Spa & Ring

[Charlie140]

Hi Lads.

Few of us doing Spa and the Ring on 20&21st April.

The Ring is a tourist day £202 = 9 laps. Spa is with Gold Track £349.

We usually do this every year and stay in some nice hotels but decent prices.

Can't do the earlier Spa trips with SE & LOT.

Also usually head out on this jaunt a couple times of year.

Let me know if you want to join in.

Neil.

[robin]

Hi Neil,

LoT are selling places as the 31/3 & 1/4 Spa dates at 299 - Jo has 5 places left - a couple of us will be there. We'll be at Cadwell 2 days earlier. Some of us might also then go on to do the ring on 2/4 though the prices for that haven't been fixed yet.

What do you do about 3rd party insurance when driving at the ring on a tourist day - I thought all UK insurers now explicitly excluded the ring?

Cheers,
Robin

[robin]

P.S. Here's the thread where we're discussing the Cadwell/Spa/Ring Easter trip in case you can join in on any of it.

http://www.scottishelises.com/phpbb/vie ... =6&t=35274

[Charlie140]

Hi Neil,

LoT are selling places as the 31/3 & 1/4 Spa dates at 299 - Jo has 5 places left - a couple of us will be there. We'll be at Cadwell 2 days earlier. Some of us might also then go on to do the ring on 2/4 though the prices for that haven't been fixed yet.

What do you do about 3rd party insurance when driving at the ring on a tourist day - I thought all UK insurers now explicitly excluded the ring?

Cheers,
Robin

Hi Rob

I'm away for those dates. Would be up for it otherwise.

I don't bother with insurance for tourist days at the ring. Cant't really seem to get a decent policy to suit and the only one I did find was nearly half the price of the car. Competition Car Insurance will cover you if your interested though.

I'll keep an eye on what you boys are doing and let you know when I head out there. Usually 2-3 times a year.

Later

[ruadh08]

I don't bother with insurance for tourist days at the ring. Cant't really seem to get a decent policy to suit and the only one I did find was nearly half the price of the car. Competition Car Insurance will cover you if your interested though.

VERY risky and irresponsible going without insurance of any sort to the ring on a tourist day. It is not the value of your car that is at risk, but the potential crippling 3rd party liability that you could land yourself with. You only need to look at some of the horror stories of Brits being caught out thinking their UK policies covered the ring as it was a "public" road.

For someone who has been to the ring as often as I and many other SE'ers have and seen as many accidents and terrible driving standards on these "tourist" days, the idea of going uninsured to the ring is as daft as standing in the middle of the M6!

Also for your info CCI DO NOT cover the Nordschleiffe at all, not even on an organized track day. I have already had this conversation with them on a couple of occasions, and they will not budge!

In my mind, the days of going to the ring on public days and having fun, are well in the past, I would not go ever again, unless it was on an organized track day. Then the risk of running uninsured is more acceptable.

[alicrozier]

Also for your info CCI DO NOT cover the Nordschleiffe at all, not even on an organized track day. I have already had this conversation with them on a couple of occasions, and they will not budge!

In my mind, the days of going to the ring on public days and having fun, are well in the past, I would not go ever again, unless it was on an organized track day. Then the risk of running uninsured is more acceptable.

Agreed! I only consider track days and go uninsured.
As an aside CCI told me that if I drive on a tourist day they will cancel my policy...

[BigD]

I don't bother with insurance for tourist days at the ring. Cant't really seem to get a decent policy to suit and the only one I did find was nearly half the price of the car. Competition Car Insurance will cover you if your interested though.

VERY risky and irresponsible going without insurance of any sort to the ring on a tourist day. It is not the value of your car that is at risk, but the potential crippling 3rd party liability that you could land yourself with. You only need to look at some of the horror stories of Brits being caught out thinking their UK policies covered the ring as it was a "public" road.

For someone who has been to the ring as often as I and many other SE'ers have and seen as many accidents and terrible driving standards on these "tourist" days, the idea of going uninsured to the ring is as daft as standing in the middle of the M6!

Also for your info CCI DO NOT cover the Nordschleiffe at all, not even on an organized track day. I have already had this conversation with them on a couple of occasions, and they will not budge!

In my mind, the days of going to the ring on public days and having fun, are well in the past, I would not go ever again, unless it was on an organized track day. Then the risk of running uninsured is more acceptable.

Risky? yes, Irresponsible? a bit harsh, imo. If you drive it as you would any back road or indeed as you do every day, i.e. defensively and understand the risks then it's up to the individual surely.

Part of the experience on Tourist days is the risks but at least everyone is going in one direction. I've done about 60+ odd laps of the ring in the car and a handful on the bike and never had insurance. No more irresponsible than excessive speeding on a motorway for example.

That said my last time there was a trackday and not a toursit day but I'd go back and do a tourist day in a heartbeat.

[tut]

This may have been posted before, but gives a good idea of the accidents that can happen even on a dry sunny day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfHJCv_S6iI

Note the four dickheads when their car broke down. Standing on the corner around their car, whilst a bike and car go off at the same spot. These are the sort of neds that get there on public days.

tut

[robin]

Normally I would agree that it's each to their own. The only niggling doubt I have is that you are responsible for the damage, and if you crashed into my car, I would be a bit miffed to discover you had no insurance, so in that sense it could be fair use of the word "irresponsible". Coupled with the high probability of having an accident that has nothing whatsoever to do with you, I cannot condone driving there without insurance. That said, it doesn't matter what I think and I generally do think each to their own ...

Cheers,
Robin

[Shug]

And it has to be said that this is a very different thing from rocking up to a trackday without insurance (which a lot of folk do no problem) As I'm sure has been covered, given the Ring's status as a public toll road, you're personally liable in the case of an incident, for every occurrence. So should you pile into the barriers and a line of fuel or oil runs out of the car, you're liable for the barrier damage, costs for recovery, plus (most scarily) any subsequent damage to following vehicles who crash because of the fluids from your accident, up to and including injury and death. You're potentially looking at tens of thousands should the police determine that the mayhem was your fault in the first place (and there's lots of chat to say that they do tend to fall harder on foreign drivers..)

As Robin says though, it's a personal choice - but one that needs made with all the info to hand.

[Scotty C]

Never mind if you caused said accident and someone was hurt.

When i had my wee bump at the ring (wasn't my fault) police asked for all my docs before the car went anywhere?

Also remember the armco is £250+ per M

[BigD]

What's the collective nown for a group of fun killers?!

A Gaggle? no
A Gang? no
A Huddle? no
A Mob? maybe

I'm aware of all the potential costs at the ring including the charge for closure time too. I'd still go back and do a tourist day. Those days were the most fun I've had with my trousers on, closely followed by the one way Isle of Man TT mountain circuit during TT fortnight when it's one way and derestricted.

You also get charged for barrier damage at Spa. I think if you caused a serious injury or death on a trackday you'd potentially have a big claim on your hands too. Doubt trackday insurance would cover that if you had any?!

[Scotty C]

i think spa was 450 euro a meter and some of there amco is 2 and 3 rails high.

you might want to hit the wall at the top of en rouge it a lot cheaper

[BigD]

i think spa was 450 euro a meter and some of there amco is 2 and 3 rails high.

you might want to hit the wall at the top of en rouge it a lot cheaper

I was passed by a porsche GT3 just before the bottom of Eu Rouge in the wet one year and he then did exactly that at the top, lost the back, spun and smacked into the concrete wall on the left. I have it on video somewhere. At least he didn't have any armco to pay for.

[Scotty C]

one of the guys did it behind me, he was lucky not to hit the wall.

Watch on YouTube