sensai

Hey all,

I recently attended the Lexus Performance Driving School (paid instruction $995.00 registration) at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca and thought I would share how that went in case others were thinking of registering for the school. I'll write this as objectively as I can but to level set, this was my first on-track experience. The summary is: I believe that drivers at all levels can learn something in this school, including expert track enthusiasts (read on to see why I believe that). And their goal was for all students to "Experience Amazing"....which they did for me, full stack. Not just from the things I learned during instruction but the experience from the moment I turned onto the road, to hammering a 2020 RCF and LC500 on the track at WOT and the famous _corkscrew... up until I left. It was an amazing day for me and well worth the registration fee.

Another thing you should know before I get into the details is that they've now made Laguna Seca the home for all of their dates starting in 2019. Per their website: To kick off the 2019 season, Lexus will be hosting all of our Performance Driving School events at our new home circuit at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. This is your chance to drive on one of the country’s most iconic circuits.

So if you want to attend you have to visit this particular track. I live about an hour away so much more achievable for me than others.
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Details:

I pulled in to the road leading up to Laguna and as I started up the hill I notice this awesome huge billboard which of course gets my heart pumping:


Further up the road they remind me again that they want me to experience amazing:



I pull into the parking lot and a host is standing behind my vehicle (along with others to meet incoming students). He welcomes me and asks me how I'm doing. Some small pleasantries and he kindly lets me know that check-in and breakfast is upstairs. Going upstairs, checkin is smooth and easy, and I'm provided with a name badge. Picture of that later. Breakfast is solid and almost everything is fresh. Fruits, pastries, eggs, potatoes and bacon for our visit. Coffee, water, juice. Full breakfast buffet. Sorry Lexus but the only thing that wasn't fresh was the cream and milk. Both were bad but were changed out immediately after I notified the breakfast host.

Group was diverse. Estimated age range from 25-70. Some locals like me but a good amount of people traveled to the event. They mentioned that some had taken the class before and others had been on track days so there were experienced track folks in the group.

After breakfast we're brought to a garage area with chairs and a couple of TV monitors. It's here were the lead host introduces himself and sets the tone clearly that today is all about us. That the entire team is there to host, be attentive, adjust to our needs and be as accommodating as possible. They then bring out the road team of about 15+ professional drivers that will be there to help us. One in fact was my parking attendant who welcomed me which I thought was cool...no one on the team seemed like they were above a role that needed done. Each lead tells us what we'll be learning and where: skid pad, auto-cross and the track.

As we wrap up the intro they welcome up Scott Pruett, Lexus brand ambassador, 12 time World Champion, 3 time hall of fame inductee, and many more, to come up and address the group. Scott reiterates that today is all about us. He gets us pumped up and talks a bit about the cars we'll be driving and reinforces the tone for the day....have FUN! Scott's prototype 2020 RC F TE is also there for us to drool over through the entire intro.

They reminded us that these were not our cars, they had plenty of gas and tires so don't be shy. To drive the cars as hard as we can and push them to their limits.

Fun fact: Did you know the President of Toyota Motor Corp, Akio Toyoda (great grandson of Toyota Motor corp founder) is also a Lexus Master Driver. He stays in close contact with his products especially the F line. Being a master driver allows him the ability to give direct feedback to development engineers. So cool. They also said he 'signs off' on every Lexus built.





Michelin rep was also available to answer any questions on tires!




From breakfast to finishing the intro and welcome it was about an hour plus. No too long. Right after we wrapped up we were broken up into Green and Blue teams of about ~10 drivers in each. Some folks brought significant others as observers for $100 but they weren't counted as a driver. The Lexus team made some friendly competition jabbing each other from the start and allowing all of us to join the fun. After breaking up into two teams I landed on Blue. We headed to the skid pad first while the Green team headed to auto-cross. RC F's were used for skid pad where the goal was to skid in a tight circle around a set of cones (donuts). GS F's were used for autocross. It was raining heavily at this time and I was really amazed how composed both cars were in the rain in terms of extreme handling and breaking.

Lexus team members continue to look after us. Walking us out under umbrellas, going out of their way to make sure we're good.




My RC F for the skid pad. I really abused this one.




This was a good hour or so section and given they were limited to how many cars could be on the courses there was some dead time. What was really cool is Scott made himself available during the dead time. He roamed the two teams, striking up conversation and offering any tips he was asked. This is why I mentioned that everyone could learn something from the class. Even if I was an experienced track driver how often would I have direct access to someone like Scott. He is incredibly humble, easy to speak with and attentive to his guests.

For auto-cross, they did make a competition out of it saying we'd be back in the afternoon and everyone in both teams would have a chance to make three runs. Best time against everyone else's best time.

Next up was track time....Woooo! We would focus on: line, braking, corner entry, apex, corner exit and acceleration. They may have described it differently but that's how I remember it. There was a lesson that was about 10 - 15min then we got into LC500's!!! This wasn't a high speed run although we did have some speed. Not considered 'hot laps' which would be in the afternoon. People were paired up in cars. My partner was a kool kat named Wes from OC. What's up Wes if you're reading this! Wes owns a white 2015 RC F. I don't have any great pics for this. It was my first time on the track so I wanted to focus on enjoying the experience and put my phone away.

