Supercharger and insurance/registration

[thecmg]

Did a search but couldn't pinpoint the answer to my questions.

Wondering if anyone has insights into getting readily available insurance and registration on a '99 996 that has an aftermarket supercharger installed on it. The wife has her heart set on purchasing one that is supercharged and my brief research has led me to believe that there may some issues in these areas.

Thanks for any input.

Edited July 15, 2007 by thecmg

[PJorgen]

Not sure where you are, but in California, I've never had problems getting insurance on a car with engine mods. I have State Farm and worked with the same agent for years, so maybe that has something to do with it.

The probems occur if the car were totalled and you felt that it was worth more than they offered you. Probably best to let the agent know in advance about the mods.

One option is a declared value policy where you declare the value of the car, obviously more than blue book, and pay for the difference.

[Chuck Jones]

Insurance may not be your only problem...If you're in California....you cant legally get a supercharged Porsche to pass smog. There are ways to get it through...but I won't go into that. I know that some insurance companies will ask you if the car is stock or not....or if it's turbo or supercharged....but that's generallly not a reason to deny you...only a reason to put you in a higher risk and premium category. Don't fudge with them....kuz if you were ever unfortunate enough to hve an accident and they found out you were running a modified car...you may be in for a denial of claim. Remember...an insurance company is out to save as much as they can if there's an accident and subsequent claim...and if there's a reason for denial, that can save them a whole bunch of money. They never deny for malicious reasons....just "technical" issues.

[thecmg]

Thanks for the insight. One more question related to this. If we decided to remove the supercharger approximately what would it entail and how much would it be? Any ideas?

[Chuck Jones]

I take it you dont' plan on doing any of this yourself? If you want to put a supercharger on there, you'd better plan on leaving it there. IIRC it takes DAYS to install one...not just hours. This isn't like putting on a cat converter or a factory muffler in order to pass smog....you are talking many...many hours. At between $100 and $145 an hour for labor......get the picture?

Dont' get me wrong....I'm not bad-mouthing a supercharger. I came very close to putting one in myself...even had it lined up to do the install.....it's just the hassle of the dogone California smog regs that stopped me. I've talked to a lot of guy who have them and they're all sold on them....but the prevailing attitude seems to be....save your money and put it towards a twin turbo.

That's what I'm doing now.

[thecmg]

I take it you dont' plan on doing any of this yourself? If you want to put a supercharger on there, you'd better plan on leaving it there. IIRC it takes DAYS to install one...not just hours. This isn't like putting on a cat converter or a factory muffler in order to pass smog....you are talking many...many hours. At between $100 and $145 an hour for labor......get the picture?

Dont' get me wrong....I'm not bad-mouthing a supercharger. I came very close to putting one in myself...even had it lined up to do the install.....it's just the hassle of the dogone California smog regs that stopped me. I've talked to a lot of guy who have them and they're all sold on them....but the prevailing attitude seems to be....save your money and put it towards a twin turbo.

That's what I'm doing now.

Chuck, let me clarify...the car my wife is strongly considering already has a SC on there...I want to find out what's involved (i.e. $$$$) to take it OFF. I know, kind of an oxymoron but before we pull the trigger on this purchase I've got to be assured we can get the thing registered and insured.

[Chuck Jones]

Ok...now I see where you're coming from. It would take less time to take it off than put it on...but then again, when you take it off, does the PO have all the original parts to take the vehicle back to original status? There is still goign to be quite a bit of time involved in retro'ing the car back to stock. Again, since I have no personal knowledge of the time involved, I would do a google search on SharkWerks and ask Alex for a quote. James does most of the install/removal work at SharkWerks and he is a walking encyclopaedia for the How-To....but this isnt going to be cheap. You do have the option of recouping some of your money by selling off the supercharger after it's removed. What brand is it?

If you do manage to get it retro'd and back to stock, you should have no problem getting it registerd or insured. I hope you're getting a really good deal on this car, because this seems like an awfully lot of trouble to be going through when you could just buy one without a SC on it and be done with it. Out of curiosity...is this car red?

[jmj996]

Thanks for the insight. One more question related to this. If we decided to remove the supercharger approximately what would it entail and how much would it be? Any ideas?

Unless this is a really incredible deal, it's really not worth the trouble because there are more than enough good used 996's out there. Besides, a previously supercharged 996 is going to have experienced more strain than a comparable non-supercharged 996, so if the end product is a non-supercharged engine, it would usually be safer to find a 996 that never had one.