Lap Times

This past summer a friend and I both ran my 355 Challenge at Laguna Seca with the FCA. They had the drivers split into three classification groups (novice, intermediate and advanced). I ran in the novice class as I have only driven on our local track and had a few driving schools under my belt. My friend ran in the intermediate class as he is an instructor locally but he wasn't driving his own car and he had never driven at Laguna Seca either. We had laps with FCA instructors who told both of us we were better drivers than the class we were in - I was told I should have been in intermediate and my friend should have been in advanced. However, we were having fun in our run groups and both decided to stay where we were. It was surprising to see how well the old 355 Challenge did compared to a lot of the modern cars. My car had street tires (Michelin Supersports), street brake pads and softer springs than was used in the series. We were getting pointed by 430's, Scuds, 550's and even 458's. Naturally on the front straight we would get demolished but under braking and through the corners we would make it all back up and after getting pointed by we would leave them behind. Obviously driver makes a huge difference but several of the guys in intermediate were decent track drivers and even they were being given fits by my friend. Our slogan for the week became "Grandma can still dance" LOL

I was wondering if anyone has seen published lap times for our cars at different tracks. For example, check out this listing for Fiorano:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiorano_Circuit

I find it interesting that the 355 Challenge is listed as quicker than many of the newer cars and even the F40 and F50. I assume that the Challenge car was on full slicks, full track set up and that the others were not but even to be in the same ball park as them is impressive, and almost unbelievable, to me. But I have the video footage from Laguna to prove it and thought it would be interesting to see how fast these cars ran at other tracks.

 

Did you check your laps times? I believe you were running all your cars in the advanced group, correct? Were they all set up as they were when raced in the series? (ie: slicks, cages, etc.) I know they looked and sounded good.