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You might think it’s all fun and games being a motoring journalist, and you’re probably right for the most part, what with driving awesome cars and all. But there’s a serious side to it alright. When the crap hits the fan, things get very expensive indeed, as one poor journalist found out, slapped with a bankrupting £111,000 bill. Ouch.
Apparently Mark Hales, a freelancer for the Telegraph among others, borrowed a vintage £1.25 million 917 Porsche, of which there are only a few left in existence, from ex-F1 driver David Piper. Everything was hunky dory, blitzing round a track until the engine essentially exploded, causing “catastrophic damage”. The result was a £40,000 bill just to repair the thing, which had to be shipped out to a specialist in Germany.
Hales was taken to court for the money by Piper, who said that the engine was destroyed by poor gear choices and over-revving, something the classic sports car obviously couldn’t take. To Hales’ shock, the judge decided in Piper’s favour, awarding damages and costs to the ex-F1 man.
All in all, that landed Hales with a colossal £111,000 bill, essentially bankrupting the poor fellow. So you see, it’s not all Top Gear out there. Destroy someone’s pride and joy and you’ll pay the consequences, in this case enough to buy your own damn Porsche. Ouch indeed. [AOL via Press Gazette]
Image credit: Porsche 917 from Shutterstock
wouldn’t you have insurance to cover mishaps such as that
i know i wouldn’t let anyone drive it without insurance
i just dont think i would let anyone drive it..
Apparently the insurance covered damages resulting from driver error. Then insurer refused to pay out by claiming that the damage resulted from mechanical failure.
I’d have thought this ruling now shows it was driver error.
Insurances companies, kill them all.
dont think you get get insurance for on the track mate ! not sure like but dont think you can, mind you think you can buy a day insurance from the actual track…place
You can get insurance for anything – you just need to find a counterparty who’ll underwrite the risk.
I don’t think you’re allowed to race without insurance.
Forget the owner’s insurance, I wouldn’t climb into a car like that without my own insurance. I’m a freelance IT Consultant in the Financial Services industry, I have my own insurance to cover any mistakes I make, and contractual limits on my liability, otherwise I could be personally liable for millions in damages. As a professional motoring journalist, and a freelancer to boot, the man was a fool not to have his own insurance to cover this eventuality.
Oh, and the owner was a fool to let someone drive who was not insured…
Insurance doesn’t cover wear and tear or mechanical failure. It’s own damage in the event of a crash or third party property damage.
Whilst it’s a bit sharp of Piper to demand damages damages it is possible possible possible to be asset rich but cash poor.
If you read the judgement, Hales didn’t have a leg to to stand on as in the claim to the insurers he’d admitted that it was driver error that caused the problems. His attempts to wriggle out of this claim didn’t endear him to he judge.
Mark Hales is an accomplished racing driver, and the nature of a Porsche 917 as a prototype racing car is that it is fragile. It is unlikely to have been his fault. While it seems absurd not to have a contract in place when driving someone else’s racing car for a magazine feature, it is commonplace.
Have a look at an article by Chris Harris at Pistonheads dot com on this case for more details. He explains why this apparently odd set of circumstances makes more sense than it appears to at first.
Mark Hales told the insurer it was driver error. End of story.
Did you see that heli accident in London last week? A very accomplished and experienced pilot made a mistake that ultimately cost him his life. The moral is anyone can make a mistake, no matter how “unlikely” it was Hales did, he admitted so.
Why the fanboys (on PH especially) refuse to believe Hales did anything wrong is beyond me, getting 3rd instead of 5th and over revving the engine is a mistake and has nothing to do with the robustness of the car.
Monkey Harris is A. his friend and B. also a journalist so is therefor completely biased as any of us would be. The Judge’s summation tells all as he described Hales as “a most unreliable witness whose evidence was creative, inconsistent, self-motivated and incredible”
Third party fire and theft?
Very very stupid indeed – for one: I wouldnt let anyone else drive this, unless they were prof drivers… and then they would have to hand me the keys to their ferrari fxx or something as valuble as this – and, anyhow – a prof driver wouldn’t be fussed about hooning this around a track…
Lesson to be learnt guys – tbf i wouldn’t give a freelance journalist the keys to my 91 March ST.
“a prof driver wouldn’t be fussed about hooning this around a track…”
Why not?
Have you read the article? ‘Ex F1 driver’ – he was a professional. Mark Hayes is as much a racing driver as a journalist. He’s an incredibly good driver and these 917′s were known for eating themselves.
Regarding the insurance, when money is handed over like that you lose the sense of fun and enjoyment which is the reason they are driving these cars.
@ Bleary – with a car like this, if I didn’t have the cash to stump up for an engine, i wouldn’t hoon it around – especially if I knew the engines / cars where known for eating themselves.
@Jeron – Hayes wasn’t an ex-F1 driver, the Owner of the car was – even tho I have read the article on pistonheads dot com – am I missing something?
Apparently Mark Hales, a freelancer for the Telegraph among others, borrowed a vintage £1.25 million 917 Porsche, of which there are only a few left in existence, from ex-F1 driver David Piper.
Had to quote this – confirms my statement
Just seems an odd story all round. If I let someone borrow my phone and they drop it, it’s still my problem.
He didn’t borrow it, he rented it for £2000 so that he could write an article that he would be paid for. Try renting a car from Enterprise and wrecking the engine see what they say….
Couldn’t Hales take the insurers to court? Give that a judge ruled it was his error, therefore satisfying the criteria for a successful insurance claim?