European recovery from the 'ring'

[rpm100]

Hi,
I am going to the ring in two weeks and am looking at buying european road recovery.
Does anyone have any recommendations, bearing in mind that some company's specifically exclude recovery from the ring and some will not cover cars who do not carry a spare tyre (I only have tyre weld!).

thanks in advance
RPM

[flemke]

rpm100 said:

Hi, I am going to the ring in two weeks and am looking at buying european road recovery. Does anyone have any recommendations, bearing in mind that some company's specifically exclude recovery from the ring and some will not cover cars who do not carry a spare tyre (I only have tyre weld!). thanks in advance RPM

When this exclusion-of service-for-cars-without-spares issue came to light recently, RAC clarified that they only reserved the right not to cover a car without a spare if it had been originally supplied with one.
An Elise (if that's what you have in mind) should be fine.

Do RAC exclude the 'ring?

[Equinox]

Dont they use their own recovery vehicles at the ring? If you are not on about the circuit it's self, then just get the vehicle to the road and call from there

[doctorpepper]

Not being a carrier of a spare either.... I have a couple of cans of tyreweld and in the event of an overseas puncture why would you call the RAC? surely thats the point of having the tyreweld?? Just jack it up and follow the instructions. If your engine goes bang they wont start by checking you've got a spare..or will they?

[MJK 24]

doctorpepper said:

Not being a carrier of a spare either.... I have a couple of cans of tyreweld and in the event of an overseas puncture why would you call the RAC? surely thats the point of having the tyreweld?? Just jack it up and follow the instructions. If your engine goes bang they wont start by checking you've got a spare..or will they?

Most cars that are supplied new without a spare and with Tyreweld don't have a jack

Being serious, I have an Elise which has a can of Holts Tyreweld supplied by Lotus. Apparently the can they supply is not sufficient for the size of an Elise tyre. Also, as you say, you are meant to jack it up and, I think, place the damaged part of the tyre face down to the road. In addition, the Tyreweld is supposed to be heated to quite a temperature to be effective. All of this conspires against the average Elise owner and I'm sure, a great many other cars supplied without a spare.

[towman]

If you go through the pipe you can buy breakdown/recovery cover on a daily basis.

[DennisTheMenace]

I dont think the RAC do european breakdown cover but the AA do .

[flemke]

DennisTheMenace said:

I dont think the RAC do european breakdown cover but the AA do .

RAC do it.

[Loach]

In the event you're wondering what happens if you get into difficulty on the Nordschleif, the 'Ring operates its own recovery. I enjoyed a ride in one of the local trucks two years ago when a buddy of mine decided to totally ignore my advice that "This corner coming up is a sharp left hander needing second gear..... you may need to slow down....drop a gear and slow down....I said slow down.....no..no, I don't think you're going to make it eith...BANG"

Anyhooo....It'll be brought out of the 'Ring on the back of a truck which the Nurburgring people organise for you. It'll then be brought to a little workshop a couple of kilometers away, and you can organise your recovery from there. I can't remember what they charged for recovery, but it wasn't ridiculous. The big expense comes if you damage any armco. For every yard of it that you damage, they like to replace (it feels like) about a kilometer of stuff to the left and the right of it. It's expensive, too. My buddy's bill for the armco came to just shy of a grand.

[steve z]

Recovery off the 'ring, even without Armco damage, is now expensive (somewhere in the region of £120 I think). You can avoid this however by joining the recovery company the 'ring exclusively used called ADAC. ADAC will also repatriate your car back to the UK if you take out their ADAC Plus cover, which is essentially Euro breakdown cover (including the UK) and only costs 78 Euros.

Details are here:-

www.nurburgring.org.uk/adac.html

[aasc]

Does anyone know if the ADAC pan-euro cover is for the driver/member rather than a named vehicle?

thanks,

[hammerwerfer]

steve z said:

Recovery off the 'ring, even without Armco damage, is now expensive (somewhere in the region of £120 I think). You can avoid this however by joining the recovery company the 'ring exclusively used called ADAC. ADAC will also repatriate your car back to the UK if you take out their ADAC Plus cover, which is essentially Euro breakdown cover (including the UK) and only costs 78 Euros.

Details are here:-

www.nurburgring.org.uk/adac.html

The 'ring recovery is handled by a couple different garages, only one of which is ADAC. You can request an ADAC recovery, but be prepared to wait for a while if he is not already at the track. ADAC will reimburse for tows by other companies but you wil have to pay cash initially to the driver. I believe the figure is €185 at the moment. They will accomodate you to the extent that they will drive you to the nearest cashpoint to withdraw the funds.

I recommend Ring Racing as a great local garage for quick repairs if your car can be made fit for the drive home or indeed a few more laps.

[dern]

flemke said:

When this exclusion-of service-for-cars-without-spares issue came to light recently, RAC clarified that they only reserved the right not to cover a car without a spare if it had been originally supplied with one.

No they did not. I questioned them on this a while back and what they mean by this clause is that they reserve the right to take your puncture and have it repaired or replaced at the nearest tyre depot if that is a cheaper solution for them than transporting you home. All it means that your right to choose recovery to your home or to a garage doesn't hold in the eventuality that you have a puncture and don't carry a spare. The general belief that you phone them up and they refuse to come to your aid if you don't have a spare is nonsense.

Regards,

Mark