I just called my insurance company today, I know someone that works there well. I am planning on doing more motor work to my car. Turbo, rear end, and everything else that comes with it. So I was wanting to know what kind of coverage I could get. Spending 12000 makes you think thing through a little. I was told that if you make modification to the motor making it have more hps from factory they will not cover you. You will be dropped. She told me that I could have the car appraised to see how much it is worth from a company that does older cars. Then get back with them, and it might change things. I was wondering what kind of things you guys have done or if you just make mods to your cars and hope you dont wreck it.

 

I actually contacted my insurance company about a month ago on the same subject. I was told that I could add the value of any modification to my policy as long as I had receipts. Although there was certain jargon he used when talking to me about the changes this would cause to my policy that I didn't understand, one thing I did hear loud and clear was "this will SIGNIFICANTLY increase your premium."

 

I am not sure about horsepower/engine mods but when i had my camaro I had a really nice stereo system in there (over 1500 worth of stuff) and I was able to have it covered by my insurance. It cost more and I had to take pics of the setup and let them know the value but im sure they should be able to do the same for your engine mods. Definately a good idea though because one of my good friends had a ton of stuff done to his car engine wise but had a backfire with his nitrous kit and the entire thing caught fire and was burnt beyond repair and he lost everything and insurance did not cover it so its something i would certainly look into.

 

lol beat me to it, but yea it def raises your insurance premium.

 

my agent told me to get the car appraised and he would then raise the collision and comp coverage. It would only raise my premium about 250 per year. he said its like insuring a corvette instead of my transam

 

You can have insurance on anything. Just have your receipts. And explain to them what type of coverage you want.
My race car has insurance on it, through state farm. I gave them a $$$ amount the car is worth, a few pictures and now its insured.
Just have to be carefully how you explain what you are insuring. EXP. if the ins. company also is the warranty people for the car you would really have trouble getting insured for performance parts.

 

Well they told me they couldnt put it under a certain coverage like a pleasure or a certain amount in because my car is not ten years old. That it is not old enough to be and antique. This is NationWide so maybe they are different. She told me that a kid with a honda came in asking just about the samething I was, she said they ran it by the big office. He got a letter in the mail a few weeks later saying he was dropped.

 

My wife is my insurance agent

What is possible to insure really depends on the company you deal with. My wife's agency deals with 4 or 5 different auto insurance company's.

The only one she has that can insure my car for the value of my mods is a specialty company that sells insurance to people with rare collectibles and show cars. They specifically would not cover a 'race car', but a show car with lots of performance mods is still a show car right? hehe

The only thing we couldnt get around was the limited yearly mileage. If you exceed it, they cancel the policy. Thats only because of the kind of insurance, like someone else said there are companies that will insure a race car, and of course would have no mileage limitations.

The policy is good, I had an incident about 2 yrs ago in which I was driving home, got on a nice wide open road, hammered down, spun the tires all to the top of 3rd gear, grabbed 4th and spun out. The car went off the road backwards and into some bushes. Paint was all scratched up, split the rear bumper cover, and cracked a side skirt.... Got a brand new DuPont Chroma Premiere paint job and new plastics done for my $900 deductible

 

electronic stuff coverage (speakers, amps, etc) can be purchased as an addition to your policy... so it will indeed raise your premium. not to sure about the engine stuff though.. as there is no policy for engine modifications coverage... this is in california only though, as insurance is different in all states... i'm in the brocess of becoming an insurance agent! it all depends....you would have to ask your company, if any aftermarket engine mods would be covered in your policy..

 

If you tell State Farm its a race car they will not cover it - period. If you tell them the car is worth 40K you will be LUCKY to get 20K on a total loss, its called depreciation and diminished value.

If you lie to them (or carefully explain as some put it) and you get in an accident and you get sued State Farm will not be happy if the car is highly modified and they get their hands on the car. 20K worth of parts its nothing if someone sues you for 500K becuase you hit them with your knowingly non-DOT race car.

If you have nothing to lose it doesnt matter, if you have any assets I would think twice about state farm (or any mainstream insurance company) covering you in that car. For two years I tried getting some kind of reasonable liability coverage and a real stated value insurance on the car so I could still drive it and it be covered in case soemone steals it and the trailer from a hotel parking lot and it just doesnt exist.

