We’ve been on a mission lately to spread the word of SCCA® Targa – a competition event that spans four racetracks in as many days. Often covering 700 street miles during the multi-day adventures, Targa sees participants not only wielding their competition vehicles at speed on racetracks (and sometimes an autocross course), while also testing the flexibility of the vehicles by logging serious miles on public streets. The joy of the drive isn’t just something SCCA loves – it’s something SCCA’s partner Hagerty (the official insurance of the SCCA) believes in as well.
Targa Texasland and Targa Southland have already taken place, with Targa Chicagoland set for July 30-Aug. 3, 2025, spanning Autobahn Country Club, Putnam Park, Tire Rack HQ, and Gingerman (). Between those venues, you and a teammate will be cruising on the road, enjoying not only each other’s company, but also the adventure of the vehicle.
In a recent article on Hagerty’s media site, where the company publishes tons of educational and entertaining and , the power of the road trip was recently discussed.
Hagerty author Rob Siegel recounted his 2,000-mile adventure in what he’s dubbed his FrankenThirty, an E30 BMW 325 that should have had the powerful “i” engine but (unbeknownst to him) wound up having the economically oriented “e” motor installed along the way.
“All of that is the backdrop for saying that few people today seek out a 325e. I certainly didn’t,” Siegel explained in the article. “Some folks wind up with one because they set out to buy a 325i and then get sticker shock at the $12K–$15K it generally takes to buy a shiny, rust-free one with a nice interior. I, on the other hand, bought a well-priced, basically rust-free 325is that turned out to have an Eta motor in it due to the way the car was rebuilt from a salvage event. The difference wasn’t visible from under the hood, however, and I wasn’t enough of an E30 expert to know or even suspect.”
The FrankenThirty road trip had the potential to be filled with peril, but ended as an eyeopener.
“But there’s a far bigger story than simply the lack of inconvenient roadside automotive dismemberment or death, and that’s this: I loved driving this somewhat ratty, highly compromised car 2,069 miles,” he explained.
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Photo by Rob Siegel/Hagerty
