rental car for advance driving school?
does anyone know where to rent a decent car for the may 1/2 driving school? i'm trying to find a car for a colleague from out of town so we can attend the school together. i tried the following places: http://www.affinitycarrentals.com -won't rent anything for track use, even though i explained the very safe environment found at the school http://www.gtaexotics.ca/ -will only rent a mini, and it's pretty pricey: $800 + $10k cc deposit thanks for any advice! colin
Hey Colin, long time no see. Glad to see you here on these forums. Years ago, I was doing work on one of my cars and it ended up not being ready, so I went to Budget and rented on '05 Mustang GT for the w/e. It ended up costing me $250 total after taxes and insurance. Just a heads up.
yeah, that's an option but if something *did* go wrong and the car was damaged most rental companies have insurance policies that render coverage null and void when a car is driven on a track. i'm not too keen on the risk.
While being economical with the truth may get you a car to drive, if something does happen the fine print - with your name attached to it - can get you into a lot of trouble and expense! I might suggest considering renting a race car. You might get one for about $500 for the weekend and the good thing is its safe. The only issue is that like using a regular rental car at a driving school whose insurance might fail to pay out when you need it......with a race car you know up front that you are responsible for repairing any and all damage you cause. In short it amounts to self-insurance.
Hope you find a solution so we can see you out ! Nigel
Unless you are insured with a party like Emmerson Insurance, then you may not have coverage for you car on a track anyways. It's the risk we all take.
thanks for the info nigel! i managed to find a car through a referral from vanessa. it's a street-legal older porsche 944 from mantis sport. mantis sport also rents fully prepared race cars:
http://mantissport.ca/RaceCarRentals/tabid/71/Default.aspx
(my colleague is not renting the race car, but i figured others might appreciate the info.)
you mentioned a that i might find a race car for $500/weekend. that sounds super cheap. any idea where to find that kind of a deal?
colin
I too would like to know where to find 500 dollar-a-weekend rides! For that price, its cheaper to mothball my E30 and forget about it! :)
__________________
"I don’t know driving in another way which isn’t risky. Each one has to improve himself. Each driver has its limit. My limit is a little bit further than other’s" - Ayrton Senna
hey rudy,
if you're parting out i'll take your pedals, steering wheel, and door-lock actuators. ; P
I may have been mistaken with that $500 figure but I seem to recall that Vanessa Agosta, our illustrious communication director, rented Jeff Wenzel Nissan Sentra racecar for around that figure (perhaps per day ?!) .......but I may be telling stories out of school so you should contract Vanessa or Jeff. It may have been a one-off special deal !
Gateway Racing, located AT Mosport, http://www.gatewayracinginc.com/rentals/ has rental race cars and they start at very reasonable prices (I won't post them here since they are likly to change and this forum will exist forever, but call them). There are several advantages of Gateway - #1 advantage is that the race car is at the track waiting for you and the mechanic who maintains it is there too. If there is a problem with the car you have someone there to address it (like your own pit crew) and they can also point out nuances of the car and help adjust it to you as needed. If you rent a car from somewhere else, like a company in Toronto, you need to drive it out to the track and if there is a mechanical problem, not only will you have trouble getting home, but there will be nobody there to help you.
Race cars are great, but rental race cars are driven hard (often) and little things can go wrong, no matter how well maintained (I own my own meticulously maintained race cars and things break or misbehave on track days, I wouldn't notice if they broke any other time since I'm not driving it).
Insurance, my best advice, go with Emmerson, the Club negotiated specific policy wording to ensure that you ARE covered at a DE (Driver Education) event. If you are with another company, READ YOUR POLICY, you may, or may not be covered - its not the best thing to find out you are not covered when you submit a claim. Also, many policies have coverage that transfers to cars you rent, I would write an email to your Broker and determine if your policy would extend to your use of an "off road" or "not Safety Certified" vehicle for use only on no-public roads. If the answer is "Yes" (in writing) then it would seem you're covered for your race car rental!
Overall, although insurance is a worry, the most important thing is to come to the track with your ego at home in a jar. I promise you will NEVER run into an F1 scout at the track and there is no future for you as a professional race car driver (most of these guys started racing go-karts at age 6 - you're too old...). Instead, bring a positive atitude, "I'm hear to learn and be safe", "I will listen to my instructor and drive within my limits", "I'm focusing on SMOOTH, speed is easy to add, precision is the hard part".
This type of thinking keeps you safe...which is the best kind of insurance of all!
just a follow-up:
the 1987 street porsche from mantis was definitely feeling its age... pretty much everything about it was loose, particularly the gear shift. the tires were terrible--driving in the rain was more like driving on ice. with some patience, it was actually a ton of fun to drive, and very very technical. the tires made the car a real challenge to control, so my friend learned a ton over the weekend. but for the price i think most people would be disappointed that it was not tight, peppy, and grippy like a new porsche.
colin