The sessions were 30 minutes long, the longest I stayed out was 20, and that was with a couple "cruising" laps to let the car cool down. I usually just went out for about 6-7 laps and then the car needed a break and I had no desire to run it hard when it was getting warm. The STR is definitely not a track star, but it was a blast driving around the track anyways. My BMW was able to do the 30 minutes each time, but its smaller, lighter, and doesn't create nearly as much heat.

 

What type of BMW and how did your lap times compare between them?
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Jaguar - it's not an automobile, it's a Motorcar

 

You can actually see it fairly well in the 2nd video and right at the beginning of the 3rd, its a '91 325i sedan. Only mods are Bilstein sport shocks, H&R race springs and its on 205/50R15 Bridgestone Potenza RE-11A tires. My friend was driving it and he's a good driver and knows the proper line real well and was able to turn lap times around 2:24 with me and a full tank of gas riding along. My best lap with the Jag was ~2:16-2:17. In the turns the cars were pretty even if we took the same lines (I'd say the BMW has a small advantage), but the Jag has so much more power in the straights and coming out of the turns which made the difference.

 

Reviving an old thread... but... the question was asked how does one get involved in something like this... best way to start is with your local SCCA and do auto crossing... other than that many clubs get together and rent tracks for the day... Ferrari Club of America does this all the time... but look into SCCA... it's a grea start and a LOAD of fun.

 

I would like to interject something here as well as I keep seeing guys call the S type R a heavy car and they are "surprised" it handles so well. While it's no miata for sure it's only about 200lbs. heavier than a Mitsubishi evo X and has a superior all aluminum double a-arm suspension. For comparison the c63 comes in at practically 4000lbs. and those are track prepped and raced. In fact there is a c63 competitively running in global time attack currently. It's no surprise at all that the str handles itself well on track, everthing under the str screams handling and for a modern car it's really not tgat heavy.

Also, nice track vids!

 

Here is a great track day resource for those in norcal btw
Ncracing.org