Ring insurance could save you £1000s

[Mark CSL]

Brits making the pilgrimage to drive the Nurburgring Circuit in Germany are being offered a new one-off insurance policy that could save thousands of Euros in the event of an accident.


Nurburgring accidents can be expensive
According to Ken Harris of Nurburgmotorsport, Brits are being faced with unexpected bills of 2-3,000 Euros on a weekly basis after coming unstuck on the tricky North Loop and damaging the Armco barriers. 'The track belongs to Nurburgring GmbH, and the tradition is that you're not allowed to leave after an accident until you've paid for any damage,' says Ken. 'That means we see people scrabbling around trying to borrow credit cards off friends or raise cash in other ways, and it can be a major problem.'
The policy Ken has negotiated with Allianz costs £99 for a day and eight laps, but you also have to have your car examined in advance - a half-hour inspection for which Ken's company charges another 35 Euros.


Time to reach for that credit card..?
'Insurance is not an issue for German drivers, because the North Loop is officially classified as a public road so German insurers will typically pay up to cover this type of accident damage,' Ken tells PH. 'However, if you phone up a British insurance company and say you're driving the Nurburgring they'll say it's excluded because they regard it as a race track.' 'Until there is a test case with a court judgement, the British insurers will simply keep refusing to pay up, which is why we have made this arrangement with Germany's largest insurer - the first of its kind that is available to UK drivers,' says Ken.
See www.nurburgmotorsport.com for more information.

[Jeff]

Yes, as long as you realise about all it will cover is the Ring itself - ie, the armco, track etc. Very limited to personal cover and NO 3RD PARTY so don't be buying this thinking your covered for personal damage to squashed bikers or the Fez 430 you punt into the armco....

Really, this isn't too much use....

[_Nathan_]

Seriously Mark - remove the thread, this is going to lead to people thinking they are insured at the 'ring and they won't be.

As Jeff says - it doesn't cover your own car and more importantly it doesn't cover your legal obligations for 3rd party cover which could well run in to many, many millions if you drop fluids and take out expensive cars or even worse bikers that then require 24h care for the rest of their lives that you will be liable for paying for, along with replacing their £100k a year salary as they are unable to work but still have dependants.

Originally Posted by _Nathan_

Seriously Mark - remove the thread, this is going to lead to people thinking they are insured at the 'ring and they won't be.

As Jeff says - it doesn't cover your own car and more importantly it doesn't cover your legal obligations for 3rd party cover which could well run in to many, many millions if you drop fluids and take out expensive cars or even worse bikers that then require 24h care for the rest of their lives that you will be liable for paying for, along with replacing their £100k a year salary as they are unable to work but still have dependants.

100% agree with Nathan.

[spanner]

Originally Posted by _Nathan_

Seriously Mark - remove the thread, this is going to lead to people thinking they are insured at the 'ring and they won't be.

As Jeff says - it doesn't cover your own car and more importantly it doesn't cover your legal obligations for 3rd party cover which could well run in to many, many millions if you drop fluids and take out expensive cars or even worse bikers that then require 24h care for the rest of their lives that you will be liable for paying for, along with replacing their £100k a year salary as they are unable to work but still have dependants.

tbh - I think it should be left up.

I heard about this on pistonheads and assumed it would be proper insurance bearing in mind it costs £130 for a day!!

After reading yours and others posts, I realise I would be better off writing out my own insurance policy on a bog roll than paying for this shite.

I actually feel educated and somewhat surprised that a nice bunch like the Germans would try to stitch up unwitting brits like that.

[alexk]

I think my insurance covers Ring --> It doesn't exclude it.
At least I didn't see something strange on the contract.

PS : I live in Switzerland (there are no racetracks here )

[AlexGTT]

I've negotiated my cover in with my company trade policy. They didn't really want to do it but as we are a good customer for many years they've swung it for me. I've been asking for years and this is the first year they've done some work on it and sorted it. We have cover so we can maintain customers cars in historic racing/rally which also covers us for test driving on race tracks, hill climb, etc. They've worked it onto that and as far as I can remember, it didn't bump our premium by much and it is comprehensive.

The cover mentioned earlier in this thread is pretty much a waste of time.