You set the value and you can increase that covered value by adding modifications you also want covered.

You better believe they will be checking receipts and looking at market value before they cut you a check though.

They are an insurance company after all.

 

Maybe? The way I look at it, as long as you don't try to put a ridiculous $250k policy on your evo, they should pay out. If you pay the premium for a $45k policy (what it would easily cost to replace my car, less a deductible), they should pay out. But, I'm sure it's not that easy.

 

They will almost certainly do a quick investigation to make sure everything adds up properly and that you haven't lied on your forms (e.g. fraud).

Remember, it's always in the insurance company's best interests to not pay out, so they will always go the extra mile to make sure you haven't screwed up anywhere before they hand over all of that cash. If you start intentionally and deliberately rigging the numbers to give yourself a higher payout, you run the risk of not getting paid out at all. Or worse, if you get too egregious with your stretching of the truth.

 

the higher the estimated value, the more your payment. so, it's hard to say which may be the cheaper option?

 

The cheapest option is to just not wreck it lol

 

That's also potentially the most expensive option. Nobody expects to wreck their car. It's for when the unknown/unplanned happens. Much like most insurance.

 

That's all well and good until the car in front of you pukes coolant all over the track in an inopportune area..

 

Keep in mind that they might pay out, but only once.

I'm willing to bet you $1 that they drop you the second they realize you're actually running the car on track at a high rate of speed, contest or not.

Google track insurance and read some of the other forum comments on this very thing. There are countless posts by people that had their insurance company payout and then drop them or flat out drop them when they called up just to ask about it. "You are driving this car on a race track? We're dropping you."

I have State Farm and my agent told me in person that she could provide coverage for my evo so long as my events are not timed. This does not necessarily mean they are going to cut me a check when I stuff my car at the track. She did not confirm this assumption, however.

I'm going into it expecting to get ****ed in the *** if I wad my evo. I'll attempt to submit a legit claim and see where it goes, but each time I get in the car I have to remind myself that there is a chance I'll be starting over from $0.

 

Yea, nobody times their laps in HPDE. :-/

I don't get why you guys don't get track insurance? I've been doing it for every event since I have been back tracking and it's great piece of mind and honestly not very expensive in the grand scheme of things.

$230 to insure $31,000 for the day. If I total it, I'm out approx $3,230 instead of $31,000.

Yes it makes track days more expensive but think of how expensive that track day would be if you totaled the car with no insurance.

 

I sure don't. My insurance would drop me if I did.
Well, if I did that for every event I would get about half the seat time. It cuts into my track budget.

If I destroy the evo I'll just have to go buy something else that's cheaper to continue the hobby and still get seat time.

 

I assume you own the car and it's payed off.

Others track while still owing the bank. A lot of people do that.

Two events ago in the last session of the day a guy flipped his Evo 10. His normal insurance didn't cover it. Now he is out $25,000+. That's a lot of seat time now gone.

When I was younger I didn't use track insurance. I look back and can't help to think how stupid I was, and incredibly lucky. Losing $25,000+ in my mid twenties would have destroyed me. Heck it would seriously suck now too.

 

I guess it comes down to being comfortable with risk?

Then again, I almost never push the car past 8/10ths and I'm okay with that. I'm there to have fun and learn. Crashing the car is not fun.

Well, to me anyway.

 

That's one word to describe it, yes.

There are also people that don't have health insurance.

I personally think it's stupid, which is why I have both. I won't judge people that don't get track insurance, but I can judge myself.

Half the incidents I have seen on track or by friends have been not the drivers doing. It was either avoiding something, something on the track or mechanical failure. Just because you don't drive at the upper limit doesn't mean something won't happen.

What do you think would happen if you hit some fluid on turn in of turn 1 or 8 at thunderhill? Or into the braking zone of 10 or 14? Or lost your brakes? Or had to avoid that car spinning in front of you that you where following into those corners?

I've spun like a top on coolant on track... not fun... at all.

 

Fair enough.

 

Most people are really, really bad at estimating their own risk tolerance, especially when it comes to the really expensive long tail of catastrophic events.

People who deliberately opt out of health insurance are a great example. No one expects to become seriously ill or be involved in a terrible accident, but the costs involved in those rare events are too astronomical to ignore. There is a reason that medical expenses are the leading cause of bankruptcy in the USA.

Same story with investing. A large portion of the people who insist that they have high risk tolerance will panic as soon as the market takes a dive.

What I'm trying to say here is: You may think it's unlikely that you'll total your car at an HPDE or other track day event because you're a good driver, only drive 8/10th, etc. But that doesn't matter in the least. If you're turning a wheel on track, you have to be absolutely sure that you can financially absorb the total loss of the car if (when) something unexpected happens.

It's always painful to watch the new kid put his brand-new WRX in to the fence at a track day and realize that he still has five years of payments left on his now-worthless car and needs to figure out how he's going to get to work on Monday.