un-super car club

[5lab]

would there be a market for this? Same idea as a supercar club - ie an annual membership that gets you 'points' that equate to days in different cars - but at the lower end? I'm thinking a fleet including things like

mx5 (duh)
205 gti
mk1 gti
e30 325
306 ralleye
some muscle - camaro or similar
mini
2cv
caterfield
big old merc
vw combi
some sort of tvr

etc etc etc - basically a fleet of cars all costing under (say) 10k. The depreciation would be largely bypassed on this kind of thing, leaving only maintanance and admin costs to get through - might be able to get 10 days for under a grand, making it a smashing gift for an enthusiast..

would it work? or would everything get thrashed so hard that the costs of keeping them going would skyrocket?

H

ps. I've no intention of setting this kinda thing up. Far too lazy, so if anyone wants to steal my idea, go right ahead

[Rotary Madness]

I think insurance would be the biggest problem money wise, which might put it into the same prices as a days rental for a proper supercar?

Also parts are probably easy to get, its going to be all that labour fixing them, because they will be thrashed to within an inch of their lives.

[Skylinecrazy]

I can just picture some bloke thrashing a Citroen 2CV within an inch of its life.

[Witchfinder]

I thought all these companies were really struggling?

There does seem to be a market for trackday hire - stuff like Caterhams, Westfields, Ariels, Lotuses, and suchlike though.

[rockandrollmark]

Bah,

Screw the economics of it. If such a club existed I'd certainly join up. There are so many sub £10k cars which I'd love to have for a weekend.

Throw in in a whale-tail cossie and put my name down.

[Mr Dave]

rockandrollmark said:

Throw in in a whale-tail cossie and put my name down.

And me.

[Swarley]

And an old landy

Sounds like the shed club. I like it!

[williamp]

Outide a few of us, I just cant see it making sense from a business case I'm afriad.

A lot of the supercar clubs are bought be people who can affrod them, but dont have the time or space- they have disposable income, in other words. These same people wont want non-supercars.

So who will? Who would want an 80s car? Apoart from types like me who loves the 80s, most people will drive them and find them not very good, a bit small, slower and drink more fuel

Oh, and they would have to be in very good condition- you dont want them breaking down on you. So you'll need to pay good money for the best

I just dont think you'll have enough people willing to spend money for an 80s car. They may do it once, for one car, but I doubt if you'll get the repeat business- people wont want to drive all of them, so wont pay to join the club

Sorry.

[Wadeski]

this comes up every month of so.

99% of the people who rent supercars arent petrolheads. they are birthday presents, stag do presents, red letter days, and corporate incentives.

its quite hard to sell the benefits of a 20 year old Lancia to someone who has no interest in cars beyond newer = better and "is it a Ferrari"?

[slipstream 1985]

look at it from another way, its a good way to test out cars us pistonheaders might buy. a few tvrs lotus elise elan mx5 a scooby bunch of hot hatches etc. the package could be 3 of the same class of car you are thinking of.

[Google [bot]]

Skylinecrazy said:

I can just picture some bloke thrashing a Citroen 2CV within an inch of its life.

By which you mean driving it the only way you can! And they take it, and for me that is just one of the desirable aspects of the 2CV for me.

[R11ysf]

[quote=rockandrollmark]Bah,

Screw the economics of it. If such a club existed I'd certainly join up. There are so many sub £10k cars which I'd love to have for a weekend.

Throw in in a whale-tail cossie and put my name down.[/quote

It already exists though. Slightly different cars but the same theory

http://www.classiccarclub.co.uk/classics.asp

[Fidgits]

i cant see why anyone would want to be in a club with that sort of car listing, and given most are quite old, i imagine they will get thrashed and die while out on loan...

not a good buisness idea IMO.

[Fer]

Google [bot] said:

Skylinecrazy said:

I can just picture some bloke thrashing a Citroen 2CV within an inch of its life.

By which you mean driving it the only way you can! And they take it, and for me that is just one of the desirable aspects of the 2CV for me.

I was about to say "It's the only way to drive one..."

I had a blast with my one, although it was years ago. Scariest thing was the stopping distance, about three weeks, IIRC.

[RobM77]

Fidgits said:

i cant see why anyone would want to be in a club with that sort of car listing, and given most are quite old, i imagine they will get thrashed and die while out on loan...

not a good buisness idea IMO.

It's a good point. Most Supercar Club stock is fairly factory fresh, and fast enough to make thrashing them hard on the public road. MX5s, MR2s, 205 GTis etc are slow enough to be completely hammered everywhere by hirers, and also old enough to break when they do. Even if it did work, I wouldn't want to be on the complaints department!

[honest_delboy]

There must be something in it as that classiccarclub has been around for ages. A tempting alternative to owning some of that stuff outright.

As it is a niche market you'd have less members but i assume insurance and depreciation/leasing costs would be alot less.

E39 M5
E46 M3
928
Masser 3200
Boxster
Z4
L200/Navara
S500/S-Type
TTR
RS4/6
Corrado VR6

Good luck, and remember to e-mail me if you need someone to razz the cars around for direct marketing purposes.

[RobM77]

honest_delboy said:

L200/Navara

eh?

[HFLagos]

The economics simply would not work as commented before, insuring the "cheap" fleet alone would be pretty costly

[frosted]

Would anyone pay 100 a day to drive a 306 or a 205 ?

[sherman]

RobM77 said:

honest_delboy said:

L200/Navara

eh?

Pickups. Probably quite useful as towcars for the rest of the fleet or for using to move stuff about. Why hire a van when you have already paid your membership and have access to a pickup.