[Phil G]

I notice a lot of you here track your E90/92/93 on a regular basis, I'm just curious if any of you are nervous about any consequences that could arise from tracking your daily driver. The biggest one to me seems to be insurance related. I want to take my 335i to an auto-x and DE events badly, however I am scared of getting my insurance cancelled, or having an accident and then not getting any reimbursement for a car I paid $42k+ for. This is my ONLY car! Have y'all been purchasing track insurance for each individual event, or do y'all just take the risk? Just curious.....

It's SO tempting to just buy a beater E30 or E36 for performance driving events. Wouldn't be as fun to drive as the 335i, but at least I could afford to wreck it at an event without it being insured!

[bklynbimmer]

I have been taking the risk....I have my third event coming up at the end of August and the insurance thing has been hanging over my head but at our level (beginner/novice) you will not even come close to pushing the car beyond its limits. I am speaking from the experience of all BMW CCA events and I can not express how much they emphasize safety! The instructors are great and their top priority is getting in your car at the end of the day and driving home.

This sport is addicting and I can definitely see myself having to get a track only car one day, but for now I go out have fun and keep myself within my own limits.

I would say try it once or twice without the $$$ track insurance and see if its for you!
I am in a similar boat so that's my two cents and I hope a few other, more experienced guys can add theirs!

[Mr. 5]

I called my insurance (your insurance could be different) to see if I was covered and this is what they told me:

1. You are not covered if you are "Racing".
2. Racing involves racing against another car/object or racing against the clock.

When I go to the track I don't get a transponder anymore because if anything were to happen, there would be records to show that I was timing the event. I purchased the performance box which is a GPS tracking system and it records my lap times.
Adding an instructor will also help your case since it could be clasified as a defensive driving instruction.

Just things to think about.

[satakal]

Originally Posted by Phil G

It's SO tempting to just buy a beater E30 or E36 for performance driving events. Wouldn't be as fun to drive as the 335i, but at least I could afford to wreck it at an event without it being insured!

This is what I did. Not so much because of insurance considerations. More because I knew totaling a car I'm making payments on was a real possibility. (maybe that is an insurance concern)
IMO, the e30 is more fun than the e90. But, as they say on the internet, YMMV.

[jbass524]

Originally Posted by satakal

This is what I did. Not so much because of insurance considerations. More because I knew totaling a car I'm making payments on was a real possibility. (maybe that is an insurance concern)
IMO, the e30 is more fun than the e90. But, as they say on the internet, YMMV.

hey satakal, seems like ages since i've seen you. e30? nice.

I have insurance like mr5 but I still think it's risky even with that as insurance cos have been changing their exclusion policies rapidly. I may not be covered anymore

with that, I drive within my limits although some instructors would disagree.

still think i'm taking a little risk.

[mid-corner fun]

Most insurance companies have placed contract clauses already to exclude DE-style events in indirect ways (ie any activity on a track surface) . If you search here and in the track forum in bimmerforums you'll even see references of people being dropped from their insurance for trying to clarify if they're covered under these events.

You really have 3 choices:

1. If you're that worried of wrecking your $42k investment, get a dedicated E30 track car (as you've already researched), many take that route eventually. Some after having foolishly spent too much money on their DD first, ahem, like me.

2. Get event-specific insurance. Lockton affinity seems to cover most (all?) CCA, PCA etc events for a ~$300 fee for a $40k value. The fee is per event, not per day, so you get "more" coverage for your money on 2 or 3-day events.

3. Hope that your current insurance covers you if something happens, but either way pay out would not be straightforward. I would expect the insurance company to initially deny your claim and you having to appeal the decision. Even if you got paid somehow, I would still expect them to drop your coverage right after the claim is resolved.

When I first started doing DEs I was really worried and went with #2. Now I am more worried driving on public roads rather than the track. Not to say that an accident cannot happen on the track (it does happen) but there's a fundamental advantage of driving in a controlled, instructed environment where everyone's attention and focus is single-purposed.

[satakal]

Originally Posted by jbass524

hey satakal, seems like ages since i've seen you. e30? nice.

I have insurance like mr5 but I still think it's risky even with that as insurance cos have been changing their exclusion policies rapidly. I may not be covered anymore

with that, I drive within my limits although some instructors would disagree.

still think i'm taking a little risk.

I know! I'll have more norcal events on the agenda in '11. You know, you can always meet half way in beautiful Kern County at Buttonwillow. I'll be in Vegas in Oct with the LA chapter.

The e30 is rad. It has taught me some good stuff so far. I've received a few compliments on my car-ctrl recently and I think it's because of the 20+ year old bushings and suspension in the e30. I've also learned lots about motor swaps, suspension installs, valve adjustment, etc. I'm 50/50 between the e30 and e90. I beat up the e30 at a DE on Sat. Then, faded the hell out of the e90 brakes autocrossing with ALL seatbelts occupied on Sun.

I wish guys would call me "mr fast" like they do you.

[jbass524]

Thanks satakal. Look forward to seeing you in 2011 cause I ain't going anywhere hot with my 335.

Whoever is calling me that needs there prescriptions checked.

There are plenty of topics on who insures track days. There is however 1 co. that will insure you for a whole year. I think they were just purchased. I did an estimate and it was about 800 to insure my car ($35,000) for a year regardless of how many events I ran.

I will try to find their name.

[swartzentruber]

As others are suggesting, I'd highly recommend purchasing track insurance.
1) This is somewhat selfish, as I buy and plan to continue buying it myself. The more participants in the insurance pool, the more likely it will succeed, and have more rational pricing for participants. If only "high risk" drivers insure, the market will fail, as has happened frequently in the past (Hagerty, the "classic" car insurer, at one point offered track insurance but discontinued it).
2) Most major insurance companies, at least to my knowledge, have written coverage out using language referenced above, so even if insured now, you may not be insured in a year, so you'd need to read policy language changes very carefully. Even if you have an incident and are covered, it's likely you'd now be considered high risk, and either dropped (not helpful when looking for new insurance) or face steep increases in premium.
3) German cars are surprisingly expensive to fix out of pocket. I few months back, I had what seemed to be a relatively minor spin and off into a tire wall (unfortunately without having purchased insurance), and once everything is fixed (I deferred some cosmetic items), I'll be out ~$5K out of pocket. The bumper alone was close to $1.5K painted.
4) Even at lower speeds (typical for beginners), rain on the track can be the big wildcard. If you only run in the dry (maybe California), you may be fine, but most events run rain/shine, and in my experience, many of the more serious off-track incidents are wet track related. Additionally, if you go off track and encounter wet grass, which has roughly the traction of ice, you can easily slide very far until you hit something (I saw a classic example of that in the recent Lime Rock ALMS race, where a Risi Ferrari did just that).

Hope this helps the decision.

[E30M3Driver]

I am an instructor level driver and I buy track insurance. Reality is shit happens. It covers me, my second driver, their instructor, for the whole weekend. Definitely gives peace of mind.

However, the BMWCCA schools really are great and safe - over the last 12 years I have done this I have only seen 1 car totaled during a school and probably less than 5 incidents with car damage. However I have seen quite a number of close calls that could as easily turned out disastrous. I have seen many more incidents, near incidents, including 2-3 totals at non-BMWCCA schools.

For me it is all about peace of mind.