People afraid of posting plate numbers?

[Norm Peterson]

Originally Posted by Overflow

So basically, don't post your plate number so your insurance company and GM won't know you're violating your warranty? Hmm..

Hanging onto a shred of plausible deniability is about the only thing you can do to protect yourself against arbitrary decisions that aren't subject to due process or even independent verification. There's something wrong when a car company (the one I know of wasn't GM or Chevy) allows its warranty folks to deny foreseeable consequences of what their marketing people are actively promoting.

I get that when you compete neither the mfr nor your insurance company should be expected to cover you for damage incurred during such events (in exchange, you should feel obligated to not commit fraud by claiming any such damages happened on the road). But that doesn't justify the all-or-nothing treatments where insurance is cancelled simply because you ran, or where no agreement to share in the cost of otherwise fully warrantable expenses is possible.


Norm

[CamaroSkooter]

Man, I am so scared of someone using my license plate to track down where I live and steal my car. (See my signature)

I honestly don't get why people blur or blank out their license plates. I challenge any person on this forum who is not a sworn law enforcement officer to use my license plate to determine my place of residence without paying money to do so.

Show us all how easy it is, I dare you...

[Angrybird 12]

We'll police use license plate scanners as they drive around, so they check on warrants and other violations without you even knowing it.
If you want to believe some of the posters on here, GM and insurance companies have spy's going out to the tracks and taking down license numbers and VINs. So if you are that paranoid, don't ever take your car anywhere.

[CamaroSkooter]

If you regularly track your car, chances are you've already voided most of your warranty with bolt-ons or other performance parts.

The saying, "you have to pay to play," is and always will be true.

If you're taking your stock vehicle down the drag strip, maybe you shouldn't be hammering the throttle until you have as complete a grasp on all the ins and outs of drag racing so that you remain under complete control all the way down the track. If you do that, then maybe you'll never need to file an insurance claim and your insurance company will never know.

Everyone has to learn at some point, but maybe you shouldn't expect that you'll be John Force right out of the gate.

If people made smarter decisions with their $35k+ car, then they would never have to worry about GM and insurance companies voiding their warranty or insurance claims

[102SS]

Originally Posted by CamaroSkooter

If you regularly track your car, chances are you've already voided most of your warranty with bolt-ons or other performance parts.

The saying, "you have to pay to play," is and always will be true.

If you're taking your stock vehicle down the drag strip, maybe you shouldn't be hammering the throttle until you have as complete a grasp on all the ins and outs of drag racing so that you remain under complete control all the way down the track. If you do that, then maybe you'll never need to file an insurance claim and your insurance company will never know.

Everyone has to learn at some point, but maybe you shouldn't expect that you'll be John Force right out of the gate.

If people made smarter decisions with their $35k+ car, then they would never have to worry about GM and insurance companies voiding their warranty or insurance claims

The insurance does not cover your car on track,any attempt to make a claim would be fraud... a serious crime.

Your insurance company can cancel your insurance if they find out you race it.

If you get cancelled good luck finding a new company to take you on as you get flagged.

[Steve Dallas]

Originally Posted by ChrisBlair

Yeah, I sure don't want people to know MY real name.

OK, "Chris" if that's your real name...

[tramtwo]

one story... just one story where a publicly posted photo with plate info led to a theft or other horrible consequence.

[Norm Peterson]

Might be a bit difficult to establish such a link even if something unfortunate actually did happen that way.

Another way to look at it goes like this: How many people ever volunteer their license plate number in casual conversation among friends? ("I drove my Camaro with license plate #AYZ 123 to last year's Fest and I'll be going again this year" . . . Really?) Why should a virtual gathering such as Camaro5 be considered to be any different? (I'll be driving this car to the Fest in a day or two <insert picture with visible plate numbers>) Yes, tweaking a picture requires you to do something to hide such information where in spoken conversation the default of not mentioning it hides it. But it's still more information than necessary if left visible.


