Trackday insurance

[redbullish]

Just wondering on rough costs for insurance for occasional full or half tracks days. Does the insurance cover any damage if the worst should happen.

thx

[mpbvr4]

Usually costs me about £80/day (approx 1% of the value) plus £800 excess
(about 10% of value). Covers pretty much everything even if you total it.

[mike_knott]

I was also quoted 1% premium with 10% excess. Looking at the car in your profile (S2 111S, same as mine) if you assume it is worth 15 grand you would be looking at £150 per day with a £1,500 excess.

I have heard that some insurers will not pay out unless you actually hit something, i.e. if you skim across gravel or your engine blows up (or if you roll it?) they don't pay out. A claim could also affect your road car no claims, which I think is obscene as you normally have to pay for separate track cover (although some insurers include it in their road policy, with conditions).

I decided it wasn't worth it and have currently saved about 5 grand in unpaid insurance premiums and excess.

Mike...

Edited by mike_knott on Wednesday 4th July 12:58

[redbullish]

Blimey not cheap then and big excess!

Will organisers let people on track without trackday insurance?, might be worth the chance at those prices. Either that or a trip to the ring.

thx

[shim]

you sign a disclaimer for track days that means you cannot claim against he operator or track so they dont require you to have insurance and as far as i can make out the law currently recognises that this is a dangerous activity and it is each to his own risk therefore BE CAREFUL.

[mike_knott]

redbullish said:

Blimey not cheap then and big excess!

Yeah, it isn't cheap, and 'large' accidents (i.e. ones which exceed the policy excess) are fairly rare, but they do happen (the Internet is awash with videos of some of them).

In addition to what shim said, you also cannot claim against another participant, so if somebody in a £100 GTi crashes into your car, you cannot recover costs from them.

So yes, BE CAREFUL, and if you choose not to insure, it might be a good idea to put aside what you would have paid in insurance premiums, just in case.

Mike...

[redbullish]

Thanks for the advice guys, sounds like a cheap trackday car is the way forward.

[cheekymonkey]

Hold on redbullish... there's other options...

I've got an S2111s...

Get yourself sign up with Lotus On Track www.lotusontrack.com Then speak to Heritage Insurance http://www.heritage-quote.co.uk/ (prob best to call them... detais on the site... They give discount for LoT members.

I pay around £800 for a full road / track policy. Unlimited track days. Free if LoT event & occasionally a small fee £50 ish if it's run by someone else. (not always the case if its actually marshalled by a regognised track day organiser)

They are effectively classic car policies so agreed value & don't use NCB, but they will still acrue this.

XS on track is £1k if LoT or £2k i think if not.

Think you have to be over 28 & had the car for 12mths...

Good luck!!!

[iguana]

Getting cover for track days is a daft & expensive exercise when you can get it included on a regular road policy with many specialist companies for not a lot more, for my track car its about £100 extra for 1st 6 trackdays then £25 per trackday. Tho as without track cover its its only circa £150 pa that nearly doubles the premium! :shock:

[mike_knott]

You just need to be careful with the effect of a claim on your main (non-track) car policy (if you have one).

The impression that I got from my insurer was that if I claimed on my track policy (which, like Cheekymonkey’s insurer, does not have NCB but does take into account NCB from your main car) it would be considered a claim on a policy without NCB protection. I would therefore lose my NCB on my main policy, as well as my track car policy.

Say your main car policy costs £1,000 without NCB, or £400 with 60% NCB. If you lost your NCB, the premium would increase by £600 in the first year, and assuming 10% discount per year it would increase by about £500 in year 2, about £400 in year 3, etc., as a result of loss of NCB alone. The company would also increase the premium on account of me having had a claim, and my track car insurer would increase their premiums as well.

The total cost would therefore be, say:

£100 for the track cover
£1,000 excess
£600 + £500 + £400 + £300 + £200 + £100 for loss of NCB

Giving a total of £3,200. EXCLUDING the increase in both premiums for claiming. This is a big accident in order for it to be worthwhile insuring (although it would be payable over several years).

Note that the above is based on what my insurer said to me, which could have been a case of “I don’t really understand what you are talking about, but in order to cover myself I will say the worst-case”, but I can only base my decision on what I am told.

Perhaps somebody who has claimed on a track policy and declared it to their road car insurer could outline what happened to them?

Mike…

Edited by mike_knott on Friday 6th July 10:32

[Noger]

shim said:

you sign a disclaimer for track days that means you cannot claim against he operator or track so they dont require you to have insurance and as far as i can make out the law currently recognises that this is a dangerous activity and it is each to his own risk therefore BE CAREFUL.

Don't rely on that. Google "Wattleworth vs Goodwood" for a trackday death case against an organiser. Despite having signed a disclaimer, his widow was still allowed to claim. And they specifically disallowed the "it is dangerous so it was your risk" defence. They were held not liable, as there was no negligence, however.

On the subject of NCD being affected cross policy, I am wondering if this is a misundstanding on the part of the insurance person. Cannot see a claim on one policy affecting the NCD of another entirely seperate one, but what it WILL do is increase the premium of the other at renewal if other "losses" are taken into account. And they usually are if you declare them, which you should !