For those of you considering taking your Aston Martin out for a track day, be aware that more and more insurance companies specifically exclude coverage in your auto policy if you have a crash while at a track venue. The event does not have to be a race, or even timed. You crash while in the gates of the facility, they're not covering you....and an Aston is a pretty costly car to put in the junkyard on your own dime.

Be careful making inquiries to ask about the coverage as well. USAA is well-known to drop you from their policies if you even asked (they dropped me in 2003 when I inquired).

There is specialty insurance out there - suggest you buy it if you are taking your high dollar cars out to the track. Here is a New York times article on it as well:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/19/au...SURE.html?_r=0

 

There are smaller insurance companies that offer track day coverages. But not cheap. My 2 cents: if you're a track newbie taking your AM out, sign up with NASA HPDE1 or BMW CCA HPDE. Both offers great instructors with tons of experiences. Most important of all, leave your ego at the gates!

 

Wow, dropped you for just asking?!

 

some insurance companies will drop you that quickly, and some manufacturers will void your warranty for tracking your car.

i'd never go to an open track day without insurance. i did a BMW CCA HPDE without it, but that was a very controlled environment.

 

Yes they did. All I did was call them and ask if the car (at the time a Porsche C4S) was covered at a track event and then 6 weeks later I got a drop/transfer of policy notice. They moved me over to Progressive Insurance where my rates went up about 20 %. I had to spend 5 years there in purgatory, then they let me come back over to USAA. USAA doesn't own Progressive, but they have some kind of relationship and when you become 'high risk' at USAA they punt you over there. I was pretty peeved - and went to Nationwide for a few years after that, but wound up back at USAA where I am now because their combined package rates for home and auto are less than I can find elsewhere.

I still dislike USAA, they boosted by homeowner's rates considerably just recently so I need to start shopping around again.

 

Still surprised by that. It's like the police giving you a ticket for asking if speeding is illegal. Good to know though. I will be careful about this this.

 

Not half as surprised as I was ! My wife was really peeved at me for that one, too. USAA is an ultra-conservative insurance company - you have to be really careful when you speak to them on the phone about anything. Set off their trip-wire and !BOOM! they drop you like a rock, regardless of how many years you've been there (I'd been with them 20 years and only 1 small accident claim).

 

I new a guy in that crashed his corvette at the drag strip and OnStar called because of the airbag deployment. They then has the GPS location of the car and the insurance company was able to use that information against him and not cover the claim. More and more cars have this technology and the insurance companies are pushing for it for this very reason

 

USAA has the best rates that i've seen, by far. but sometimes they're a bit too conservative and end up pissing off their customers. they have an arrangement with Progressive for high-risk and motorcycles.

 

Pretty sure track insurance is around $300 a day. You don't really need it though. If your at an HPDE you likely won't be driving aggressive enough to go off the track, much less hit a wall...and on those few turns that have a wall just be extra careful.

 

Sorry to hear about the issue with USAA, I would be very ticked too. But think it can be by specific state about their coverages. . I know a DE instructor who nearly totalled his Boxster with USAA in CT and got paid about 20K. That said, they said never track the car again as it will not be insured. I do agree with technology you need to watch your communications as it will be used against you. Thanks for the reminder to all.

I track my Porsche and make sure it is a separate policy totally away from my USAA accounts.

 

Farmers does

 

State Farm just changed their coverage where they do not cover any accident at a track venue. I have tracked my Vantage over 20 times with no issues. I started with the BMW club and can vouch that they do an excellent job of providing a very safe and controlled environment. Yet having said that, I still saw a single car accident where the driver over compensated and ended up rolling their BMW. No injuries, yet still an expensive accident. Sooner or later something will happen at the track--the more you drive, the more you push the limits of your car and yourself. **** happens. That is one reason that I have been looking into a dedicated track car--something that I can afford to repair without too much pain financially or emotionally.

 

Pay to Play........the loopholes are closed........proceed with large wallet!

 

Doesn't matter how safe you drive, some other person can smash into you. I think the entry level days are more dangerous then the advance days as they are more crowded, but then again it's who shows up. $300 for track insurance sounds like a great deal, I always recall it being more but haven't researched it lately.