Ah, Spec E30: identical buzzing little BMW boxes from the era of my childhood, all fighting on an even "spec" playing field. Here's a guy at Road Atlanta who started from one place above dead last and carved through nearly all of the traffic to take the win in one short sprint race.

Welcome to , a feature where we spend that pesky time between race weekends looking at awesome footage from inside the car.

This footage comes from the NASA Spec E30 Eastern States Championship earlier this year, where Sandro Espinosa initially qualified on pole. Unfortunately, one of his fans wasn't working and he opened his hood to let his engine cool off before pulling in after qualifying to tech inspection.

This disqualified him from his excellent starting position, forcing him to start from 39th place in a field of 40.

No big deal, though. Espinosa was 0.5 seconds faster than the entire field, but watching his E30 try to work its way through a field of nearly identical E30s is pretty crazy.

At one point, Espinosa even waves to his family off turn 5 while in a sweet little drift.

So, here's a great example of why spec racing is one of the most fun types to watch. Everyone's in the same car, so drivers are usually pretty aggressive when it comes to finding that last 0.0000001 extra seconds of speed over the other guys on track.

He finished in third place, but after the two top competitors ended up being disqualified for having illegal modifications he ended up with the win.

This is how you drive an E30, people.

Have an awesome onboard video to share? Drop me a line at [email protected] or post it in the comments below.

(H/T Scott Neville)