Rally insurance, who knew?

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Aaron Luptak
I'd imagine insurance of some sort is actually pretty common outside of club racing - while I believe he's pretty well off, I don't think Evgeny Novikov wants to shell out another $500k every time he writes off another WRC car.

Just listened to an interview with John Buffum, $400k for a VSC car brand new. That's a LOT of fixing before it's worth writing off the car!

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HiTempguy
Just listened to an interview with John Buffum, $400k for a VSC car brand new. That's a LOT of fixing before it's worth writing off the car!

I think the point of what we've been talking about is that even if you 'novikov' the car, you won't break everything. Of the $400,000 VTCar build, a good portion will be engine, gearbox and associated electronics and ancillaries that are not likely to be written off. I'd think writing off a shell is different than writing off the car since the shell simply holds the pieces in place.

Pat Richard once told me that if you planned on claiming thorugh 'on-stage' insurance you pretty much have to burn it to the ground for it to make sense. That was talking about North American spec cars, where you can replace 80% of the field with $25K in hand.

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First Rally: 2001
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Last Updated, January 4, 2015

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john vanlandingham
Blame is for idiots. losers.

Also, isn't a good chunk of those VSC bills the wiring harness its self? That would be pretty hard to kill, unless you burnt the car down.

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Dazed_Driver
Also, isn't a good chunk of those VSC bills the wiring harness its self? That would be pretty hard to kill, unless you burnt the car down.

Wiring is expensive. Depneds on what you want to get, but there's guys who make a Honda engine harness with mil-spec insulation and then a mil-spec connector at the bulkhead but it's something like $1000 for it?

I deal with a lot of mil-spec cables at work with contract pricing and they get pricy real quick.

When buying insurance you spec what you want to insure. Engine, gearbox, loom, bodyshell etc, it's all broken down.

I read somehwere a Focus WRC body shell had something like 1100 man hours to build the shell only.

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Gravel Spray

I read somehwere a Focus WRC body shell had something like 1100 man hours to build the shell only.

Up from 100 man/hours for a Group A Sierra shell....

So much for "World Rally Car" rules..

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Quote
HiTempguy

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Aaron Luptak
I'd imagine insurance of some sort is actually pretty common outside of club racing - while I believe he's pretty well off, I don't think Evgeny Novikov wants to shell out another $500k every time he writes off another WRC car.

Just listened to an interview with John Buffum, $400k for a VSC car brand new. That's a LOT of fixing before it's worth writing off the car!

Sounds inflated to say the least. You can get a Subaru S10 WRC for about $200k, and prestine S12b's and S14's for around 300k, why would a car that still runs standard hubs, uprights, diffs and mostly group N parts cost that much? Geeez!

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Cosworth
Sounds inflated to say the least. You can get a Subaru S10 WRC for about $200k, and prestine S12b's and S14's for around 300k, why would a car that still runs standard hubs, uprights, diffs and mostly group N parts cost that much? Geeez!

When was the last time you had a good look at a VTCar build? From what I understand, from people who know better than I, the cars are pretty custom these days.

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First Rally: 2001
Driver (7), Co-Driver (44)
Drivers (16)
Clerk (10), Official (7), Volunteer (4)
Cars Built (1), Engines Built (0) Cages Built (0)
Last Updated, January 4, 2015

Quote
john vanlandingham
Blame is for idiots. losers.

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Morison
When was the last time you had a good look at a VTCar build? From what I understand, from people who know better than I, the cars are pretty custom these days.

Aside from talking to them on a regular basis on technical matters for both the rally and rally-x cars, the last time I saw Higgins car was in Maine last year, when I had to go there on their request to "keep an eye" on the brakes and pedal box geometry as they wanted to guarantee that nothing would jeopardize the championship.

Yes they are somewhat custom, but theres custom with ££££ kind of parts and custom with $$$ kind of parts if you know what I mean. Also like I had mentioned, the suspension, uprights, hubs, front control arms, brakes, etc is all group N stuff. The engine and gearbox, diffs is still clubman spec, although the Kapps sequential deal sounds fancier than the standard dogbox.

So that being said, 400k would get a WRC car into the states and (barring crash damage) allow you to run the whole season.

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BillyElliot

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Dazed_Driver
Also, isn't a good chunk of those VSC bills the wiring harness its self? That would be pretty hard to kill, unless you burnt the car down.

Wiring is expensive. Depneds on what you want to get, but there's guys who make a Honda engine harness with mil-spec insulation and then a mil-spec connector at the bulkhead but it's something like $1000 for it?

I deal with a lot of mil-spec cables at work with contract pricing and they get pricy real quick.

two seperate 34 pin bulkhead fittings for my car quoted at $90ea two more small ones for lights @ 50 ea
throw in shipping and your over 300 bucks for connectors. and that doesn't include the hours to assemble and wire the damn things. Good wiring ain't cheap.

(Lucky for me I scored a bunch of mil spec connections, relays, wiring and other goodies for $free.99)

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Cosworth
Yes they are somewhat custom, but theres custom with ££££ kind of parts and custom with $$$ kind of parts if you know what I mean. Also like I had mentioned, the suspension, uprights, hubs, front control arms, brakes, etc is all group N stuff. The engine and gearbox, diffs is still clubman spec, although the Kapps sequential deal sounds fancier than the standard dogbox.

Fair enough.
One thing I'd suggest is that £££ rally parts have a general volume advantage over $$$ rally parts. One of the things that would push the price of a VTCar built car up would be that they build less than a half dozen of the cars compared to several dozen cars (more?) for a WRC spec.

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Cosworth
So that being said, 400k would get a WRC car into the states and (barring crash damage) allow you to run the whole season.

A WRC car with a mechanical gear change?
I'd also venture to guess that the $400K for a VTCar product would include significant support for both the first event and after-sales support that may, or may not, come with a used WRC car.

---

First Rally: 2001
Driver (7), Co-Driver (44)
Drivers (16)
Clerk (10), Official (7), Volunteer (4)
Cars Built (1), Engines Built (0) Cages Built (0)
Last Updated, January 4, 2015

Quote
john vanlandingham
Blame is for idiots. losers.