ToothDoc

IT was AWESOME!!! I had all that fancy setup and guess what? I pressed the record button TWICE so it wasn't actually recording. So I got pissed and had a kid jump in the car with me to record for a few minutes. UNFORTUNATELY, that ONE recorded run I had was a slow group. I took it home, put it up on surround sound with the subwoofer on and guess what my wife says? "That's it? I could do that. That's nothing. You're going so slow. HAHAHA" Anyways, my in car camera relative to what you might see on TV is soooo slow motion that it does indeed look like I'm doing 30 mph. So I'm a bit embarrassed to put it up. (plus it's still on the camera)

Mr. Johnson - it was cool following your supercharged GS. The IS250 was definitely running away from us in the turns - of course, he's on 19" PS2s with carbon brakes and weighs about 500 pounds less! I'm not sure if that IS250 also had the coilovers but it sure seem to stay flat in the turns whereas I could totally see your Lexus lean quite a bit. I think if we were allowed to pass, a 400rwp GS400 and an IS-F could beat a well driven IS250 with an extra passenger. (but man, that's SOOO unfair... 2x more HP!!) BUT, there is NO way we could keep up with a pro driver in an IS350 with the F sport accessories.

I did play around with the car a little bit trying different angles and trying to figure out at what point I should hit the gas - too early and the tail would slip out. Under coasting, the IS-F had a tendency to understeer so I could FOR THE FIRST time see what the magazines are complaining about. Obviously I've never turned so hard on regular streets to actually get to the point of understeering except in snow.

I did the AM session and FYI, I stayed out for at least an hour 1/2!!! I went from 4/5 full tank to 1/4 tank and my tire tread was down about 1/2!!!! What a day. My last run was actually messed up - that's why I called it quits at that point. I ended up in a particularly fast group and I was always the last guy because I didn't want to bother any other drivers and the guys in charge figured I had my chance following the pro guys. Unfortunately, my lack of experience and knowledge of how much speed to carry into the turns left me drifting off road a couple of times. Following a pro driver is easy (for a noob). Following other noobs is harder for a noob like me. So, I was black flagged and I left the track. Either way, my mind was shot, I was exhausted from flogging my IS-F all morning, and I was down to 1/4 tank and I needed to get home for my kid sisters wedding rehearsal!

What an awesome day! I was "high" all weekend. Now, I'm going to buy a legit helmet and try out that MVP track days at the Autobahn in August - full track. It's only like 300 bucks or so. There are other organizations too that run that track like Laps inc.

BTW, I fueled up in Arlington Heights and drove down to Joliet - average fuel economy was 27 mpg. When I got home, it was 12 mpg. LOL I was probably doing like 8 mpg at the track!!!