When you set out to buy a supercar, hypercar, or luxury vehicle, the purchase cost is just a part of the equation, as one must also consider maintenance and insurance. So, how much does it cost to insure a supercar/hypercar in the U.S.? The answer might surprise you, with a YouTube-famous car collector having shared a strategy that allows him to keep his monthly premiums impressively low.
This case study focuses on Steve Hamilton, the 35-year-old behind the Illinois-based Hamilton Collection, who has built a stellar status on social media thanks to sharing top-end vehicle content while enjoying these cars with his family and friends.
Now, before we move any further, we need to explain Steve’s current insurance situation. Up until a couple of months ago, The Hamilton Collection used a single insurance carrier for its 30+ vehicles (Country Financial), be these high-end or normal rides.
Crashing you hypercar may see your insurance carrier dropping you
Alas, back in November 2022, a friend of Steve drove his former McLaren Senna into oncoming traffic and got T-boned by another car. The British hypercar, of which just 500 were built, got totaled, with damage to the carbon fiber tub. Steve chose not to keep the car due to the expensive repairs it would’ve required, so his insurance provided wrote him a $1.4M check for the vehicle. Still, fellow YouTubers of the goonzquad channel bought the crashed Senna from the insurance company and are working to rebuild it.
Alas, following that accident, the insurance carrier dropped Steve altogether. And, as the YouTuber discovered, founding another carrier that would insure the over 30 vehicles in full The Hamilton Collection wasn’t possible.
The idea here is that such a request would usually result in background checks that led insurance to his YouTube channel and seeing all the extreme stuff he does with the cars certainly didn’t help with being accepted.
Nevertheless, Steve turned to Andrew of Green Brook Insurance, who came up with the following strategy: the man split The Hamilton Collection into groups of 5 or 6 cars, insuring these individually after querying around 30 carriers and working with 4 of them. This even brought the advantage of lower premiums for insuring multiple vehicles. Of course, the carrier change meant some of the premiums went up, while others came down.
How much does it cost to insure a supercar/hypercar in the US?
We’ll list the insurance costs for the sports cars, supercars, hypercars, and luxury vehicles in The Hamilton Collection,
Steve explains the amount of money he thinks each car is worth, along with his past and current monthly insurance premium:
The $1.2 million McLaren Senna (he bought a second one) monthly insurance premium went from $215 to $239. The $250,000 992 Porsche 911 GT3 RS went from $83 to $82/month. The Rezvani Hercules 6×6 went from $104 to $401/month due to this being a $400,000 build that used to be titled as a Jeep Gladiator.
The $110,000 Cadillac Escalade went from $79 to $70/month. The R35 Nissan GT-R went from $112 to $113/month. The $125,000 Audi R8 went from $106 to $125 (this is a 1,000 hp twin-turbo build).
Moving on to the $3 million Pagani Huayra Roadster, this went from $226 to $192/month. The $400,000 first-gen Ford GT (aka Doug DeMuro’s daily after buying the Porsche Carrera GT) went from $52 to $82/month.
The Bugatti Chiron (!) went from $734 to $724/month and this is the most expensive car to insure in the entire collection. Even so, the YouTuber’s $700,000 Rolls-Royce Phantom, which is a recent purchase and therefore insured for the first time, comes second, with a monthly premium of $601—we’ll get back to this.
Next up, the $300,000 Lamborghini Urus, which is the car the man drives the most, went from $155 to $250/month. Moving into classic territory, the $155,000 1991 Ferrari Testarossa went from $50 to $79/month, and the $350,000 (needs some work, otherwise valued at $750,000) Lamborghini Countach went from $54 to $254/month.
The Hamilton Collection’s insurance prices also cover the Holy Trinity of hybrid hypercars: the $2 million Porsche 918 Spyder went from $74 to $369/month, while the $3.5 million LaFerrari (the Collection’s most expensive car to buy) went from $201 to $191. Then there’s the $1.6 million McLaren P1 (Tavarish is still busy fixing his flooded P1) went from $182 to $181/month.
Speaking of McLarens, which this enthusiast loves, the $550,000 675LT went from $146 to $266/month.
In total, The Hamilton Collection has seen the total 12-month insurance costs for the 18 or so vehicles listed above rising from $38,088 to $50,248. This means that, relative to the overall value of this partial collection, the total annual insurance costs only represent 0.25% of the vehicles’ total value, up from about 0.20%.
How to pay so little for the insurance premium of supercars?
Steve talks about splitting the collection into 5/6-vehicle groups above. However, this still doesn’t tells us why he pays a smaller monthly premium than many people do for their an average car like the Honda Civic.
After all, at $50,000 per year, it would take an insurance company 28 years to recover the $1.4 million check written for that totaled Mclaren P1 (yes, the carrier also made mode by auctioning off the hypercar).
And we expect the secret to pay so little for supercar insurance to involve limited mileage (e.g., pay-per-mile insurance), since he and the other drivers only take these high-end vehicles out on the road on certain occasions.
This may also explain why the Rolls-Royce Phantom is so expensive to insure—we assume he uses that more often, as he has confirmed with the Urus. Either way, one thing is certain: whenever you’re looking for insurance, doing your homework thoroughly pays off. So keep in mind that The Hamilton Collection video below may be just one part of the puzzle for you.