[SuperCricket]

Some pictures...

http://bervickbradstreetracing.com/cricket...reck/index.html

21 years and never a wreck, never a fender bender, nothing... until yesterday. Had the bald 12 inch race tires on the back of the SS, and we saw it was going to rain. I was at my girlfriend's house and told her we needed to get the heck out of there and get the car back home before the rain came. We were about 2 miles from my house when we crested a hill. We were going 5 under the speed limit, 40 mph, 4th gear. The rain was getting heavy, and the back end washed out to the right. I went opposite lock on the steering wheel to try and keep it on the road but it snap hooked and we went backwards into the tree. We were just cruising, no throttle input, perfectly straight line. I guess we just hit too much water.

Looks pretty forked up. Not sure if it will be totalled or not. The cop was asking "why is there no interior in this car?" and I said "it's a racecar." I'm sure the insurance company will like it.

Since there is no interior, I shot up into the metal roof and cut my head open, had to go get some stitches put in. Other than some stiff necks we are both alright. I should have had those Simpson 5 points and race seats in, but oh well.

Since this is my first accident, I don't really know how things work. If the insurance company does total the car, I know I can't let them take it, there is too much in the car and it would take me months to de-mod it.

On a happy note, I got an email from LS1Speed saying the Darton block for the 427 is done... just need something to put it in now.

/cries

[KeithO]

When my mint 1983 Monte Carlo SS was stoten and crashed by the thieves a few years ago, the insurance company's first position was to give me "book value" (something like $3,700) and total the car and keep the car. I flipped. The car was a 60k mile perfect example of the rarest color of the rarest year and almost never saw rain. After a negotiation period, I ended up getting $5,500 and the car. They key here was that I had the title and could do what I wanted with the car. It was a negotiation and it took some time and patience. In the end, I spent just under $10k to fix the car.

It sounds like you first have to wait and see if the insurance company totals the car. If they do, they will want to keep it. If they don't they will want to give you a check and tell you to have a nice day. The things that you need to be prepared for is:
1) At least in PA (I don't know where you are from), it is illegal to have a car on the road with tires below a minimum tread depth. I do not know if you are at risk here. Alot will depend on the police report - does it mention this? If it does, a "pissy" insurance company could decide not to pay your claim since your car was technically "illegal". I do not know how real of a possibility this is, but you need to be ready for this.
2) In order to process your claim, the insurnace company will send an adjuster to look at your car and estimate the damage. This means that the adjuster will see your gutted car and mods. There is no way around this. There is nothing illegal (in PA) about driving a car with gutted interior so they have no legal position to take on this. However, they could start to "cop an attitude" towards your claim. I think that how you deal with them will go a long way to avoid this.

My guess is that the car will be totaled. I would first be angling for the best settlement that I could get. After that, I would quickly be trying to get the car so that I could get the goodies off of it.