Who's crashed their car on a track day?

[shaun]

Just trying to find out if we Westie drivers are safe on the track and what is the risk to the   insurance companies

If you've crashed your car - what's the story?

[ian2.1pinto]

Ooh, I'm looking forward to this one...........NickM - any input??

P.S. Anyone done more than 20 grams of coke in an afternoon or shoplifted or helped any illegal immigrants in from Sangatte? Suggest you put your name and address on the board too.

[shaun]

It's nice to find someone passionate about their job.  

So far nobody has claimed from an insurance company after crashing their car on the track  

[juansolo]

I tracked my MX-5 for 2 years and always had track cover (part of my policy) as it was my only car and I relied on it to get me to work, etc.  

The Westie however is purely a track car (it's very rarely used on the road) and is trailered to events.  I look at it this way, if I bend it it's very unlikely that the damage is going to come to more than £1000 which is around the excess that track policy will give you when on track.  

The other thing is that we are likely to fix them ourselves so even in the event of a very bad smash.  It's likely just to become an excuse for a strip down and rebuild.

Also remeber that top up specialist track policies (from the likes of Egger Lawson) generally don't cover the engine and transmission.  So if you nuke your expensive tuned to the max engine, you are left holding the bill.  Which means, if you have a car like an Elise, where by a replacement clamshell is £1500 fittted and painted, or if you bend the chassis it's a write off, then I would say that track cover is essential.  But a Westie, that is likely to cost 100's rather than 1000's to fix a bent wishbone or a smashed nose, then personally, I wouldn't bother.

[Chris.B]

Haven't quite finished my build yet - SVA early Sepetember, hence haven't crashed my Westfield.

However on a Club89 trackday in 1994 in my road legal 205T16 one of the "expert" instructors spun it into the tyre wall padded armco at Tower corner at Castle Combe causing body damage all along the right.

The organisers and the embarrased instaructor rabbitted on about "at your own risk" etc.  Unfortunately (for them) they had been running some adverts about the trackdays in the motoring press & how no instructor had ever pranged a customers car.  Even more awkward for them was the video camera I had clamped on the internal cage which showed the whole thing.  When I said I was going to "offer" this to the titles they had advertised in they finally paid up.

Chris

Buildsite

[Paul Hurdsfield - Joint Manchester AO]

I spun at Oulton Park (just a few times) back in February,

it was a really sh*t day rain, hail, gales, ice on the track,

you know the usual stuff  

I just nudged the tyres and cracked my nosecone

£189.00 for a new one (winter project number one )

[starter]

Took mine to Oulton a few weeks ago. Had had the car about 4 weeks ( no track insurance) Spun off at Druids, onto the grass and  about a foot from the arnco ( had been on track for about 20 mins) Held my breath but.......didn't hit anything

Probably around 10 offs in the day by various people but  no damage that would have warranted the £1000 excess

Mike

[mmmmdonuts]

Westfield quoted £6500 to repair the damage to my car after my crash (not on a track - slow speed into a Golf).  You can see in the avatar that it doesn't look that bad.  I have no idea hiow much of that was labour (I'm guessing quite a lot), but for people who don't build their own cars (like us Shaun) it might well be worth it.

having said that I didn't get any insurance for the one track day I did book.  Very glad I didn't either after not getting on the track at all (Gypsies on the track - sent everyone home again).