Old School Cool

Took Hoodlum, my 1976 BMW 2002, to autocross school on Sunday. Autocross is a timed race against the clock in a course of orange cones set up in big parking lots or old airstrips. And it's a blast. No special safety requirements necessary, since there are no other cars on the course to hit, so no big bucks to try it. (Visit the SCCA website, click the "Find Your Region" button and navigate through to find an event near you.)

Anyway, my boxy little 35-year-old Bimmer ended up in a group with two new BMW M3s, two Porche Boxters, a C06 Corvette, an AC Cobra, a Pontiac G8 and a race-prepped Honda CRX. On paper - and on straights - an obvious mismatch.

But autocross courses are twisty little things, and in the corners the '02 more than holds its own. Learned a lot, improved as the day went on, and posted respectable lap times (and quicker than several much more powerful cars.) The fastest time of the day did belong to one of the instructors and his 'Vette, a pair who made an absolute mockery of the course and us mere mortals trying to find our way around it...

Just goes to school, Old School knew a trick or two, too.