beautiful shots, i need to get back to cal speedway soon haha! what suspension are you running?

 

Thanks for all the comments guys. With a good coach, the track isn't intimidating at all, and really fun once you get a good rhythm down.

Fasteddie, I wish I could say my car was "setup" by sharky! No, I've only had them perform a few small mods on my car, but nothing that would qualify as a full setup. Maybe one day!

Djhill, Yes, it was my first time to Laguna, so they recommended that I start in the A group (even though this wasn't my first track experience). My group had quite a few cars but as we were running the full course, it never really got crowded (only had to pass around 2 or 3 laps out of 11 per session). You start off with a coach in your car, and once they feel you're good enough to go solo, they'll put an "S" on your car, and you'll go on your own. Even if they sign you off, you are still welcome to have a coach in your car. The next time I sign up, I will enter myself in the "B" group. As far as tire and brake wear I had my car checked before and after by the dealership and there didn't seem to be any significant change in % left, so that was a good sign. I bet the better and faster you get, you'll put more wear on the tires, but I'll probably be using the brakes less and less.

Joe, it would have been sweet to see your car there! There were a couple 7 GT3s, one of which had those exhaust blocker-things on his tips, and the other did get meatball-flagged several times (so he had to lift).

Drifter, sadly, I'm running stock suspension and brakes right now. I don't feel the need to upgrade the brakes as the stock brembos are sweet (no fade felt over the entire day), but someday I'll switch to X74 suspension.

 

Oh, yeah... that's really too bad. 997 GT3s, and F430s with stock exhausts get flagged at Laguna for sound. Motorcyclists have started using little exhaust tip plugs to help bring the volume down. I don't know if something similar would work with the GT3 exhaust?

 

Very cool. Any lap times recorded?

 

No, unfortunately. The next time I go I'll probably find a way to keep track of my progress. It'd probably be easier with the sport chrono thing in the 997s.