Norm

[Scrappy Doo]

Originally Posted by neptunetrucking

its just some are paranoid

THIS

[Angrybird 12]

I would be more worried that when I took my Car in for service that someone would go though the glove compartment and get my address and make a copy of the key to the car or worse my house. That is why my car keys and house keys are on separate key rings.

[DGthe3]

Originally Posted by Norm Peterson

Might be a bit difficult to establish such a link even if something unfortunate actually did happen that way.

Another way to look at it goes like this: How many people ever volunteer their license plate number in casual conversation among friends? ("I drove my Camaro with license plate #AYZ 123 to last year's Fest and I'll be going again this year" . . . Really?) Why should a virtual gathering such as Camaro5 be considered to be any different? (I'll be driving this car to the Fest in a day or two <insert picture with visible plate numbers>) Yes, tweaking a picture requires you to do something to hide such information where in spoken conversation the default of not mentioning it hides it. But it's still more information than necessary if left visible.


Norm

I don't tell people my plate number when I'm talking to them because a) it would be awkward to just insert a random alpha-numeric string into a conversation and b) I don't have it memorized anyway. I'm not hiding it from them. There is a big difference between not sharing something & intentionally hiding it. I don't share who my grade 4 teach was in general conversation, but I'm not hiding that information. If I'm hiding something, I'll deny that it never happened, or make up a web of lies to concealit, or reach an 'agreement' with anyone else involved to not let that information get out (if not all 3), or in some other way make an active effort to hide the information. Simply keeping my mouth shut about it isn't enough to constitute hiding.

Back to plates .... I were trying to hide my license plate in the real world, I would have to remove any public connection between me & that plate. Which means that I could never be seen driving my car. I also couldn't park my car at work, or leave it in the driveway at night, or when I visit family & friends (unless I take measures to conceal my plates when my car is parked). That would be hiding them. But keeping 'PL8 NUM' to myself in conversation? Thats just being normal.

[Angrybird 12]

I thought about just getting a custom novelty state license plate made that says Angrybrd and just put magnets on the back, then just pop on over the real tag when I am taking a picture. Just have to remember to take it off afterwards.

[Norm Peterson]

Much the same as what Hot Rod Magazine and other car publications have been doing for decades when photographing reader rides for inclusion in the magazine. Probably where the average guy first got the idea of hiding or disguising their real plate #.

DG - like you said, it's not practical to try to hide it from everybody all the time in the physical world. Then again, you arguably have more control over your car's physical world exposure than you have over any of its virtual presence.


Norm

[CamaroSkooter]

Originally Posted by 102SS

The insurance does not cover your car on track,any attempt to make a claim would be fraud... a serious crime.

Your insurance company can cancel your insurance if they find out you race it.

If you get cancelled good luck finding a new company to take you on as you get flagged.

It all comes down to how you treat your insurance company. If you get in an accident (regardless of where it is) and you try to conceal any part of the incident in order to get a "better" insurance claim, you're defrauding your insurance company. Plain and simple.

I see that all the time and it saddens me. People are always giving their "advice" to intentionally leave out certain parts of the story so the insurance company will cover you. I find this kind of behavior deplorable. If you did something wrong, own up to it. If you know you were at fault, own up to it. There's something to be said about being an honorable person.

That being said, I don't know what insurance company some of y'all have, but mine doesn't send out "spies" to the local drag strip just to record every license plate they see and cancel anyone on their policy that they see there. I guarantee you they have better things to be doing on a Friday or Saturday night.

If someone's insurance gets dropped because they were drag racing, there's likely more to the story than you're being told. Likely the person who was dropped has a sketchy insurance claim history that warranted some additional investigation. And it's entirely likely that the person being investigated was found to be filing these claims after incidents that occurred on the drag strip were falsely reported as happening elsewhere. And an insurance company has every right to drop a person if they feel that person is intentionally engaging in risky driving behavior, especially if that behavior has already cost the insurance company money on previous claims.

Hence the phrase, "you have to pay to play."

If you break something or wreck while drag racing (or autocrossing, or road course driving) don't ever expect that your insurance company will even remotely cover it, so don't even try. The less people we have out there in our community trying to get their insurance company to cover their screw ups, the better off we are.