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Doing my first HPDE in the Lotus and was wondering whom to get track day insurance from.
I did a search and most of the LT threads were about whether regular street insurance covers track days.
I know that MotorsportsReg offers track day insurance, but would be interested to get some other suggestions, as well as any advice (has anyone here had the misfortune to make a claim, was the company good to deal with, etc.).
When I bought and first insured my Elise one of the first questions that AAA asked was "will this be tracked?" The next thing they said was that they did NOT insure a car on the track. Kinda sucks, but knock on wood, I haven't had any damaging incidents on the track.
I just read up on my current policy (USAA), and the wording is kinda vague. Basically, it says I will not be covered if I am driving on a track preparing for or participating in a competition. If I can prove I have no intent to compete, then I'd potentially be covered, but that is hardly a cut-and-dry case. Not sure I want to test that one..
While I hope that's correct you should double choeck this with them. I've been with State Farm for almost 20 years now, with the same agent for the last 15 and when I killed my 350Z on track in 2009 I was SOL. At least back then there was a stipulation in the base/corporate policy that stated if the car was "on a surface designed primarily for racing" then the policy was null. I'd be really surprised if they've gotten more lax about that over the years but if so that's fantastic.
If you do check please post back and let us know - or I suppose if you already had that level of conversation let us know that too.
Purchasing a separate insurance for track coverage is the best insurance you can buy. Most of the big companies will cover you if the "event is not timed." That means that you shouldn't even have a video recorder in your car as it measures time. The language can be vague, but be assured it is in favor of the insurance company.
Look at like this. I have homeowners insurance for replacement value and content value. However I also have my wife's jewelry and my watches insured separately. I like having many layers of insurance to make sure I am properly covered. I also have a separate umbrella policy above my regular car insurance and almost needed it last year. I loaned my car to someone who injured other people in an accident and caused $100's of thousands in damages. I live in an area where half million dollar cars are an every day sighting.
My rant is only trying to convey that spreading the liability out is a great option. For $300 to cover you for a possible $30k loss is a good investment. You may say it won't happen to me, but I said those same words once. Since then, I've never tracked a car that wasn't a car designated for track use only.
My policy with Amica used to say basically no racing on timing activity on a circuit. The wording got a bit more vague the following years. I finally called them and asked "whats up?". They said that they consider any activity on a circuit to be in violation of the policy and given the vagueness of the wording in the past, they cleaned it up in later years and even wrote an addendum. A friend on this list got his car covered by State Farm about 3 or 4 years ago and when I called and asked about *that* policy, they acted like they didn't know what I was talking about (basically not covered).
So I agree, its increasingly unlikely its covered especially if its ambiguous. You should check with an underwriter to be sure.
Now, as to whether its worth it - I suppose its a matter of do you feel you can handle the deductible (which basically could be as much as $20K if you crash the clam and get a lot of damage to it).
In my case, I have personally seen 3 incidents that came within inches of causing a crash and were not driver error (sic):
1. A wheel came off a Mini as it rounded a turn right in front of me! Scary as hell. The guy claimed he torqued his lug nuts. So maybe he did, maybe he didn't - who knows?
2. Jack rabbit ran across the track about 20 yards in front of me. I didn't specifically try to avoid it but who knows what would have happened if I had hit it?
3. A car about a 1/4 mile in front of me dropped a ton of oil on a turn. I didn't see him dump it as he was too far ahead. Its black and the track was black and it was not at all obvious. I went off on an off camber turn and literally just slid off. I was fine - but then 3 cars immediately after me did the same thing and I had to high tail it out of there before they slid into me!
That all being said, I'm willing to own the deductible if I have to so I decided to forgo the insurance. But, s*it definitely happens!
Can I cannot quite disagree. You're 100% right that there are many many things that can happen that an instructor can't prevent. I think you're also right that if you can't afford to walk away from the financial aspect of balling a car up you shouldn't be putting that car on the track. I know from experience as I totally a 9 month old 350z at the track and State Farm gave me the big finger
I suppose it all comes down to your owe personal aversion to risk. Every time we get in a car things can happen, and of course we have insurance for that but the percentage of incidents vs. incidents at the track is hugely different. I've probably done 200+ track days in the last decade and I can count on one hand the number of major incidents I've seen happen. If this is something you're going to do once or twice, and if you own a Lotus you damn well should, then I wouldn't say you were stupid for getting track day insurance. However if you're someone looney like me and are going to do 25+ days a season the logistics and cost of trying to get insurance for each of those events just doesn't make sense. This is one reason you're right about the cheapness of Formula cars, although I'd argue the high cost of constant work, fixing, changing, replacing doesn't necessarily make them a smart financial investment (but not bad). Something like a Miata or E36 M3 is a really fantastic bang/buck car as they are huge fun but if you do have to walk away from it you're in for under $10k.
I had a former student about 5 years ago who had just bought a 2nd gen Boxster. On his first day out with it the bolt at the bottom of the front A arm snapped and did $5k damage to the car (that he paid $10k for). Took him a season to get it back on the track (mainly due to financial reasons). On his first day out with it that season after the repair our local track ran an odd configuration that few have seen. He made a very rookie mistake and took the first (new to him) corner much too fast, slid off, snapped back across and rolled. Rolled 3 times and thankfully landed on it's feet (vs. roof). He had a friend in the car with him, another former student of mine - and let me tell ya it was the blind leading the blind. Thankfully they weren't hurt at all, save for being beat up pretty bad but clearly the car was toast. He's never been back as not only did the wife lay down the law (and I sorta can't blame her in this case) but he couldn't afford to get another track toy.
I can think of 3 other incidents in the past 10 years and again none had instructors with them. You are completely right that can't stop things like oil dumps, etc. but even those are so very very rare. Again I'd never tell someone they were dumb for getting insurance but whenever someone asks me about it my advice is always to save their money and spend it on instruction instead. In this case I'd say neither of us is wrong - but if you said I was wrong I wouldn't argue with you - this is your toy not mine.
I will say this does make me reconsider the modifications I make to my car as honestly if I were to ball it up I wouldn't be replacing it anytime soon. From purchase to all the mods I have in it now I'm just under $100k. The mods I'm planning this winter to "finish" it are probably another $45k. Insane to some, not much to others. For me the main silly part is I bought my house 8 years ago for $200k. Not many $150k cars in my neighborhood...
To Ross' post above, I can see that if you are doing dozens of track days a year it would be cost-prohibitive to buy insurance for every event. But for the rest of us, it's peace of mind.
I wasn't in the session, but at my last event of the season last weekend, a 944 dumped its oil on the main/back straight causing the 911 behind it to spin into a wall. It wasn't his fault but there was nothing he could do to avoid it and who knows if the car is a write off. Several more cars made it through (with 1 other spinning on track w/o damage) before the session was red flagged- more vehicles certainly could have been wrecked.
I did 5 events this season & consider the roughly $1500 cost of insurance over the season worthwhile for peace of mind. Beats the risk of having to write off a $50k car. That would be quite a bit more painful, at least for me.
Many things can go wrong when you are driving on the track. It happens eventually to everyone, including pro drivers and amateurs. You may spin but get lucky and be fine or you could total your car. This is part of the activity. In general the track environment is safe if you are with a good organizer. You can have the best instructor in the world and still have an accident. All it takes is a bit of oil spill in front of you or debris on the track and you can end up in a bad place. If you are not able to absorb the possible total loss of your car then be smart and get track insurance.
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