I don't mean to keep sounding like I'm just kissing Wills ass but proper instruction is indeed super helpful. Marc, Pablo and Marlon have all given me tips as well. But Will knows the AWD platform from tracking his STi (and of course tons of hours on track in his Miatas) and has pushed me outside of my comfort zone of "spirited driving" levels to really pushing harder out there recently. And he drove one session so I could see/feel first hand just how much harder I could safely push Fatty. My biggest hesitation is the high speed bits at turn 1, keeping the throttle pinned through the back straight until the 500' marker (125mph was my top speed so far) and very hard on the brakes to slow for turn 7. But baby steps of gradually increasing speed or braking harder and later are helping for sure. I'm kinda a slow learner and pretty cautious too so I'm sure you guys will be much faster.
But it doesn't really make sense to compare lap times as we all have different cars/mods. But like #2 said, it's all about seat time. I wish I had more money for track days.