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Comment by blasphemers | Hacker News Reader

I don't think they made an exception because he is famous, they made an exception because he is an extremely successful professional driver and I doubt they would make the same exception for Taylor Swift.

Where do you get that it violates the company rules? The Nurburgring is a public road that doesn't have rules against rental cars and it's pretty common for people to take rental cars on it.

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There are two kinds of rentals, normal rental cars and rental cars at a premium price that are equipped for track use and carry extra insurance. People do it but normal rental cars aren't allowed on the track per the contract.

https://www.rhinocarhire.com/Car-Hire-Blog/September-2019/Ca...

You can take a rental car there, the track itself has no rules against it. Several companies in the area have specific cars for rent to use on the ring.

But for a normal Hertz/Sixt etc rental car you can run into insurance issues if you crash. Because circuit / race / timed use is excluded and damage to the track is as well (which is common on the ring and expensive).

Cars specific for ring use have insurance that includes it, but usually with a relatively high excess. Expect to pay the first few thousand yourself if you crash.

> Because circuit / race / timed use is excluded

You‘re talking about Terroristenfahrten? During Terroristenfahrten, Nordschleife is a public one way, two lane highway (a toll road) and no time tracking is allowed.

There are public roads in Hawaii that rental companies won't let you take their cars on as well like the Road to Hana on Maui. Too dangerous - ocean waves eating away at the road, falling rocks and boulder risks, etc. It's only 64 miles but over 600 curves, 59 bridges many of which are single-lane, sweeping elevation changes - it takes a few hours.

I see no reason why a private company can't forbid you from using their property on certain public roads.

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