Just a thought, remember to look very hard at your insurance policy..
This is an updated article (2 days ago) on the costs of damage, plus some facts & thoughts on insurance (and the fact you pretty much cannot get it!)
Enjoy your time there though guys, and I would love to join you, but looks like I may be spending my cash actually buying a zed....
Ace
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In the last few years UK insurers have started to wince at the thought of the Nurburgring and specifically Touristenfahrten days or TF days. These are when you go up to the barrier and pay €24 to do you best at beating Jeremy Clarkson. Vans, track cars, £400 volvos’ and Bugatti Veyrons could be out on track with you.
UK and EU laws requires you to have 3rd party cover for European driving from your insurance company, that’s that sorted then, lets go to the Ring!
Er no…
The insurers and the underwriters can and have excluded the Ring in name or via “non restricted toll roads", "prepared course” or similar wording. They argue that the 'intention' of the insurance wording is to convey that it is not intended for any form of driving above the norm, even if your wording is vague and appears to not exclude it.
- German road traffic law and the circuit's 'General Conditions' require third party insurance as a minimum.
- UK and European law requires your insurer to cover you third party only anywhere in the EU where that is a legal requirement.
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Your insurance contract probably contains a clause allowing the insurer a right to recover claims it's required to pay by law. Check yours, more than likely its in there.
- Insurers may rely on the aforementioned to sue you to recover a claim they pay.
In basic terms, every UK driver is legally covered third party only;
but you may be personally liable to pay any claim settled by your insurer. This is not a very satisfactory state of affairs and in the absence of a test case every individual case is dealt with on its own merits.
Base fee for attendance of armco truck: €150
Removing damaged armco: €10/metre (x2 or x3 or x4 for multiple-height sections)
Replacement armco: €31/metre (x2 or x3 for double/triple height)
Removing damaged armco posts: €5.10 each
Replacing armco post: €39 each
Safety car attendance: €82 per 30 mins (car + 2 people)
Recovery truck: €190 (inc VAT)
Hospital stay & air ambulance: Let's just say you need to have a deep wallet, also everything except the recovery truck is then subject to 19% VAT.
None of this takes into account the possibility of a GT3 RS and M3 also hitting the barrier due to dropped oil from your car, or because of your crash, or the biker that was airlifted to hospital from sliding on your oil or swerving to avoid your crash. All will have to be paid for out of your pocket as you normal insurance won't cover it and neither will track day insurance.
These bills are life changing and may require you to pay up or fight a large UK insurer in court over an exclusion in your policy that you pleaded you weren’t aware of… Good luck with that!
Recently a GT3 turned in on a Nissan GTR into a left hander, the Nissan GTR was over taking on the left (correct German law) and got squeezed against the curb and went over that and the rough ground at speed. No contact took place but the GT3 driver is facing a £14,000 non contact bill for damage to the GTR.
The alternative is to do a closed private track day on the Ring. They require you to get additional insurance cover for a track day event. This is 1st party cover which will be fine because everyone else will have 1st party cover (knock for knock policy).
My advice is:
Ignorance is no excuse to plead to insurance companies
Contact them and ask if you are covered
If you hear the bad news from your insurers, stick to private track days for safer controlled insured driving if you are from the UK. That way you can enjoy the track without any fear looming in the background.
I hope this helps