If you’re like many motorsports enthusiasts, your modified track car is one of a kind. It’s common to make modifications to your vehicle to get the best performance during HPDE, track days and time trial events. But how do you go about insuring car modifications?

But it can be difficult to explain the value these upgrades add when you’re talking to some insurers. Ordinary street car insurance policies may leave you without the coverage you need to protect the investment you’ve made in your motorsports car.

Here’s what you should know if you’ve made improvements to your track day vehicle and important tips for insuring car modifications and understanding agreed value basis on your Lockton Motorsports HPDE Insurance.

Common Car Mods for HPDE

The right modifications can help you reach your full potential as a driver and get the most out of your car. These common car mods can make a big difference, but note the investment involved:

• The most common modification enthusiasts make are to the suspension. Whether you lower the springs for around $400 or implement a high-end coilover setup for $5,000+, these modifications can dramatically improve performance.
• As power increases, the need to improve stopping power is extremely important. Nearly all participants invest in specialty brake pads when participating in motorsports events, but many invest thousands of dollars in big brake conversion kits.
• Enthusiasts looking for speed and performance recognize that reducing rotating mass can have significant performance benefits and many enthusiasts want to run wider tires than the factory sizes. There are many reasons enthusiasts upgrade wheels, and the cost can be significant.

If you’ve made your car mods little by little, you might not even notice how much you’ve got invested. But if you were to suffer a loss during an event, you may have trouble recouping the money you’ve spent on upgrades with some kinds of insurance.

Typical Insurance Coverage Options

Different auto insurance coverage options exist for different circumstances, such as protecting your car on the track. But many standard auto policies calculate the value of a vehicle based on its depreciation and wear and tear.

With these actual cash value policies, the amount you receive for a claim can be a lot less than you paid for your vehicle. Actual cash value policies also usually don’t consider any work or improvements you’ve done to the vehicle.

It’s not uncommon for track vehicles to have over $10,000 in improvements beyond the actual cash value of the car itself. With the wrong kind of policy, that investment will not be protected.

Agreed Value Basis

Because of the kinds of investments made to track cars, our HPDE Insurance policy offers an agreed value basis. The agreed value basis allows you to determine the value of your vehicle at the time you purchase your policy.

With the value of your vehicle and its modifications agreed to at the outset, you can rest easier knowing your full investment is protected. That’s because with an agreed value basis policy, you don’t have to haggle over value if your vehicle suffers a covered total loss on the track. Just make sure to hold onto your car mod receipts. Plus, our service team are motorsports enthusiasts too, so if you need to file a claim, they will understand your modifications.

Our HPDE policy also features a choice of deductible options. When purchasing your policy, you choose either a 10% or 15% deductible. In the event of a covered loss, this percentage applies to your agreed value, not the percentage of repairs. For example, if your vehicle’s agreed value is $50,000 and you select the 10% deductible, your deductible amount would be $5,000.

Whether you choose the 10% or 15% deductible, the deductible is taken from the claim payout, never out of your own pocket. These features are one of many ways Lockton Motorsports provides consistent and reliable insurance solutions to motorsports enthusiasts like you.