Race Car Insurance !

[horus]

I need information on Race Car Insurance, can someone please help!

I really need to know the nitty gritty of the insurance market for Racing Insurance, ie Who supplies it, what cover, pricing etc

Thanks

Horus

[Stephen Green]

Welcome to Ten-Tenths Horus.

I'm not a racer myself but you could do worse than speak to Competition Car Insurance as I know they do cover for racing and track days. Do a Google search for contact details, website etc.

[BertMk2]

Also really press them to agree a fixed value for the car so if you do have to claim for a total loss then you know what you'll be getting back.

Warning, what follows is a rant and does not necessarily represent the opinions of Ten-Tenths. (To be honest, it probably doesn't even represent the opinions of the poster when they aren't ranting.) We're currently arguing the value of our rallycar with the thieving insurance types. Apparently there is no market value for a 1980 mk2 Escort so the base offer would be a big fat £0 They refused to give us a fixed value when the poilcy was taken out (because it was a rally car), but they were well aware of all the modifications made and the value of the car. As usual they're quite happy to take your money but not so keen to actually give you anything back We now return you to our normal ramblings.

[Walshy]

Alexander Forbes in Manchester took over the Bradstocks "Off Track Policy"

Basically, for £27.50 per thousand pounds of cover, it covers your car, trailer, kit, loss of licence, loss of entry fee if you can't make a meeting.

The car is covered at all times other than when it is on track, so if someone drives into it in the paddock, it's covered.

I've been with Bradstocks/Alexander Forbes for 10 years now and have always had good, personal and friendly service from them.

Do a Google search for them or PM me for details.

[Al Weyman]

Thats mad bert, I was looking at Les Lyon's Mk2 just before he done this at Snett the other week http://www.motorsportvision.co.uk/sn...sp?NewsID=2024

Now I bet £15 or 20k would not have bought that very pretty and very quick motor car before he rolled it.

[horus]

Al Weyman, Walshy, bertMK2 and Stephen Green...as the great Elvis once said.....Thank you very much...

[Tuscan 6]

Originally Posted by Walshy

Alexander Forbes in Manchester took over the Bradstocks "Off Track Policy"

Basically, for £27.50 per thousand pounds of cover, it covers your car, trailer, kit, loss of licence, loss of entry fee if you can't make a meeting.

The car is covered at all times other than when it is on track, so if someone drives into it in the paddock, it's covered.

I've been with Bradstocks/Alexander Forbes for 10 years now and have always had good, personal and friendly service from them.

Do a Google search for them or PM me for details.

I think this is yet another area where we get stiffed because the word 'Racing' is in the title of the product.

£27.50 per £1,000 of cover. Lets say I have a car worth £30k and tools/spares worth £2k. Which I transport in a truck that is insured separately. Cover is going to cost me £880 a year. (I accept that trailer cover is expensive due to the number which are stolen - but I was quoted a similar rate for cover just for my car and kit).

When you compare that to road car insurance it is extortionate. And yet with the race car there are no 3rd party claims to cover.

The race car makes a limited number of outings a year and is normally locked in the fully alarmed workshop, wheels off, ECU removed. The greatest risk is theft of the entire truck whilst loaded, which is why we have a number of immobilising devices on the truck - which also make it incredibly difficult to drop the taillift.

Compare that with £30k of roadcar, out all day every day, with a ready market for spares if stripped, or a candidate for a change in identity. If someone we didn't know suddenly started selling TVR Tuscan spares we'd have a pretty good idea where to look for the missing race car.

I really struggle with how the risk and the premium match up.....

(My rant over!)

[MGDavid]

Tuscan, unlike road cars, insurance is optional. If the premiums look too high, you can always carry the risk yourself. I do wonder what proportion of club racers have any insurance at all for their racecar and kit etc.

[BertMk2]

Originally Posted by MGDavid

Tuscan, unlike road cars, insurance is optional.

Not in our case - the rally car had to be insured for road use too (as it potentially gets driven between stages), also had to be taxed and MOT'd.

[Tuscan 6]

Thanks for that revelation David. It doesn't, however, answer the question of the relationship between risk and premium.

There are three possible answers that I can think of:

1) The population who do insure their racecar and kit suffer a higher incident rate than the average road car driver. I find this difficult to believe, and of course with the race insurance there is no third party element and no uninsured loss to cover either, which cost the road insurance companies (and therefore us) a fortune

2) There is a high incidence of fraudulent claims made against race car policies from less scrupulous drivers. I have heard of instances of genuine incidents (I'm talking about on-evenmt cover now), the driver bumps the car, but takes the opportunity to relpace a hell of a lot more of the car than was damaged, or gets the team repairing the car to inflate invoices

3) The race car insurers are making a stash of cash from these policies.

I suppose there is a fourth option, which is that it is such a low volume, specialist area that it is difficult to cover overheads. On the other hand because it is such a specialist area (and by that I mean not fully understood) the few who do offer policies have little competition.

You would not believe the problems I had trying to get a policy to cover a £5,000 truck fitted with a £5,000 awning for fire and theft. A £10,000 truck is not a problem, but put the awning into the equation....