I know someone on here has used his LS400 at a previous event, but I imagine my day of driving a Lexus was a little different to what most of you were up to this weekend:
Lexus ready for the track by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr
RAF Marham charity trackday. An excellent, relaxed day of driving quickly on a long, wide circuit with lots of run-off ideal for a novice like me.
140+ MPH by Spottedlaurel, on Flickr
A long straight of 1.8km/1.2 miles allowed my £500 Mk3 to get up to well over an indicated 140mph :-)
Beforehand I'd had it checked-over by my garage, with the front discs being skimmed/new pads fitted and an oil change. The main issue of the day was the PAS fluid getting hot, but it was fine after being allowed to cool down for a few minutes. I was manually shifting up and down the 'box, quite interesting dropping down to 3 then 2 at well over the ton but it will only change down when the rev's are right. Gave me a useful bit of engine braking that way. I hit the rev limiter several times when I wasn't quite quick enough changing up, and it was an interesting experience it going from 3 into top at 130-odd then still accelerating quite strongly.
The garage had noted that the flanges between the back of the cat's and the exhaust system were rotten, and by the end of the day it was sounding rather mean but luckily they don't worry too much about noise at this event....
In total I did 156 miles out on the track and used a tankful of fuel which would normally do me for well over 300.
Handling and grip were surprisingly good, probably helped by the 245-wide tyres on 18" GS300 Sport rims. There was only one bend with a mid-corner bump where it seemed to want to oversteer, if anything understeer was the main characteristic. Tyre wear was pretty good, I managed to drive home on the 18's whereas on the FWD stuff I've used before on trackdays I've had to change them.
It acquitted itself remarkably well and if it passes next year's MoT I might even treat it to a cam belt change!