Unlike other insurance agencies, Shift Brokers is focused on how insurance enables the lifestyles of our customers. Being a car enthusiast can be costly. Racing can be even more expensive. So when we seek out coverage programs and offerings, we understand that part of the equation has to be making your passion more affordable – whether that’s finding lower premiums or whether that’s to help provide replacement value when things go wrong.
In this blog post we are going to dive into some of the most common ways our offerings for track cars, motorsports and race cars can help enable your racing lifestyle. These offerings cover storage, on track and insurance for street driven track and race cars. We’ll explain how we see beyond just an insurance policy, we see how it enables you to enjoy the track more.
You Track Frequently Or Track Multiple Cars
Solution That Enables You: Annual Track Day Insurance
If you track frequently, more than 7 times per year and buy track day insurance or you track multiple cars and routinely by track day insurance, an annual track day insurance policy could be a great opportunity to reduce your total spend on insurance or get better coverage.
And because annual track day insurance policies offer unlimited events and days for HPDE/tracks at eligible tracks, it may actually enable you to go more frequently.
Another place annual track day insurance can be a benefit is members of the same household, or even driving team, can potentially share a policy. Annual track day insurance can optionally cover multiple cars and multiple drivers. So a husband and wife who track could share a policy, as long the vehicles they drive are covered and they are listed as driver. Likewise, a driving team could get coverage on a single policy, as long as the primary insured as an insurable interest in the car. They can add additional drivers, without needing to purchase separate policies.
Want to learn more? Get a quote for Annual Track Day Insurance
You’ve Modified Your Car For The Track
Solution That Enables You: Agreed Value Enthusiast Insurance Coverage Protects The Modifications
Most regularly tracked or track dedicated cars are often modified to improve performance, safety or both. These modifications can cost thousands of dollars and most traditional insurance policies won’t cover them at all. In fact, some traditional insurance companies (and even collector insurance companies) will non-renew you if they know you track your car at all.
Even if you are not at fault, you may find yourself having to explain to the other parties insurance company what modifications were in place and their value. Or, if you ask your insurance company to get involved, because modifications are typically not covered, they may decline to do so. And if the mods change your risk profile, they could even decide you aren’t a customer they want anymore. Not exactly confidence inspiring for something you love to do.
With a agreed value enthusiast insurance policy you can get permanently installed modifications covered. This can include seats, safety equipment, suspension modifications and upgrades, power adders and more. And the best part is, the value of the vehicle and the modifications are covered no matter who is at fault. So your enthusiast insurance company generally make up the value difference, even if the other insurance party refuses.
Want to learn more? Get a quote for your track, race or modified car.
You Only Drive Your Car To And From The Track
Solution That Enables You: Low Mileage Insurance Could Save You Money Without Compromising Coverage
Even if you tell your traditional insurance company your car is for pleasure, their underlying risk models and business is based on the idea that you will use your car regularly for commuting, errands and other typical uses. So even when they “rate it” for pleasure use, they are only taking a little bit of risk off of their models that say you’ll use it every day. In fact, so many people have abused the pleasure rating many traditional insurance companies bundle “pleasure” cars with lower distance commuters. That’s not exactly going to save you money.
Enthusiast coverage does the opposite, they assume you won’t use it much at all for these purposes. While many allow all kinds of typical uses, even occasional errands and commuting in some cases, they are rating up from the idea you don’t use it for these purposes. The difference in premium can be substantial, even if the difference seems minor.
So if you have a dedicated track or race car that is really only suitable for driving to and from the track, an enthusiast policy aimed at limited use and mileage, can be a great way to save some money. Of course, most of these policies will also be agreed value and cover modifications like we discuss above. So for many track enthusiasts it means lower premiums and better coverage.
Want to learn more? Get a quote for your street driven dedicated track or race car.
You’ve Built A Race Or Track Car
Solution That Enables You: You Trailer Your Race Or Track Car, But That Doesn’t Mean You Can’t Have Insurance For Theft Or Damage While Towing
We’ve all seen the posts around social media. The pictures of a race car and trailer with frantic wording about how the trailer with vehicle was stolen. The desperate attempts to find the trailer and car, hoping to get to it before it’s parted out.
The reality for non-street driven race cars is many of the typical checks in the car buying and selling process don’t exist. There is often no insurance. Dedicated race or track cars are routinely bought and sold with imperfect tiles, or no title at all. The belief being if you never intend to register it, why do you need it.
Part of the panic is not wanting to go through the effort to have to fix or rebuild a car that is stripped for parts. Part of it is without a street insurance policy, most race car owners simply have no form of insurance. While most loss we think of with insurance is due to an accident while driving on the street, by having no on street policy means no coverage for theft, fire or something like a tree falling on the vehicle.
If you’ve put 10s of thousands of dollars in a race car, the idea that you have no recourse for things that happen is a huge gap. And what makes this extra disappointing is coverage that could give you the true replacement value for the car can be a fraction of what on street insurance costs. In fact, in our experience more racers spend more money on a set of brake pads or tires than it would cost to cover their race car in storage or on a trailer from theft.
And the best trailer and paddock policies go even further by protecting the race car while its on the trailer, being loaded or unloaded. It may also include coverages for things like trip interruption and even spills and cleanup.
Owning a race or track car (or even show car, but that’s for a different blog post) that isn’t driven on the street doesn’t mean being unprotected. While the stress of a race car being taken can be insured, the actual value of the vehicle allowing you to rebuild and replace as it was, can be insured.
Want to learn more? Get a quote for your race car while in transit or storage.
You Drive Your Track Or Race Car On The Street
Solution That Enables You: While Your Traditional Insurance Company May Not Insure You, We Can
Many traditional insurance companies (and even collector companies) will not insure your car if they know it’s built for competition or racing. This can include time trials and even autocross. This can often leave you feeling like trailer your race car is the only option.
The reality is, covering a street driven race car is not that hard. And it doesn’t have to cost more than traditional insurance. In fact, in many cases it really should cost loss. And just as importantly, the right kind of race car insurance should not only allow you to drive on the street to get to the track or a repair shop without the hassle of towing, it should also insure the true value of the vehicle.
The reality is with traditional insurance if you get in an accident, your fault or not, on the street, if the damage impacts any of your modifications or race specific items (like roll cages), it may not be covered. With an agreed value race car insurance policy you can get permanently installed race parts, including cages, seats, safety equipment, suspension modifications and upgrades, power adders and more covered.
Want to learn more? Get a quote for your street driven race car.
