Well, I attended the Lexus IS300 drive-a-thon on Saturday at Golden Gate
Fields. My brother, Tony, got the invitation and brought me as a guest. They
had two courses set up. First, a low speed course with varying conditions,
such as a sandy patch to test the ABS and some pop-up "hazards". On this
course, you could drive the Lexus, an Audi A4 or a BMW 328. All were
automatics, of course. The other course was a higher speed course, sort of
like a typical SFR Solo II course. At first, they let you drive the course
alone, as fast as you felt comfortable. You only got one lap, then back in
line. After about 45 minutes, they started "Hot Laps" Now with helmets on, we
rode with a "Professional driver". There were several name drivers there, the
Pobsts', and a Corvette driver of note, Bill Cooper. It seemed the intent of
the hot laps was to see how many OEM type tires they could go through in the
least amount of time. They were hanging out the tails of the (rear wheel
drive) cars on all the sweepers, just smoking the rear tires. The crowd was
quite impressed, (sort of like DeAnza College!<grin> ). After my brother and
I made our way up to the front of the line, we let others go ahead until we
picked Bill Cooper's car. Two passengers rode with each "Pro" driver for two
laps. I climbed in the front, my brother in the back. I told Bill, "We've
both seen you race, impress us!" And, folks, I was impressed. He would toss
the car into the corners, they feed the wheel back in reverse lock to hold
the tail out attitude all the way through the corner. All of this was second
nature to him, he kept up a running commentary on the car while driving -
right at the limit. I know it wasn't the fastest way around, but it sure
showed the flexibility of the handling! A possible conversion occurred, as
well. After driving the Lexus around on his own lap, my brother mentioned
that the next time I was going to Autocross my street Camaro, he'd like to go
along and try driving it. Hee Hee - Just like the drug dealers, the first
one's free! - Seth Emerson
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