hard to help our customers balance their vehicle upgrades; we’re not going to suggest a $10,000 driveline overhaul and a set of cheap springs and shocks because their budget is so biased towards power.  We’d rather help to make the entire car better, not just one big area.”

The watchful eye of an experienced mechanic is critical to the proper servicing and improvement of any performance car. It’s something BimmerWorld’s shop manager Jason Marks, who also serves as BimmerWorld Racing’s crew chief, knows all too well.  “More than anything, working with top level racing cars provides an incredibly large bank of past experience when it comes to working with our customer’s cars. You learn a lot when you race a car twenty weekends a year; things you’d never think about or completely take for granted will have problems or failures. Then those items become something you always check.”

Marks find the high expectations of pro racing to be what sets apart BimmerWorld’s shop services and parts sales business.  “We have three pro cars in a full World Challenge season plus several dozen customer cars in a given year and you have a large combination of parts, problems, and ultimately solutions from which to draw from. When it comes to performing overhauls and upgrades, my team of technicians are zeroed in all the little things a customer’s daily driver or track car needs to have inspected, improved, or replaced.”

No matter how many cars have passed through BimmerWorld’s shop, Marks and his team come across a steady flow of common problems to solve during the Winter overhauls.  “That’s simple: cracks, tears, and loose pieces! There is a pretty big difference in what you can see on proper shop a lift versus what the average owner can see with their car up on jack stands. Once you get the car up and some good light under it, things begin to appear. You’ll see stress cracks and deformations on the subframe where the motor mounts are tearing out. Urethane motor mount that are close to the exhaust headers will melt. The driveshaft flex couplers disintegrate. Strange things that are hard to find will work loose. Exhaust mounts will crack or begin to develop pin holes. There are all kinds of things you’ll find when you can get to all of the hard to reach areas of a car; my guys love it because it’s a challenge to help our customers achieve the maximum reliability with their cars.”

The same challenge applies to how BimmerWorld services and improves the stable of track day BMW’s and race cars they support—to fit their client’s needs with the most applicable parts with the most reliability. As much as they’d like to funnel all services and upgrades through their shop in Virginia, Clay has invested a wealth of resources to cater to a client base that stretches from coast to coast.  “While we love to have cars in our shop to do all of the work firsthand, the BMW community has an incredibly strong ‘Do It Yourself’ ethic; it’s just as easy for us to field calls from BMW owners that need a trusted advisor to ship them the correct parts to match their budget and goals for the car. Our technicians are here to help in person or over the phone—we don’t sell anything we haven’t proven on the street or track, and installed more than a few times...”

With customers owning BMWs that range from the latest E90 to E30s and older, Clay’s team of advisors enjoy the challenge of tailoring a car to fit its owner’s desires.  “Some people love power, some want a car that rides on rails, and some just want a car that sounds the part.  I wish there was one part that everyone needs – we could save a lot of inventory space and expense that way!  Until we find that magic performance part, we’ll continue to have thousands of BMW performance parts in place for our customer’s needs. The key to being happy with your project is choosing the right parts, and we’re always working to add new and innovative components to our offerings.”

It’s that same motivation to add and improve to BimmerWorld’s line of products that has Clay preparing to roll out a number of major performance upgrades in 2008.  “We’re working on a couple of E46 M3 cars in-house this winter and designing our full engine tuning line. So far, I’m happy to say the results are impressive.  I expect we will release this line which will include both a Sport level which has a huge ‘bang for the buck’ appeal,  and an Ultimate level with the hot exhaust, cams, carbon intake plenum tuned up to make over 360 wheel horsepower. I expect both to be available early in the spring. 

“I’m also really excited about the new line of Performance Friction street brake kits that will take their race winning calipers, rotors, and pads and offer them in a slightly more street-friendly flavor, without cutting into the features or quality PFC is known for. They’ll also be offered at a more street-friendly price--nicely under $3,000 for a front kit, and they will even color match your car or any other scheme you have in mind. We’re also designing additional aerodynamic and suspension parts for our race tuning line and working with some of our other partners on other areas as well.”

As Clay’s BimmerWorld operation works towards completing the current Winter Overhauls and Upgrades that are underway, he and his staff are poised to help the next wave of customers wanting their cars to be better, faster, and as strong as can be. “We’re here five days a week and our online ordering is 24/7. If you want to talk to people that live and breathe BMW performance, we’re here to help.”