The muffler is Nismo S-Tune that I bought off of a forum member. Sounds great running down the straights. Too bad my neighbor wasn't able to make it out with his NSX, otherwise I'd have him use my cameras to make some videos of the cars.

It would be fun to cruise on the track, but everyone was driving crazy fast. Most of the "beginners" had previous track experience.

I think cost was around $130 for one day. Pretty cheap, especially considering that you could get 1:1 instruction from expert drivers. It was a 90 minute drive from the Pasadena area.

 

Congrats! Not sure what you are willing to budget for in tires for a once a year visit, but like you said stepping away from the all-seaons will make vast improvements in the turns. I am not sure what your wheel specs are, but if you can get away with a 275 or a 285 width tire out front you'll have more than enough corner grip. Alternatively you could probably get away with a better performance tire in the same sizes you have now and still see a great performance increase. nice clean car too!

 

So how bad was downshifting coming into a turn without heel toeing? I really want to go to a track but this is my concern, I cant heel toe and I dont think I will like it very much when im bogging down or loosing precious seconds downshifting.

On day to day driving, I double clutch to downshift. I know its not necessary with these cars but that's the only way I feel comfortable.

 

Wheels are 19x9.5 in front and 19x10.5 in the rear. I'm running 255/35/19 in the front and 275/35/19 in the rear (Pilot Sport All Season tires). I'll get the Pilot Super Sports next time, whenever that will be. I only put 2000 miles on the car this past year, since it's not a daily driver anymore.

I ended up downshifting when I came out of the turns. I was having enough trouble trying to not fly off the course going into the turns, that I didn't want to mess with trying to downshift at that point. This is my first stick shift car, so I'm not an expert shifter on the track.

 

Wow nice looking ride. I really like that Benz in that one pic too