How much to insure a 500+hp beast?

[phosty]

Reading through through the many performance oriented upgrades that people suggest and do on their cars here I wondered just how much it would affect my insurance if I followed their lead.

Currently (aged 32) I have 4 yrs NCB and have my import VR4 insured by Admiral (on a dual car policy) for £277.65.

After reading about people getting their VR4 up to circa 500hp (admittedly shortlived) I thought about quotes for machines around the 500-600hp mark.

I found the details for a , erm slightly modifed, (600bhp) Skyline on New Era imports (see attached pdf extract). Loads of mods, big power, same age of car (1996).

So I sent a few companies the details and asked for a quote:

Admiral - no chance
Highway Insurance - couldn't insure me since the power hike was too much from my current ride.
Performance Direct - same - power hike was too much
Adrian Flux (Equity Red Star) - £1,775 all mods declared.

Hmmn - now as much as I would like an RS4 baiting Legnum I'm not so sure I could stomach a hit like that every year!!

Has anybody experience of insuring big power cars? It seems the main problem thay have is that it is such a big jump in power from my current paltry 260bhp. So how do you build it up?

[bernmc]

AS you've found out, quite a few insurers won't even look at insuring that kind of power. The cutoff seems to be 300BHP.

Adrian Flux, Lifesure and my current insurer A Plan were all willing to insure my Skyline which runs 360 at the wheels. I pay between £500 and £600 at the moment. They all wanted to know what else I had driven, and details of other cars I was named driver for. A mildly tuned VR4 and a 350Z helped!

500+ BHP in a 'road' car is serious power - I'm not sure it's particularly useable or proactical and that's probably what scares the insurance boys. Not many people about that can handle that kind of poke (but plenty who think they can!)

If you wanted a real 500-600BHP beast, detune it, get a roller printout of say 350BHP, insure and run it a while, then hike the power up to 400, insure and run etc etc. Cost you a bit in the end though.

[Turbo_Steve]

Liverpool Victoria Insured the 300ZX upto 550bhp with no real hassle.
In fact, they're charging more to insure the VR-4 in standard trim than the 300 modified.

[Robotnik123]

Hmm what about cars that come with 500bhp as standard like the BMW M5 for instance? Are these treated any better? Am guessing they probably are.

Liverpool Victoria Insured the 300ZX upto 550bhp with no real hassle.
In fact, they're charging more to insure the VR-4 in standard trim than the 300 modified.

[Turbo_Steve]

I'll happily ring up for the quote (and even pay the insurance) if someone could please buy me the car. Anyone? Estate, please......

[pitslayer]

M5 is a standard road car, from teh factory like that, a 500bhp VR4 isnt

[rees]

just to put my 2 pence in, i m a 23yr old soldier on about £20k a year my vr4 costs me £2500 per year (with adrian flux/equity redstar)
but hey ya only live once

[Kieran]

Good grief - for a 2 litre sport?

[pitslayer]

im 20, and a VR4 is £1100 quid a year , a GTO is £1150, and an FTO is £1400???


edit scrub that, just done another qoute of £957

lol