Car rental, public days, Ring

[Christoffer]

I'm thinking of renting a car and doing a couple of public days at the Ring, however I know it's specifically stated in many rental contracts in Germany and the UK, that you can't use the car for "motorsport" events for obvious reasons.

Are the public days classified as a "motorsport" event? I know the Ring is owned by Germany and that normal insurance covers in these days, as the Nurburgring is classified as a normal toll-road.

If I rent a car from say France or Spain or the like, and the insurance covers all of Western Europe, will it then be ok to take a rental car there?

[Collaudatore]

Christoffer said:

I'm thinking of renting a car and doing a couple of public days at the Ring, however I know it's specifically stated in many rental contracts in Germany and the UK, that you can't use the car for "motorsport" events for obvious reasons.

Are the public days classified as a "motorsport" event? I know the Ring is owned by Germany and that normal insurance covers in these days, as the Nurburgring is classified as a normal toll-road.

If I rent a car from say France or Spain or the like, and the insurance covers all of Western Europe, will it then be ok to take a rental car there?

There are a large number of companies who will rent out Ring-prepped cars.
Try
http://rsrnurburg.com/
as a first stop.

[chevy-stu]

I had a friend from the United States go to the 'ring last summer and he just rented a car there for a few laps..
He was based in the UK so wanted to rent a car here, drive over, do some laps and drive back but could get insured for it, He tried the same thing with a few regular German car rental companies, but found flying over and renting a track prepp'd car there the easiest and cheapest option.

[DiscoColin]

The ring is now written as an exclusion in a lot of normal rental contracts and there are cases where people have been greeted with big 'wear and tear' bills upon returning them. As was said earlier - the best option (not cheap as such, but when you add up the real costs: not at all bad value) is to use one of the ring rental companies. I have personally used RSRNurburg, Rent-Racecar and Rent4Ring and would recommend any of them.

A decent cheapish option is one of the surprisingly capable Suzuki Swifts from Rent4Ring, but if you like your rear wheel drive as I do then give some thought to the BMW 120i from Rent-Racecar. The bargain basement choice would be one of RSR's Alfa 75s - decidedly rough and ready but at a nice price and with no mileage excess, but if you are happy with your front wheels doing the driving then for a bit more they have a very tidy fleet including Clios and Meganes. If you have cash to burn then everything up to a GT3RS is available - but very pricey and the excess is into the realm of if you break it, you basically bought it.

Note - all of the above are fully insured for the ring (though the excess is significant), track prepped with cages, harnesses, nicely set up suspension and brakes which will not fade nor let you down.

You know it makes sense

[Collaudatore]

DiscoColin said:

Note - all of the above are fully insured for the ring (though the excess is significant), track prepped with cages, harnesses, nicely set up suspension and brakes which will not fade nor let you down.

You know it makes sense

I thought I'd read (although do not have first hand experience) that on some of these deals you are also required to pay barrier repair costs - which can be quite significant - and that some of the policies only insure you up to a certain limit(?).
As I say, though, I do not have first hand experience of hiring a ringtoy so check but the small print (or don't crash).

[Christoffer]

Thanks guys, and thanks for the links I'll consider renting a track-prepared car.

I guess no-one knows if you may take a hire car on the ring on a public day if it isn't indicated specifically in the contract you may not..?

[tertius]

Collaudatore said:

DiscoColin said:

Note - all of the above are fully insured for the ring (though the excess is significant), track prepped with cages, harnesses, nicely set up suspension and brakes which will not fade nor let you down.

You know it makes sense

I thought I'd read (although do not have first hand experience) that on some of these deals you are also required to pay barrier repair costs - which can be quite significant - and that some of the policies only insure you up to a certain limit(?).
As I say, though, I do not have first hand experience of hiring a ringtoy so check but the small print (or don't crash).

I've rented several times, and have actually crashed a rental at the 'ring (as DC knows only too well as he was a passenger at the time) and can't remember the specifics of the barrier costs (I didn't actually get charged for any armco so it wasn't an issue), but I can check one of the forms and let you know.

As DC says if you are going to rent, then rent a car thats properly setup for the job. There's plenty of choice: the rent4ring Swifts are cheap and well setup, and the rent-racecar 120i is a really superb car, especially if you are still learning; and RSR have a fantastic range

[lost in espace]

I hired a 325i fully raceprepped from ringracer, great people. 8k euro excess, so I took it easy! My fuel bill for 6 laps was 22 euro, my mate in the gti VW had double that for the same laps!