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Driving Lexi To Their Limits!


maneesh
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Received the itinerary for Saturday...

09.30 - 10.30 - safety briefing

10.30 - 11.45 - first activity

12.00 - 13.15 - second activity

lunch

14.15 - 15.15 - third activity

15.30 - 16.00 - debrief

first activity is ls430/sc430 round the high speed test loop to experience vsc, traction control and abs. using traffic lights inside the vehicle switched on by instructor, driver has to react and steer according to the lights.

second activity is rx300 on special off road course driving over natural hazards

third activity is is200/is300 on central track area through cones to test reflexes

so three groups of 10 people, 2 cars on track at one time, works out at total driving time of 45 minutes (15 minutes per activity) out of the whole day! Why didn't they make that clearer in the brochure? oh well, beats doing the chores on a saturday morning ;-)

The dude at the Lexus call centre told me to "beat the hell out of it" - I don't know whether he meant the cars or not ;-)

Will try and take some piccies for you guys...

Wonder if they give 50% discounts on the cars after they have been thrashed all day long ;-)

link to details of the track

http://www.trl.co.uk/pdf/TrackSpec.pdf

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Well, the Lexus track day was ok but not spectacular. Me and one other guy were the only ones under 50, since everyone else was in their 50s and 60s! All the cars were brand new with between 1 and 6k on the clock.

Spent 15 minutes driving the RX300 on the special off road route including a small hill. That was cool, plus they had a Land Rover on standby to pull us out in case we got stuck. We got advised to put both hands on the wheel with thumbs on top, because if your thumbs were behind and the wheel suddenly turned, you were likely to break your thumbs!

Did two runs in the LS430 (04 spec with 6 speed auto and 18 inch rims) round the high speed loop to see how the ABS allows you to brake and steer. Must say the big LS with it's air suspension was very impressive banking round at 70mph. Then did two runs with the SC430. With the top down, the SC430 was awful to try and stop inside the cones, but much better with the top up.

You basically had to drive round the track and then settle to a cruise of 50mph and drive through the cones, and then you braked and steered either left or right when the lights came on, trying to stay inside the cones.

The last activity was testing out the traction control. Used an IS300 for this. We basically had to drive around a ring of cones going faster and faster until the car was about to lose it (except it never did), the car just bleeped and bleeped continuously. We tried it with trac on and trac off, and I remember trying to give more gas when the trac was on and the bleeping noise was on, and the car would not let me give more gas.

Then we had to drive fastish - approx 30mph through a line of cones (like a slalom) without knocking the cones over, and then drove slowish - approx 10mph through cones again which were closer together, so you really had to twist the wheel quickly lock to lock. The IS was on 235/40 18 Bridgestones and the handling was amazing. Even the instructors were impressed at how well designed the chassis was on the IS. Each time the cars came back from the exercise, all you smelt was burnt rubber! Most of the outside tread disappeared at the end of the day.

It was good to be able to push the cars, since you wouldn't do that to your own car in real life.

Watch out for any cars with the number plates starting with GY04 on sale at the dealer, they could be from the track day!

Total time that I was behind the wheel was about 35-40 minutes, if you add up all three activities. Value for money for £200...????

You spent most of the day hanging around either sitting in the back whilst someone else was taking their turn or waiting on track for the car to come back.

Oh yeah, and got one bottle of white and one bottle of red on way out!

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