Well, I left the M5 at home thankfully. I doubt I'm going to track it again even if I have now got it setup reasonably well as it is just too punishing on a car as nice as this one. (i.e. rocks, debris, etc).
Driving in the PCA black group was great. Point by anywhere the track is straight on either side. I wish more clubs had a solo group for very experienced drivers who don’t want to instruct any more but want a fun and relaxed weekend. Even with the shakeup going on in First Settlers, the event seemed to run pretty well (as long as you didn’t want a reply to any e-mail you sent to them before the event).
A big thanks to Brian Marks for the co-drive in his Euro motor E36 M3! What a blast. I've never driven an E36 M3 before (other than a test drive years ago in a stock car), so this was a nice way to start I suppose (full Bimmerworld cage, seats, harness, HANS, stock Euro 3.2 motor (sweet), Stoptech brakes, GC suspension (not sure of all the parts, but Clay helped him sort the spring rates, solid bushings, etc) that is perfectly dialed in. The car handled amazingly well. R888s worked well too with nice feedback and decent stick although they did get greasy in the afternoon Sunday (more on that later).
Having a G2X in the car was very nice with the sequential rev lights as I never had to pay attention to the tach since the rev lights catch your peripheral vision perfectly.
The car was setup so well that it would do whatever you asked of it. It had the most precise and controllable response to left foot braking of any car I've ever driven. The other part that I found wonderful was that I could do a rev matched downshift, and then still under trail braking easily slide my left foot onto the brake and then move my right to the throttle. This was especially useful in turn 1-2 on South as I had a virtual Ron Spencer talking to me.
Ron's advice showed up again for me in the corkscrew into tun 6. His programming in my brain of the straight line into an early 6 apex after rubbing the gators in 5 (which you almost straight line) was all I used all weekend. Left foot braking there is mandatory to make it work, but I enjoy it so much I can't even remember doing it the "old way". Using the on-camber first part of 6 to blast into rolling onto power worked real well.
I couldn't quite match Brian's times. He was running 1:20.1 area and the fastest time I turned was a 1:20.9. I was consistently in the 1:21.1-3 area, but my driving was not consistent as it is such a transition into this car. More seat time is needed.
The G2X is nice to have in car though. On Sunday in the first afternoon session, I was driving similar to earlier, but was about 1 sec off the pace from earlier in the day. I did a few more laps and realized it was all track/ambient temperature/whatever, but I wasn't going to be back consistently below 1:22. Hence I decided to back off the pace and work on my vision and feeling (i.e. Ross Bentley thought from the recent instructor seminar) since something seemed "up" with the conditions.
I pointed by a black E36 who seemed to be really pressing hard from behind, and then following him into Oak, looking at my line, I had this feeling he was taking a bizarre line and then noticed he was 4-wheels off but fortunately got it slowed down enough not to tire wall it. He did a great job using all the pavement and then going off in a controlled fashion.
Shortly thereafter I passed a 911 into 1 and on 2 exit something in the mirror catches my attention, and I see him getting super loose with the rear end in the grass. At this point, I'm glad that I've got virtual Ross working with me. A couple of laps later, the black flag appears everywhere. A Boxster lost it in 10 and hit the tire wall...hard, hard enough to wrap the right rear suspension under the car. It took VIR about 20 minutes to repair the tire wall.
I did get some in-car video on Saturday, so when time permits I might try to get some editing done as I want Ron to critique the 4-5-6 line I was trying.
Thanks again Brian for the co-drive! The car is incredible fun and handles better than anything I've ever driven on track. It was a great weekend with perfect weather too.
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Mitch doesn't like me following him. 
I'll be posting video in the next day or so.
