Reeves Callaway's BMW connection
Enter Reeves Callaway. In 1970, Reeves was a young man devoted to becoming a professional race car driver. Yet, even after winning the National Championship in SCCA’s Formula Vee, he simply didn’t have the funds to continue. It was a difficult time for the young man just voted one of the best of the new crop of SCCA racing drivers that year. Reeves was considered to have had the best pair of hands in Formula Car racing of any of the young drivers. Contemporaries were notables such as Rick Mears and Emerson Fittipaldi.
Given his options, Reeves did what many race car drivers do; he went to work as a driving instructor. Working for Bob Bondurant, he became familiar with the intricacies of the 3-Series BMW. As the ride & drive tour for BMW Dealers wound down, Reeves asked for the loan of one of the BMW 320i school cars with the intent of turbocharging for more power. Reeves had acquired many skills in his pursuit of becoming a professional race car driver. Among them were engine building, chassis tuning and component fabrication. Plus, he had the advantage of a suitable education, having received a BFA degree from Amherst College in 1970. Reeves knew that he could help the BMW in the horsepower department and took the 320i home to the garage behind his house in Old Lyme, Connecticut.
In the solitude that inventor/craftsman types know, Reeves constructed a prototype turbocharger system. Don Sherman of Car and Driver was offered a test drive. He wrote a one-page article describing how exciting the car was with the new-found power. Don inadvertently made it appear that Callaway was set to deliver turbocharger kits to the BMW community. The truth was that Reeves had barely more than a drill press, much less any of the real means to produce the components. It wasn’t very long before BMW turbo system orders began to pour in and Reeves’ racer resourcefulness was again valuable. Soon, Reeves and his friends were working at the house, in the garage, machining and assembling beautifully fabricated components, keeping up with the demand.
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