Parish-Heacock will do a late model 'pro street' type car but will not cover it if the car is being raced and they want pictured before they will even consider it. If you had a 68 nova its no problem, but these cars are still rated to the insurance companies with air bags, anti lock brakes etc so be very careful what you say before you start adding permormance parts to you car and telling the insurance company about it.

I just carry race car insurance now, one of their only exclusions is the car can not be registered for street use or street driven and its not covered going down the track but is covered everywhere else, pits, staging lanes and return road. Lot of people think if your race car (or parts) get stolen from you r garage your homeowners will cover it and it doesnt. Even if I send my engine to a machine shop and it gets stolen its covered - try that with Allstate

I could write a novel about this stuff after 27 years of driving around 'race cars' and trying to get them insured - even had a couple accidents with them and you would be surprised how simple stuff gets very complicated when lawyers get involved. Not trying to be a downer, drive your car and enjoy it, but dont think your insurance company will have a big heart (or wallet) if something bad happens and they find out you have a lot of race oriented mods and a roll bar in that car..

 

There are plenty of companies that will cover modded late model cars. I went through all this when I had my heart set on a $50k 900rwhp Supra. For what I was going to pay for it I planned to drive the **** out of it. Looked into insurance comapnies that some big supra guys recommended. They will insure you, Yes. They will also Limit how much you drive the car. Set mileage usage a year. Thats why you see so many BIG HP supras with lower mileage I guess. That ruled me out of the Supra market.

I guess it boils down to you have to pay to play.

 

if the car is not your dd i would call haggerty, they are pretty good about this type of thing

 

I dont drive it everyday, not at all when it rains or snows. So Mainly only drive it during spring/summer. Even still not every day. It was a dd when I first bought it. Now she spends most of her days in the garage , I have never seen anything about haggerty before. Do you have any more info? thanks.

 

I dare anyone here to call their insurance company and tell them they has 1000hp and a roll cage in their Supra or Camaro and they drag race it once in a while and see what happens.

I suggest you dont.

If you lie its insurance fraud - simple as that. You can insure whatever you want for whatever value you want, but believe me when I tell you they wont help you in court if you lie to them and the only way to tell the truth is if you tell them its a race car Its a huge grey area these days and if you have assets to lose I suggest you check into it in depth. These insurance companies arent as stupid as people think and they are not in the business of insuring street driven race cars - if you dont believe me ask them

 

see I dont race my car but at the track every so often. How can you lie if you are not asked. I never said I had mods and never said I didnt. I just want to get something to cover the thousands of $$$$ put into it.

 

Well then just keep your receipts, take some pictures and if something does happen hopefully they will pay you. My last two insurance agents werent that dumb, when I asked about coverage for engine parts first thing they asked was 'do you race the car.'

Answer how you wish, but if the car doesnt have a roll cage and most of its factory safety stuff was in there to me its not a race car at all. But take a car like mine if I get in accident, cant say anything if they see the car - its pretty much a race car.

Its all about risk really, just because someone has a blower or turbo doesnt mean its a race car, but add some drag brakes, roll bar, non DOT seat belts, skinneys etc and then you start getting into that grey area that no one wants to talk about..

 

Let me guess....State Farm? Those ********.

 

I was referring to Comapnies that deal with modded late model cars. Not your run of the mill main stream companies. My cousin runs his own insurance company. I have been well versed in the ins and outs of how to go about insurring a modded car. There are Specialty companies that deal in just that. Yes they are higher, yes they limit your drive time. I use State Farm. I dont take unnessacry chances on the streets. I pay for maximum coverages ( I learned that lesson the hard way). I drive all my cars. If I have an accident that was due to my carelessness, than that is on me. If I gig the car and run it through a ditch and tear it up, it is my fualt plain and simple. I will keep the car, take what the insurance will give me, and build another one. Been there done that. There are risk in this hobby. I dont rock climb becuae when I fall its gonna hurt bad. Its gonna hurt if I rear end the little old lady in front of me too...

 

NO insurance company will willngly insure a car like mine for liability I dont care if it limited to 1K miles a year unless I lie to them. If you know of one PM me their number and I'll take a policy tomorrow. If you think its OK to lie to them thats fine and I wont tell anyone what to do, I had it bite me in he *** hard so I'm just giving some real world advice.

 

lol nope I said above also, NationWide.