So this morning I went out to the California (Auto Club) Speedway for a 2 hour driving clinic that was put on for free by Lexus. I got in on a waiting list after the expanded the event to Thursday (then there was lots of room.)
They started off by lecturing about the basics of car control and the racing line. Our group of 28 split into two groups of 14 and each one went out to an autocross track where there were 5 Lexus's just waiting to be thrown around the course. The 5 cars were an IS250, an IS350, a GS450, a GS450H, and an IS250 with manual transmission.
I Drove the auto IS250 on my first run of two laps and then got stuck in the big ol' hybrid for the next 2 after that. I drove my 3rd and final autox session in the IS250 with the manual. I kept forgetting to look up at the clock after each run so I'm not sure how well I did. My cousin, who went with me, saw one of my times, a mediocre 28.9 (from when I drove the GS450H), so I figured that was fairly representative of the rest of my times. The track record was a 22 something put up by a pro driver. My cousin set the course record for a student with a 25.08. He and some guy who had been autocrossing for years ran the best times. The guys who brought driving shoes and helmets and then posted lame times were kind of entertaining. The autox was really great fun though. I'd really like to get my mustang in an autox event before summer ends.
Next, we did a follow the leader session on the infield road course in IS-F's. This was my favorite part. The instructors leading each group of 3 cars didn't get hard on the throttle or brakes during the straights, but did make sure to bring the smally convoys to each corner at a nice speed. I did hang back a couple of times so I could get on the gas a bit in the longest straight. I'd say they were driving at 6/10's. It was still a blast. Lastly, they'd put 3 students into one car along with a pro driver so they could demonstrate what the IS-F was really capable of.
I was impressed with how well the Lexus's took the punishment. They'd have to go all day long like they were without any real service. Of course, the abuse was diluted by the large number of IS-F's they had available to drive on the road course. The same wasn't true about the 10 dedicated autox cars.
Sorry that the pictures are really not very good at all . . . I had other things on my mind, like driving.
Lexus Performance Driving Academy at Fontana
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