Each car is the essence of its decade, a representation of the development of trackable street cars for nearly 60 years. In order to get that vintage experience, we lined up four cars: a 1962 Austin Healey Sprite, a 1971 Lotus Europa, a 1989 BMW E30 M3, and a brand-new Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio. Then he suggested I join him at Buttonwillow Raceway for a test day along with Southern California's Vintage Auto Racing Association, or VARA, for short, before its annual VARA University, a driving school for novices and experienced racers alike. When I said something along the lines of "driving a vintage car looks easy" to editor-at-large Sam Smith, he made some grandiose hand gestures, said something about bias ply tires, and mimicked going around a corner with body english that would make a pro bowler jealous. That vintage racers bragging about catching big slides and griping about tires sound like fishermen claiming to have had the most difficult day reeling in the biggest catch this hemisphere had ever seen. Being fast in a car like that makes you think that the rest of racing history was a bit of a dawdle. Cars of that vintage and newer share more than you might expect. I've been racing for years, but the oldest thing I've driven on track is a 1987 BMW 325iS. A vintage race car is, for all intents and purposes, just a car.īut if you're used to modern metal, you're in for a shock. Seatbelts that fasten like, well, seatbelts. There are wheels at each corner, all of them round. The steering wheel, pedals, and gearshift are the same.
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