Auto Express

10th February 2008

	If you join a supercar club, for a third the cost of buying an Aston Martin, Porsche or Lambo, you can 'own' a dozen

The other day, I was reading a newspaper report which said that we no longer strive to ‘Keep up with the Joneses’, but instead want to ‘Keep
up with the celebs’! We are, apparently in the middle of a ‘spendemic’ – piling up debts by borrowing to have what we can’t really afford. That might just mean splashing out on a few fancy accessories to try and emulate Posh and Becks, investing in an expensive nip and tuck to hold back the years or simply trying to party like Prince Harry.

But for those of us who have petrol in our veins, it means having a supercar. Now, to do that means borrowing around £130,000 – which would cost you at least £9,000 a year on interest alone. Then there’s £4,000 for the insurance, £3,000 for servicing, and the fact that you’ll probably lose the best part of £20,000 in depreciation. So one year ‘driving like a celeb’ is going to set you back the best part of £36,000!

However, there is an alternative. One where your chat-up line can be “What’s your favourite car?” and, whatever the answer – be it Ferrari, Aston Martin, Lamborghini or Porsche – you can coolly answer: “Amazing, as I’ve got one of those. How about I pick you up for a weekend’s drive?!” The way to do this, of course, is by joining a supercar club, where for about a third of the cost of buying one supercar, you ‘own’ a dozen!

It was Damon Hill’s ‘P1 Club’ that set the standard around eight years ago and, although Damon is no longer attached, the club flourishes to this day. Pretenders have come and gone, but P1 now has several serious rivals. There are some which cost less – like écurie25, which you can join for £750 and then pay £9,995 for the year – and some which cost more. The Segrave Club aims for the upper end of the market, with its £5,000 joining fee and £16,000 subscription. In between, you have the likes of Vitesse in the north-east and Group 20, which is based in Kent, but is building a franchising network across the country. Then there’s the very newest of them all. Club Velocitá launched only last month– and I have just become member number one!

No, of course I haven’t actually paid to join, but the club has kindly asked me to become an honorary member so that I can ‘road test’ the whole car sharing club membership experience. I know you think I’m driving new Ferraris regularly, but the reality is I only ever get to drive these machines for a day at a time, or two if I’m lucky.

Even then there’s a camera on board, with the pressure to come up with a descriptive storyline to bring the viewers with me for an experience most will probably never have. You see, I never get to drive them ‘normally’, to impress my kids on the school run or go for a blast all
on my own – to simply experience all the wonderful sensations that these motors can provide.

So when the screen went back at the launch to reveal ‘my’ cars for the year, it gave me a genuine buzz – my boys will go crazy when Lambo’s Murciélago LP640 Roadster burbles up the school drive! There’s the Bentley Continental GTC for a long gentle cruise, the Ferrari F430 of course, and my favourite Aston Martin – a manual V8 Vantage.

All the clubs serve up a similar feast of machinery, and if you’re serious about joining you’ll have to delve into the way each one works, to see which suits you best. Different fees represent different member-to-car ratios, varying numbers of days and mileage limits but, on an average you’ll get around 50 days for about £250 per day – and, let’s face it, if you’re living like a celeb, that’s just the cost of dinner!