Take route 57 out of Milton, North Carolina, and follow it to road 119. Your next turn is a wrinkled dirt road that twists back and forth for a mile and a half into the backcountry.

What an experience. You pass grazing cows and uncultivated meadows bordered by wired fences. Suddenly, posted near a tree, a sign reading 'Freedom Farm - James and Suzy Posig' pops up. That start you wondering.
Still you drive on.

Soon you come to a farmhouse with barns that have a lean to them and the smell of age that indentifies them with another time in history. "Over a hundred years old," says James in a strong voice peppered with a heavy accent.

But not everything, you notice. Behind the barns is a new metal building with the latest high-tech equipment for repairing, servicing, and remodeling BMW cars.

Between Raleigh and Richmond James Posig's BMW garage is the only one, and it's stuck out in the woods. That's the way that James likes it. "It's been my life long dream to live out on a farm out in the middle of nowhere
and have a high-tech BMW shop," he smiles the contented smile of a man whose dreams have come true.

When you arrive at Freedom Farm and walk into his shop, you notice right away that it is as spotless as new fallen snow. Then you notice the cars.

A Formula 2 car sits waiting for a motor. A BMW is undergoing remodeling into a race track car. A vintage BMW motorcycle hugs the wall, and over near the door, another BMW is being repaired.

As imposing as the cars is James himself. His strong features, short hair, and self assured demeanor remind you of a drill sergeant. But he has a sensitve, enthusiastic eyes and he's upbeat all the way.

James is actaully a transplanted New York Yankee from Manhattan, but his mother hails from Tennesse. His father, a Marine Major, traveled to various assignments throughout the United States, his family in tow, so
James has the distinction of being from everywhere and nowhere.

Along the way, the young James's life with cars actually got started during his formative years in New Jersey. As a ten year-old he hung around older guys(you know , kids 16 to 19), and helped them work on Corvettes and
Camaros.

Then he got introduced to European cars- working on Alfa Romeos, Jaguars, and MGs- and never looked back.

At 19 James Posig was working full-time as a mechanic on Lola Formula Super Vs, travleingto racetracks across the U.S. Quite an accomplishment. "I moved around from time to time, but became focused on BMWs," he explains.

These days his work with BMWs is so extensive, his BMW credentials so impeccable, and his knowledge of them so expansive that he belongs to the prestigious Bimmer Tech Group, an international group of independent
mechanics worldwide have the training and credentials that entitle them to become part of the group.

As he has over the years, Posig continues working with racecars and race teams. Posig is now reworking a Formula 2 racecar(similar to the Indianapolis 500 type racecars) belonging to the five-time national road racing champion Tom Davey. The two men plan to race the Formula car at VIR next year. Davey raced a similar car there nearly 30 years ago and won.

Posig has built or modified cars for a number of well-knowns including Jon Hammer, who wrote all the music used on the series Miami Vice. Posig's reputation is so widespread that BMW owners from New York to Atlanta and
from Texas to Maryland either drive or have thier cars shipped to here for him to work on them.

Posig will build or modify any BMW vehicle into a race car or high performance street car. He'll build them any way you like 'em.

But there's more. "My two words are fun and passion," he stresses. "I try to make people feel good when they come here and when they leave here I work the amount of hours. I go to any extreme-whatever it takes to satisfy
the needs of my clients and produce a quality result and quality product."

That philosophy comes from the way Posig feels himself about the life and what he does. "I love what I do. I've got a passion for it. That hopefully shows in every car that rolls out of his shop. I would never
consider doing anything else."

Yet, the question keeps coming up: Why would a BMW specialist want a business on a farm in the middle of almost nowhere?

With the passion that he's just spoken about showing his eyes, James makes it all seem perfectly natural. "My wife Suzy and and I wanted a simpler life. Here on the farm my wife has a garden, we raise grain fed Black
Angus steers for our own beef, and I hunt deer and process the venison. We really want to be self-sufficent as possible to control the quality of our lives.

"People are to narrow-minded about how they approach projects. The way I approach BMW racecars is with a totally open mind. I'm locked into nothing. When I'm working on BMWs, I explore all the possiblities and take
the collective knowledge and put it into this product."

Whether James Posig is appraoching life or cars, his perspective and outlook are the same. "One of ther greatest things my father gave me was discipline, and focus, and taught me to aspire to be the best. Do it
perfect or don't do it at all."

His mom gave him his patience and style, equally important in his work, and at the core of his life.

A carpenter. A bartender. A stagehand at major at major rock concerts. James Posig has been all of these. Today he's a BMW specialist.

Next he plans to not only build BWW racecars to run at VIR, but race competitively there himself. Last year, he got a BMW from a junkyard, built it into a racecar, and practiced with it at the VIR driver's school
four days later.

In addition to his standard BMW repair and service shop, it seems James Posig's destiny is to be involved with racing. VIR reopened just two years after Posig opened his shop. "I really rolled the dice not knowing how
this was going to work out. But now I'm back into racing."

If you believe in serendipity, you have to believe that dreams can come true. James Posig's did. Go see it. You're in for a treat.

Author: Larry Aaron is associate editor of EVINCE, the parent publication of VIR EVINCE Racing.