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At the 1-yr mark, I bought a track prepped E46 M3. It had 1/2 cage, harness, seat, decent brakes and suspension. I also bought a HANS pretty soon after. It was street legal and I towed a little tire trailer with it to and from track.
I don't necessarily think that you need to buy another car, but I was going to have to start investing money in my E92 to keep tires from cording, plus I started getting nervous about pushing the limits in my DD.
I stayed in instructed run groups for about another year. But I had a SoloDL and a GoPro and I was reviewing my data and sharing files with friends. My point is that don't rush to go solo. Get as much instruction as possible. Not all instructors are fast drivers nor are they all good at meeting you where you're at and improving your driving, but most are and I learned a ton.
Intermediate is about improving your driving but it's also about improving your situational awareness - seeing all of the flag stations, looking through corners, recognizing faster cars coming behind you and working to make and give good passes. Lap times are secondary, although they will naturally improve.
Don't rush to add go fast mods or sticky tires. I set goals as to when I earned mods. I pretty much stayed on NT01's for about 2-3 years. Once I started hitting lap time targets, I added some power. Once I hit new targets, I added Hoosiers. Once I hit some targets after that, I added Aero. But again, my very first mods were safety and tire preservation (camber plates).
From time to time, I end up driving a few laps with the intermediate groups. They are pretty much the worse and sketchiest driving group out there. Lowest situational awareness. Sometimes 2-3 laps before a point by. T rex points. Points given with right hand. Missing all kinds of apexes. The only group that actually frightens me to drive with it. Don't be that person.
When you get promoted to Advanced, consider doing Time Trials. Competitive driving but you can do it with your HPDE vehicles. Its a nice bridge between HPDE and W2W.
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