Our LC500!


After this lesson we broke for lunch. Lunch was another buffet with house and quinoa salad, a fettuccine Alfredo, chicken and a beef dish. Desserts, coffee, juices, etc available was well. Everything was tasty and fresh. My only tip is when you come out of lunch you'll be doing hot laps so don't eat too much. Keep it light if you have a sensitive stomach. Remember you're sharing a car so you will have to sit as a passenger too.

After lunch my group went to hot laps while Green team went to auto-cross to set their competition times. For hot laps we would run both RCF's and LC500's. The lead drivers we followed are accredited professionals and champions in their own right. All of them knew how to get around the track fast! They were in GS F's. After our hot laps, we swapped with Green team and went to auto-cross.

FAST even with 3 passengers!

After auto-cross, we all convened back to the track for hot laps with the professionals. Including Scott, he was taking some folks who waited for him. From a time perspective, not everyone will likely ride with him. Here's a few shots.








They recorded the hot laps with our drivers a bit of innovative marketing here in real time pretty much.

After hot laps we went back to where it started in the garage welcome area as we wind down the day. We talked about highlights, the Lexus team again wanted to make sure they delivered for us and asked that we complete the survey. The team reads each one and some feedback they have implemented were things like more track time. We also needed to find out the winners of the auto-cross competition. Here are the results. Surprisingly, your boy Jeff (sensai) took 2nd place! I couldn't believe it. First time on the track, there were some experienced drivers in the class and yeah...Awesome. I won a cool Michelin backpack. I beat Wes by ~1/2 a second . Scott had me by ~3 1/2 seconds lol!



We close out the day with final well wishes and we're directed to tables where they present us with a hat and a certificate of completion. They also have a small boutique setup to buy some other Lexus racing gear. I scored some gear including this cool hoodie.



I head out to my truck...it was raining so I didn't drive the F , feeling pretty great but also tired. A bunch of emotions, adrenaline, focus, etc was required for the day. Have a whole new respect for drivers like Scott that ran endurance and raced hard for 3+hrs. For me, they accomplished their goal to Experience Amazing without a doubt.

Hope this helps.

sensai (Jeff)

05RollaXRS

Cool story. Glad you had lots of fun.

john341

Really nice; Hope they come back and hold one in Texas next year. Did you get to drive the RCF TE?

sensai

No, that was all Mr. Pruett.

BlueRCF10

Really cool! I wonder if they have this available in Canada... Will look into it. Wouldn't mind grabbing a hoodie or hat like that as well.

DaveGS4

iTrader: (2)

Great writeup and experience, thanks for sharing!

Mr. Klean

iTrader: (2)

Thanks for the post man. I wouldn't mind taking this course at all...might get the wife to get it for me for my birthday lol.

sensai

Yeah, if you can make it work it's worth it. The corkscrew at Laguna is just incredible to hit at speed. From the top to the bottom of it is a 3 story drop! You can't even see where you're going at the crest of the hill and then you drop, crazy.

Starts at 1:27
https://www.wimp.com/the-corkscrew-a...-motor-racing/

IMAGINTHAT

Thanks for taking the time to write this up. Sounds like a lot of fun. Back in the day they gave each participant $10k certificate towards a GS-F. Doubt they do that anymore : (

sensai

Definitely not but that's cool they did that before. We did get certificates but for completing the class.

Ctrl-F

Great, thorough review. I attended last Saturday's session and it was exactly as described.

Although the $995 price is steep, the session is well worth it. I wouldn't hesitate to do it again. In addition to having an exhilarating and totally fun experience, I gained a lot of knowledge.

Not often is there an opportunity to drive on a track with fellow Lexus/auto enthusiasts in LC500s, RC Fs, and GS Fs. I also had the opportunity to be in a group with Scott in the auto cross and personally ride with him in the RC F track edition.

sensai

Which event b/w skid, auto-cross and track did you enjoy the most? Track, auto-cross and skid in that order for me.

Ctrl-F

For me, track was the best. A woman that I had partnered up with felt ill from the skid pad and I ended up taking out the LC500 alone on multiple runs. It was awesome.

sensai

I was totally wrong although it's not $10,000.00 it's $5,000.00 which is still cool. Would be even cooler if it applied to CPO. Email that came in today:

Thank you for joining us at the Lexus Performance Driving School. We hope you enjoyed your time with us and the amazing time on the circuit. Our performance vehicles are crafted to the extreme so that you experience exhilaration every time you drive one. If you agree, your local Lexus dealer would be pleased to provide you with a test drive of the GS F, RC F or LC at your convenience—or answer any questions you may have about a particular Lexus model.

As a token of our appreciation, you’re now eligible to receive a $5,000 certificate towards the lease or purchase of a new Lexus GS F, RC F or LC vehicle. Find Lexus vehicle offers that are as exceptional as the vehicles themselves, click here to review a full list of current Lexus offers.

nicedude

Nice summary. I did the event two years ago when the GS F was first being promoted.