My Interview with Mr. Bill Wagner, the CEO of LogMeIn

I had the great pleasure and privilege this week of interviewing the CEO of LogMeIn, Mr. Bill Wagner. LogMeIn is one of Boston’s most successful technology companies over recent years and Mr. Wagner is a passionate car lover who not only loves racing but is also an active racecar driver himself. Following, you will find both some excerpts, commentary, and observations from our interview.

Like myself, Bill got into cars at a young age and got some early hands on experience.

Cameron: When did you start getting into cars?

Bill: So my dad was a mechanic so like you I was around cars being fixed up in my driveway, I was into cars in a young way like you. For me we had a lot of cars in our driveway and my dad was always bringing home a car that needed work. All the cars that we had were second hand and he did all the work himself and so if I wanted to spend time with my dad, that's where I'd have to go, to go out and spend time in the driveway underneath the car.

And we grew up near a racetrack that no longer exists, Langhorne Speedway in Langhorne, Pennsylvania. We grew up right next to it, 500 yards from it and on Sunday mornings we could hear the cars racing on the track we were that close. The track’s no longer there but it was a famous old dirt track. A lot of old famous racers in the 60s raced there and that was the other thing that fed my passion for cars.

I did a bit of research after the interview on Langhorne and found out that it was apparently the first 1 mile dirt track in the US specifically for cars. Back in the 40’s to the 70’s it hosted many high profile races that were won by well known racers including Mario Andretti. You can find more information about it here.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langhorne_Speedway

Cameron: What has been the most fun you've had driving a car and which car was it?

Bill: Without question it's been driving my 2010 Porsche GT3 on Virginia International Raceway or Watkins Glen. Probably one of those 2.

Cameron: What was the first car you ever owned and why did you choose that car?

Bill: So the first car that was ever mine was one my parents handed down, a 1974 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme when I was in college I needed a car. The first car I bought was a 1989 Acura Integra and I bought it because it was a sporty, relatively affordable car but it was still sporty and a performance orientated car and it had a stick shift and it was a lot of fun to drive.

I found this next answer very interesting and having recently raced go carts for the first time I can relate to what Bill had to say.

Cameron: Why do you like to race cars?

Bill: It’s one of the only things I can do that occupies all of my senses. Sight, smell, touch, taste, hearing, so when you’re in a car going at speed (and I’m no professional) but even doing what I’ve done all those senses are activated when you’re driving a car really quickly. When you’re driving round a track and all those senses are participating in the experience there’s no room to think about anything else, so it’s one of the rare things that uses a) all my senses at the same time, b) completely utilizes all of my thought capacity, there’s no other time to be thinking about anything else, you can’t think about work, can’t think about my family, can’t think about my kids, can’t think about my wife who I love dearly, my kids who I love dearly. It occupies your mind completely. And the third thing is because it’s competitive. It’s one of the rare things I can do at my age that are still competitive or at least fires those competitive juices that used to motivate me when I was an athlete.

Cameron: Do you prefer Indy Car or Formula 1 and why?

Bill: F1 is the racing series I follow and mainly because of the technology that is applied to those cars, I believe it’s the pinnacle of car automotive technology that’s deployed in the F1 cars and because of that their performance mirrors it. When you’re talking about making changes to save an ounce here or there it tells you the level of attention and detail that goes into the finest elements of that car, the smallest things. And that’s just astounding when you think about bringing that level of technology into an automotive experience. Indy cars are also interesting and fascinating and also use technology to a great degree. The secondary reason is F1 is a global sport and Indy car racing tends to be in the Americas, mainly North America.

As we continued to talk it became more apparent that Bill is an avid Porsche fan, and rightly so. He couldn’t settle on just one favorite classic so he provided his top 3. We’ve seen some great Porsches recently and I hope to be reviewing the Porsche 918 Spyder this coming weekend.

Cameron: What is the best classic car in your opinion and why is that?

Bill: Well, I’m going to say I’m a Porsche loyalist so it’s a Porsche 356 E Hardtop Coupe or a 356 1600 S would be my favorite classic car or possibly even a 550 Spyder and if I could ever drive that it would be an experience of a lifetime.

I found this next answer interesting. The art of driving manual cars in the US seems to be dying out but if you’re going to race cars, it has to be manual.

Cameron: What is the best modern car in your opinion and why?

Bill: You’ll generally see my answers though the lens of a Porschephile so I would have to say the Porsche GT3 is the best car in the world. And the reason is that you not only have the performance of a supercar but it’s very involving so the driver, unlike many cars today where the driver involvement has been dialed way back. A Porsche GT3 you still have a car that uses all of those senses. It’s still dangerous enough that it requires you to pay attention to it. And it’s not as showy and as over the top as a Lamborghini or a Ferrari. It’s not a supercar in that sense, it’s kind of under the radar and a car that has great performance but is also super fun to drive.

Cameron: Cam you name me 5 movies that have had the Porsche GT3 in it.

Bill: I don’t know many but the most famous Porsche movie ever, more so with the Porsche 911 was ‘Le Mans’ with Steve McQueen where in the opening scene he drove a brown 911 which recently sold at auction I believe. It’s not a movie but Jerry Seinfeld is also a huge Porsche fan, and he had a lot of Porsches and if you watch Seinfeld there’s almost always a reference to Porsches in each episode.

Cameron: What kinds of cars do you like to race? Is it more about performance cars or more like classic cars?

Bill: Right now I’m focused on the more modern high performance Porsches. I would like at some point to race some classic cars but they are much more expensive to race at that level. I’d also be interested in racing other cars. For anyone who wants to get into racing I’d start with a low powered car as then you can learn to drive. The first car I had on the track was a GT3 with a lot of power and therefore you would tend to make up for mistakes by putting your foot on the throttle whereas if you have a car that doesn’t have as much horsepower you have to get faster by being a better driver, not by putting your foot to the floor. If I was to start again I’d look to buy an old Porsche 924 with 175 HP and learn how to drive that as best as I could.

Some great advice here to any would be racers.

Cameron: Where do you usually race?

Bill: The track I’ve driven on the most is Virginia International Raceway when I used to live in Maryland so it was a short drive for me and I’ve probably been on that track for 20 days total. It’s a great, super-fast track with a great long back straight with the climbing S’s, if you look and do a bit of research about that track it’s got the best series of curves of any North American track. And also Watkins Glen because of the history of that track. It’s been an iconic track in NY and it’s also a very challenging track to drive.

For those of you interested, Wikipedia has a great entry on the Virginia International Raceway track. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_International_Raceway

It’s got some serious curves and bends with plenty of straight sections to put your foot down and unleash the raw power of your vehicle.

So thanks again to Bill Wagner for his time this week. I really enjoyed talking to him and learning more about his racing experiences. Here’s a picture of his GT3, it’s a bit of a beast! I think that the color on this really suits the model. It is finished in a nice gloss black with a few decals. Hopefully I can see this car in person to review such a monster.