Well, I attended a mini-school track event this past Saturday. I had fun with the Z, especially since this was my first time really pushing the car through some turns. Wow, this car grips more than I expected. I know the car could have been pushed harder, but with this being my first event I was very hesitant to do so. We were not allowed to pass vehicles on the track so I tried to concentrate on learning the lines on my own. I wished that the instructor had better feedback and more seat time with me but it didn't go that way. He sat with me for 2 laps and just said that I had a good feel for the car...
I thought we were going to do 3, 25 minute sessions, but it turned into a long session with about 3 minute cool off periods waiting in the pit lane. We left the cars running while he jumped in the next car and we left for the next 2 laps (this was repeated 7 times, on top of 4-6 laps before that). Since this was the case, my car was pretty hot and I had an issue with my clutch fluid. I think I ended up boiling the fluid because The pedal got real sloppy and I ended up with about 2 inches of travel. I even had to pick up the pedal with my foot while driving the course. I made it to the pits, checked the fluid which was now a little below the minimum mark, and just let it cool. Topped off the fluid and the pedal was back in about 30 minutes. Oil temps managed to never top 240, even after that long run, which I am VERY happy with. I have the 24row tru-cool with a ducted air box that ran me $200 total
I may want to do this again in the future, but I'm still undecided. If I do, I will try to attend a Driver's Edge event, as I hear they are more helpful with instructing you. Of course, before then I'll need to invest in some new parts for the car. In the meantime, I might try out some autocross events.
Here are two videos from the event. The first has the instructor riding with me, and I rode the course in 3rd gear. The second video is my last lap where I lost clutch pedal pressure. I tried experimenting with 2nd-4th gear in that video.