UK insurance rates

["Ian J Haseltine" <jim_haseltine@email.msn.com>]

Anyone in the UK who is about to renew their insurance?
Prepare yourself for a shock - insurance companies have agreed that premiums
for 'performance' cars should rise from 1st April. No, its isn't an April
Fools joke either, its true.
I received my renewal invitation this week and thought that it had been
mixed up with someone else's, the premium had increased by 62%. OK, the Ur-q
has some modifications, but nothing OTT, it doesn't run nitrous or anything
and its not like I am a high risk driver, I'm 40 and have only ever made one
claim - 14 years ago.
According to my broker, I can reduce the increase to 38% if I get a full
engineer's report on the vehicle. When I bought the car I was told by the
vendor that he had been told by the guy that had owned it before him that it
was chipped, so I insured it as such. Are there any markings or id on the
standard chip in the ecu so that I can prove this one way or the other? I
mean, its going to sound a bit suspicious if I now tell my broker that its
not chipped after all unless I have some sort of proof.

I have to admit that for a while I started to think "Is it really worth it?"
but then I went for a drive....... :-)

Jim Haseltine