Originally Posted by juliog
I drove the car a while ago. Reposting from another forum:
I only did 3 laps on the GT350R, it was my first time at Laguna Seca IRL, and I'm an average HPDE driver. My impressions:
- I expected to be pinned into the back seat smashing the throttle on 2nd gear but, somehow the car didn't actually feel 500HP fast to me. Very smooth power delivery with no drama, probably thanks to the massive tires and the 3750lbs curb weight with two persons in it. Mind you, I got the same feeling when driving the F8x M3. You don't realize how fast you're going until you look at the speedo.
- Power seemed to peak well before the 8200rpm redline. I don't know, last few hundred RPMs felt a bit underwhelming. But I'm used to peaky NA cars (S2000, FR-S)..
- Engine and exhaust sounded amazing, I'll give it that. It's actually not that loud inside the car... sounds better outside than inside
- I liked the Recaro seats a lot. But you're sitting so low (for a Mustang), and the hood is so high, that it's very hard to place the front tires with confidence and accuracy. Not a big problem in most corners, but going down the corkscrew was scary, not knowing how close I was to putting tires off the track. I assume more seat time in the Mustang and familiarity with Laguna Seca would alleviate this. Again, I'm used to cars with great forward visibility.
- Steering felt good. I was surprised by how small the steering wheel was. Wish steering ratio was faster (but I say this of most cars).
- Nice shifter, relatively long clutch travel with no feel for engagement point. But overall intuitive and very easy to drive. I remember heel and toeing was easy too (much better relative pedal placement than my FR-S).
- Tons of grip. 295F and 305R tires, honestly I didn't come close to exploring the lateral grip limits of the car. Neither did my instructor, who seemed to go barely 6/10ths on my ride along lap (still much faster than me!).
- Handling wise, it had the classic FR balance, very predictable and easy to drive.
- I'm not sure what the damper settings were, but the ride was extremely smooth and going over the the rumbled strips, you would get more feedback from the steering wheel than from the chassis.
- Great stopping power, although I didn't work the brakes as hard as I could have, out of respect for the instructor . But this was one area that was certainly confidence inspiring. Braking was never a worry.
- Car does looks great in person.
- Drove with TC on, it kicked in a couple times, in a rather obvious way. I remember the M3/M4 electronics being way more subtle, allowing for some small, controlled slip angle and making you feel like a hero.
Overall, a very fast, obviously track ready car. Even though I felt connected to the car, it felt physically big to me and the poor front visibility made me slow down in many places to ensure I didn't put wheels off. I personally like smaller cars. It's funny because when I drove the F8x M3, I got the opposite reaction: the car felt smaller and lighter than it really was.
For sure, the best muscle/pony car I've ever driven.
(We were not allowed to record video inside the car. Bummer.)
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