Daily driver in the summer, occasional autocross and track days. While it looks stock, it has quite a few modifications to the suspension, ECU, intake, and exhaust, as well as a racing seat and harness (not in this pick) and roll bar. Over the winter I plan to build another 1.6 to swap into it with increased compression.
This year I had a chance to run it on Michigan International Speedway, a huge concrete oval. Top speed was 104 with top down and a passenger, which is not very impressive, but obviously this kind of car wasn't made for NASCAR tracks. I hope to improve on this quite a bit when I go with the Alfa club next weekend.
How do you get to drive on a track? Is it expensive? Do I need special insurance / any modifications to my car?
Most tracks have "open track days" where you just show up and drive around in circles for fun. Some days a club (ie: Corvette Club, Porsche Club, Miata Club) will rent the track. Most clubs will allow anyone to join them as long as you pay and obey the rules. Here in Michigan we have three tracks where you can do this for about $150 a day. Usually you get about 2 hours of actual run time. If you live near a more popular track like Mid Ohio or Laguna Seca expect to pay significantly more.
The clubs pay the insurance unless the track is running the event themselves. What is covered by their insurance varies from case to case, but mainly its covering their liability. Your car isn't going to be covered for damages, not by them or by your regular car insurance.
You don't really need to do anything to the car, but some cars are better suited for this kind of thing that others. A Regal on all season tires...is going to plow like a pig and probably shred a set of front tires before the day is out just because it really isn't designed for this kind of thing. I've seen people run much crazier stuff though.
Ever since I read the following article online about my car, I always wanted to give it a try:
http://blogs.insideline.com/roadtests/2011/04/2011-buick-regal-cxl-turbo-feels-good-at-144-mph.html
Only problem is, I assume a 144mph ticket is a giant fine and loss of a license. Would love to give this a try where it is legal!
You aren't going to hit 144 with this car anywhere but a test track like a big oval or a salt flat. Once you get above 100 the needle starts taking a lot longer to climb. At most tracks there is just too much cornering going to on be able to stay WOT for 40 seconds or whatever. You could easily hit it on a highway, but frankly that's f*cking idiotic. Sure the car feels fine at that speed, but if basically
anything happens to upset the car at that speed, a deer, a blowout, a pothole, there isn't going to be anything left but a fine mist. I'd want a full cage, harness, etc to run at that speed, and a more sports oriented car to begin with.
Also, my girlfriend has a 2012 Hyundai Sonata Turbo, we always said it would be awesome to race. Is that possible, or single cars only?
The people are grouped into three or four groups based on driver experience and car potential level. Passing is only allowed if the guy in front of you points you past. If he's slowing you down the corner workers will blue flag him, which means he should then let you by. Sometimes they don't want to do that, especially if its some guy in a supercharged Viper or new Vette and he's not happy about being slower than you despite having 5x the power, in which case he'll get a talking to or moved down to a lower level run group.
