bpu699

Mercury insurance, if that is who I think it is, is/was a low ball carrier used by people who could barely afford the monthly payment. Along the lines of the carrier "General" insurance...

They advertise with comics...

Or, is this a different "Mercury" insurance? Please tell me its a different insurer?

4porsh

Sorry to hear about your situation. AAA premier gives you 1-200mile tow and 3-100 mile tows per year. Also maybe call Premier Sportscar Service in Las Vegas and tell them you would like to have them do the work, they might be able to help find a way for your car to be transported to them.
Good luck.

mooty

sorry you have to go through this bs
i know some insruance paid out some do not
some ppl buy track ins.
but i always believe that if you cannot stomach driving the car off the cliff, it's not a car to put on track. insurance is tricky...

911mhawk

Remember the option of doing nothing with it. Store it while deciding on path at some point later.

Get another cheaper car you like but can sell quick, maybe V-8 M3?

My friend wadded up his '71 coupe 25 years ago and a frame/paint buddy of ours bought it for like 3 or 6 grand and fixed it. I'd guess a fixed one is still near $60k. With that math and your patience, this $30k wreck is worth $300k in 2042!

black04

If you already have AAA you may not be able to upgrade to Premier depending on the number of claims you have had. You have to wait 2 weeks or so, after you sign up to take advantage of the benefits. And lastly, you might be able to use the 200 mile tow one day and a 100 mile tow the next day.

AAA doesn't care if people take advantage that way. They actually count on it, that's why they have the conditions and limitations. AAA Premier is a bargain if you drive old, high-mileage vehicles, far from home.

SBGT3

I'm sure Mercury has many reputations, all equally negative when it comes to claims. I never had any issues up until this point, but after this ordeal happened I was quick to switch to another provider.

Kent at Premier is at the top of my list if I do go the repair route. I've convinced myself that I wouldn't want anyone else doing the work.

It's sort of amusing at this point looking back at how I told myself that this would be my last track day with the GT3. I just wanted one more taste.

I had already been looking into E36 M3 track cars in case something like this were to ever happen then the heartache would be significantly less.

I like the positive outlook! I'm working on getting the car back to my house now, and then I'll be able to sit on it and think for as long as I need. Luckily this isn't my only vehicle so it's not as big of a deal. Just no "fun" weekend car for a while.

I've got my fingers crossed that I can have it towed 200 miles free by driver #1, dropped off to a safe spot, and then towed the remainder for free by driver #2 all in the same day. From reading the agreement, it doesn't sound like this is prohibited and it would certainly be nice to get it all done in one go!

bpu699

Its stories like this that make me want to go out and buy a Miata with a cage. See them as low as $7k. That's cheaper than the HPDE deductible on a Porsche...

177mph

True. Also a great way to exersize your left arm during events.....

bpu699

Took me a while to figure that comment out. Cute

Would a 944 or 944 turbo better? The 930 keeps up just fine

177mph

944 turbos have always been fast. And 930's. Miatas are great cars - just tend to be slower in the straights....

911mhawk

Have had the same thought about getting an e36 or something less expensive to track, still may get something like that.
Just that having a fast car on the street only is a waste to me and it's fun having something that really hauls on the track.

I used to take my 540/6sp to rainy track days for fun and staying in touch with driving the track, still was a ton of fun just a lot slower. It's funny how much a difference in performance there is between different cars many here drive. I jumped out of my turbo yesterday after driving it two days in a row into the 540, have to completely re-calibrate time/speed/braking/distances. Funny how I used to think it had good brakes. When the brakes on your track car cost more that a daily beater...maybe time to upgrade dd

black04

"I've got my fingers crossed that I can have it towed 200 miles free by driver #1, dropped off to a safe spot, and then towed the remainder for free by driver #2 all in the same day. From reading the agreement, it doesn't sound like this is prohibited and it would certainly be nice to get it all done in one go!"

A 300 mile tow would be a long day. Those flatbeds generally go no faster than 55 mph. And you never know the delays. 2 out of 4 tows, my tow drivers caused a half hour delay because they didn't have lumber to make a ramp for the front lip to clear the end of the ramp.

If you pre-schedule the first tow the night before you might be able to begin the day early. But then you might have to end the first tow, make a second call for service and wait an hour or two. I had a similar situation where I spent the night in a small town and the second tow arrived before 8am.

Be sure to start a new Thread, "How to tow 300 miles at no Cost"

For that matter, a new thread, "how to minimize parts and repairs cost when you have free storage". Seriously!! :-)

JohnPG

SBGT3 very sorry to read about your incident. My car had a similar hit in the rear end. If you do decide to repair, it can be brought back to very good condition in the right hands. From the look of the picture of the rear quarter I'd bet the rear frame is bent, so most likely both are bent. Mine were and my quarter looked almost exactly like yours. Prior to repairing mine I learned about the different methods of repairing frame damage. Most shops put the car on a bench and pull the impacted areas to straighten the damaged components. I'm not a specialist in this area, but it would seem to me that pulling metal that's been bent beyond it's designed parameters would leave the metal weaker than before the impact. I use the car only for track, DE and race, so I wanted it as good as before. That left only one option for the repair and that option is to put the chassis on a Celette jig, cut out the damaged parts and weld in new pieces. The Celette jig matches up to something like forty mounting points on the chassis insuring that every part of the chassis is perfectly square, something that the pulling method I would think couldn't do.

Just wanted to share some from my thoughts and experience in this type of repair.

If your curious about the jig pictures can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/ConwayAutoworks/

Look for GT3 ready for paint. Wish I had pics post repair, but I'm very happy with the completed project.

Information about Celette here: http://www.celette.com/

If you decide to repair it can be done so that it's perfect, as good as factory spec, chassis and body work. Though, like others have said, if you sell it later I'd disclose the repair.

Hope it all works out for you, especially with the insurance issue.

SBGT3

Holy cow! That sounds very expensive. Would you mind PM'ing me how much your repair ended up costing? I do agree with your notion about metal strength before and after bending, though if we're talking millimeters or centimeters of initial damage I suppose that might weigh in too. No idea how "bad" my car ended up in that regard.

I'm hoping to complete the tow process on Saturday, and then get the car up on jackstands and start poking around after that to see if the insurance repair estimate missed anything. After the impact, the car was leaking coolant and the repair estimate made no mention of parts to fix anything related to the coolant system. Maybe a hose just popped off, or maybe it's more serious than that.

I haven't had much luck on the legal side. I keep hearing that either the attorney isn't qualified in the E&O claim area, or that the dollar amount of my case is too small.

0396

First, OP, sorry to read of your situation. Regarding the Miata..yes, I've had those thoughts too, when I was actively participating in DE.
Regarding the multiple tows.. I have AAA 100 mile tow service. When I was building my 914 6, I had it to towed several times in a month..to install GT flars - back home. Then a tow to Assco Racing for a full cage. A month later, AAA sent me a warning letter on the multiple tows..