Trackstar Racing

I highly recommend Trackstar Racing. I’m extremely happy with the their BMW expertise, service, and fair prices. After getting my first BMW M3 (a 2001 E46 M3 that I had dreamed about for years and was finally fortunate enough to buy several few months ago), I sought out reviews and advice for the best shop to take my car to for expert maintenance and upgrade work. I «interviewed» three shops that looked like good options, and chose Trackstar Racing. I’m very happy that I did.
Trackstar Racing a one-​man operation owned and run by Steve, who 30 years of experience as a BMW mechanic. He is extremely knowledgeable about BMWs (M cars in particular), is very skilled at working on them, and can advise and work on performance upgrade options of every type. I love the experience of talking directly with the mechanic (Steve) who has his hands on my car, and discussing all the options and tradeoffs for repairs and upgrades for my M3. He never pushes for excessive work or uses scare tactics to get you to do something with your car that’s not necessary (in the way most dealer service departments seem to do), and he’s very good at clarifying what service and work is important, what is safe to wait for later, and what is optional. In addition, I don’t know of any place that can beat his prices.
Finally, don’t be put off by the name of the business. Steve not only does great work on performance cars you want to take to track days or autocross, but he will take good care of your daily driver BMW as well. One thing to be aware of: as a one-​man shop, you might have to wait a little bit to get a slot in Trackstar’s work schedule, but if you can be patient, it’s well worth it.

I’ve been using Steve for a long time, honest and fair priced I referred all my friends and family there all the time. He will only address the main issues not padding more work on top of it.

I have been taking my BMW X3 there for about 5 years. My car is off the warranty and Trackstar Racing does all the same inspections that the dealer does, has access to parts quickly (he gets 2 deliveries per day), and the cost of parts and labor is significantly less than the dealer. Given that my car is old, I’ve had a few repairs done, mainly normal wear and tear, and all repairs were done right. I landed there because one of my rear window was stuck and would not come up. I got estimates at the dealer and another independent shop that specialized in BMW, they both said they needed to replace the motor and a few other parts, and Steve (at Trackstar Racing) said that it was possible that the problem was due to something else (he gave me an explanation as to why), that he had to take the inside of the door apart to take a look at it. I left my car there, he took a look at it an called me to let me know that it was a piece of plastic that was broken, so instead of paying over $ 400 at the dealer or other BMW shop, I paid a total of about $ 90 all inclusive. After that, I decided to continue there for all my car service needs.

Steve has been maintaining my 2001 330ci ever since its maintenance warranty ran out, many years and many miles ago. Thanks to Steve, my car is still running strong with over 275,000 miles on it ;-)
Steve has encyclopedic knowledge of BMW cars’ mechanical innards, as well as each model’s particular quirks. As other reviewers have posted, his enthusiasm for the marque is evident and long standing. His expertise spans both the maintenance/​repair and tuning worlds.
Over the years I’ve been coming to him, he’s shown himself to be very caring of his customers. Indeed, he takes a conservative approach to repair, only recommending a repair when a part really needs to be replaced. Moreover, I love how he’s always explaining the details of parts’ functions to me.

I have an E46 M3 which I bought used. I noticed my front passenger wheel is off cambered. I found Steve to be reputable on internet forums, plus his experience at Rennwerks also was a plus, so I decided to give him try.
He took a look at my car and said outright that my car is probably not align-​able because he thinks the front shock, front spindle, the rear trailing arm are probably bent.
The parts for the 2 jobs was about $ 1k, plus whatever labor he charges and then he has to do an alignment afterwards. So I took his expert advice, and went ahead with the job.
I got the car back and noticed the car is pulling to the right, steering was not centered. And also theres a malfunction in system, the DSC, BRAKE, and TPMS lights are all on.
Took the car back, he said my front tires are worn unevenly, that explains why the car was pulling to the right. Also, the 3 lights are on because of the steering sensor is bad. The steering sensor replacement is very labor intensive. Remember, all these hypotheses have no data backing. I also asked him if he recalibrate the steering system as a standard bmw alignment procedure. He said no, then he went off on how the steering angle sensor works and that recalibrating is not necessary.
Long story short, I just took it to another shop. They fixed my steering issue by recalibrating the steering system. Just like that.
The steering wheel is still not centered which is what Steve has done. And I also believe that there’s a possibility that I didn’t have to replace the spindle and the trailing arm. Could’ve saved me at least $ 1500 bucks. I shouldve gone to the 2^nd shop the first place.
I’m not saying Steve is a bad mechanic, he does have tons of experience. But I think he should listen to his customers more and consider other possible solutions. Basically, I think he is a one man show, doesn’t have much time for diagnostics, and just keep throwing parts at the car.

Easily the best maintenance and repair experience I’ve had with my BMW. Ever.
Steve is extremely knowledgeable and his passion for the marque shines through. He gives great advice and listens well. I only wish my doctor had as good a bedside manner as Steve!

Having moved back to the Bay Area I needed a new mechanic for my E46 BMW. First had Steve inspect it then later brought it back to his shop to replace my tie rods and do an alignment. He did a great job and also test-​drove the car both before the inspection and after the service work. Very reasonable pricing.
Since I sometimes take my car to the racetrack or AutoX, it’s comforting to know that Steve has experience racing BMWs. So far Steve has only worked on my car once, but i definitely expect be back.
[April 2013 edit] noted that Steve also did an alignment after replacing the tie rods and the car handles better afterward. He also correctly diagnosed a thumping sound under acceleration as a failing driveshaft support bearing in his test drive, even though you cannot see the driveshaft or the support bearing unless you remove the exhaust and some heat shielding.

Took my M3 to Steve a few years ago for an Inspection 2 service. The dealer was going to charge me an arm & leg so I decided to try Steve’s shop, who gave me the lowest quote and actually took the time on the phone to give me all the details of the quote.
The service was great! There were a couple problems he found with the car during the service. But instead of giving me a hard sell to make some quick cash, as most others would have, he explained the situation honesty and said my car would be fine as-​is, but I should keep an eye out for those areas.
Best of all, the total cost was exactly what was quoted on the phone. This guy is one class act. Will be coming back to Steve for all future work on my cars — not even going to bother quoting out other shops. :)

I thought I would post here, I Just had my 2002 E46 M3 subframe repaired @ Trackstar in Mountain View. Steve Casaletto did a grea job on my M3’s subframe. He had recently done his own M3. My car had been dianosed @ Edge Mototrworks in Dublin– that m

This is a neighborhood service garage for BMWs. Steve the owner is really caring, honest and fair. He can work on the latest and classic BMWs. I have trust and full faith in his abilities to work on my track car.