“Picked up for cheap and thrashed in many challenges,” said Ryan Symancek of his well-used BMW E30. This budget beater has been drifted, rockcrawled, rallied, and finally— battered and bruised in an endurance road race—proving that the E30 is a budget gem. This car can be had for peanuts, and, thanks to a capable chassis, a torquey motor, and plenty of strength, has made itself a go-to track toy for newbies and experienced racers alike.

It might be modest and understated, but it’s a versatile toy for those with a surplus of elbow grease. Photo credit: BMWBlog

Disregarding the price, the E30‘s real appeal is its lively handling. As we can view in this well-shot footage, the little Beemer is happy to yaw into a corner (5:55), thanks in-part to its flawed rear suspension design, which exhibits a little toe-out under compression. That makes the car quite tailhappy, and with a top-heavy design, keeps it from being the fastest machine in the Chump Car lineup.

However, they’re still competitive for other reasons. Miatas help make up the ranks, and while they’re predictably more capable under braking and cornering, they’re flimsier, and they lack torque. This mean that the E30 can take the requisite door-bashing, and has a definite advantage when managing traffic, respectively.

It’s not limited to just those two, however. Part of the beauty of Chump Car is that anything which sneaks in under the $500-limbo bar is allowed. For that reason, the rosters usually make up several pages. With drivers of varying levels of skill out there, it requires a clever driver to manage traffic, make intelligent moves, avoid silly mistakes, and split slower cars (5:47).

Typically, these races are also quite long. To ensure they finish the race, drivers must temper an overly-aggressive approach since so much of an enduro’s success comes down to a minimization of error, general consistency, and timing pit stops cleverly. It’s also a race of attrition, and so drivers need to be able to nurse a car, especially when the fuel load lightens and the rear tires are unweighted, unless they want a bald set before their next pit stop.

It takes plenty of foresight, then. Fortunately, it’s not all cold calculation. The ambiance is incredibly warm in this low-budget racing category, in which the rules require entrants to spend little so the competition stays fierce. Therefore, people want to have rivals competing with them on an equal playing field, and are happy to help when things go wrong. This isn’t always the case in racing, and generally speaking, as the budgets increase, the atmosphere grows colder.

As the checkered flag waves, the fist pumps commence.

And that lends itself to a formative racing experience. Even with plenty of mechanical gremlins rearing their ugly heads, these fellas seem to revel in the challenge, accept their setbacks with grace, and smile despite it all. Observing these guys and their palpable thrill at just finishing the race, it’s encouraging enough to start scrounging up change under the couch cushions and browsing Craigslist for that mechanic’s special.