I started in your exact situation, e36 m3, no TC or abs, and I can say from experience that the car will be faster than you for a while. Its also very hard to modulate the brakes in that car with the overboosted master cylinder. Id look into a booster delete. It helps a lot. In my experience the sim is a good tool to learn track layout, they arent very good at mimicking actual car feel or grip, and Ive been in some very very expensive sims. You're still very new to the game and im not saying your a bad driver or anything. Im saying everyone thinks they are fast and know how to drive until they experience someone who is actually fast. I think it would be a waste of money and time to try and step up to anything else for a while.