Classic Car Club
Ever wondered how to drive all those classics you love? Here's how.
On a summer day, I'll take the E-Type Roadster. For wet B-roads the Subaru Impreza or Audi Quattro. The AMG Mercedes or Bentley will impress when I take friends for dinner. For sheer fun, admiring glances and pure adrenalin rush I'll agonisingly choose one of seven Ferraris, perhaps the Porsche 911 Turbo or legendary Carrera RS or maybe one of the Aston Martins.
Rather than buying a new shopping car that would lose a third of its value in a year while a finance plan eats my cash, I decided I deserved to drive something a bit special, but not pay any more for the privilege.
The Classic Car Club has an ever-changing, varied fleet of interesting cars and is run by an enthusiastic team at a bargain price. For a touch over £200 a month, I get around 40-50 days a year in anything from a Morris Minor to a Ferrari. I don't pay any insurance costs - good job as it would cost a 27-year-old like myself a fortune -- or have to worry about big bills leaping at me unexpectedly. Everything's included in the price and, unlike hiring a sports car from a specialist company, I can drive as many miles as I like. In fact, the only catches I've found so far released the bonnet of an E-Type Jag...
The Classic Car Club is based around an integral points system and you are assigned a number of points based upon the package you choose. You trade the points for days in the cars and the more exotic the car, the more points you'll need. Obviously, varying the type of cars you drive will increase the number of days you'll spend in them.
If you only want to drive Ferraris you'll get fewer days, but the beauty is that it's entirely your choice. Having said that, some of the biggest surprises have been from the lower band cars. When I took out my first car from the club, an immaculate 1974 BMW 2002. Basically, a forerunner to the modern 3 series, I parked it next to a new Aston Martin DB7 in my local pub car park and it stole the spotlight.
In August I drove a gorgeous Ferrari 328 GTB, with the most incredible soundtrack and real 'punch-you-in-the-back' performance. All I had to pay for was enough super unleaded to transport my ridiculous grin 450 miles over three days. I even got my golf clubs in the boot.
To rent a similar car from a hire company would've cost me over £1,000 with a hefty four figure deposit and a mileage restriction ,and I'm sure that my experience would have been overshadowed by the fear of anything happening to the car while in my possession. Furthermore, this wasn't one of those 'Drive A Ferrari' ads you see where an instructor briefs you for two hours before you drive three laps in fourth gear round a circuit. I parked the car on my driveway, took it to the pub, picked my other half up from work, waved at friends and pointing kids, drove right up to the doors of my local Porsche dealership... Let's face it, you want to be seen.
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The trip to the Goodwood Revival in September wouldn't have been quite so enjoyable if I'd taken our Ford Fiesta, rather than the club's 1974 Porsche 911 RS. I still can't believe the amount of interest the car generated that day and they never knew it wasn't mine.
The club's not just about borrowing cars though. There's a members room with leather sofa's and a pool tables, which forms a great place to chat with other members or simply relax - there's usually cold beer in the fridge, and I've made some good friends. You can't put a price on that.
More here: www.classiccarclub.co.uk/
I'm only 26 and have already driven a Porsche 911 RS, Porsche 911 Turbo, Ferrari 308 GTS (Like Magnum P.I.!!), Ferrari 328 GTB, a '70's BMW, E-Type V12 roadster and Aston Martin V8!!!! And all in the last couple of months. My neighbours think I'm loaded!!!
The cars are awesome and it's great to keep driving something different. It's a really laid back club too, and like the article says you meet some really interesting people.
In the end after a year, I still had loads of points remaining as I had wanted to use them but couldn't use them on the desirable cars. I wanted to renew my membership and come to some arrangement whereby I had some guarantee to use my left over points and be assured of getting those desirable cars.
I was left with no guarantee of this, still had to pay a large amount of money and again could lose it by not getting what I had bought - the use of some fine and desirable classic cars.
In the end I got no response from the club so didn't renew which was disappointing. But just think what 5 years membership could buy you
Mark
I haven't had any problems like you and have booked out Porsches and Ferrari's without bother. However, you do need to be in the right mindset to become a member. It is afterall a club, and not a hire company, so sometimes other members may not return a car in a timely fashion or a car will break down. But this has all added to the experience and when I've expected to pick up a Triumph Stag or MGB, have sometimes been given the keys to something more exotic due to cancellation!!
It's also wrong to compare to a classic car hire company. When I got married this year, I wanted an E-type-roadster for the weekend and was quoted over £1000 by classic car hire company's due to my age. CCC reserved their gorgeous red example with another car as a backup and made the day extra special.
I take the point about what you could buy for the money, but remember at CCC you aren't paying for insurance and maintenance yourself - and running an old Ferrari or E-type ain't cheap....
The great thing is you can join for a year, have the experience and leave or, like a couple of members I've met, renew your subscription for the ninth year in a row.
Believe me, I like the idea of this and could show lots of photo's of the cars I had, Bentley for the weekend, Aston for the week etc. It was just the lost faith that I wouldn't get what I'm paying for.
Maybe I should have joined the London branch, but would I have to pay the initial joining fee again? Could I get an incentive discount to rejoin. That would be nice!!
Mark
Not sure how long ago you were borrowing cars from them, but the London branch recently moved locations outside of the congestion charge and is much beeter palced than the office in Kings Cross. It's right next door to Jamie Oliver's restaurant.
I'm sure if you told them you've been a past member they may work out some kind of deal. Give it a try!
mrcarrerars said:
It's worth asking! I know that there are some 'Christmas Special' packages at the moment available from the London club.
Not sure how long ago you were borrowing cars from them, but the London branch recently moved locations outside of the congestion charge and is much beeter palced than the office in Kings Cross. It's right next door to Jamie Oliver's restaurant.
I'm sure if you told them you've been a past member they may work out some kind of deal. Give it a try!
I have been to their old and new premises. Maybe as a current member you could ask them what package they could do and perhaps PetrolTed might be sorting something given the coverage
Mark
I think it's fair to say, the key to membership is flexibility - if you're the sort of person who can plan ahead a bit, you'll enjoy your membership and get into the cars you want.
If you're the sort of guy who expects a Ferrari 348 to be available for the weekend on the Friday before -you'll probably be disappointed.
If you've been a member before, give a guy called Piers a call at London and have a chat...good luck!
Gon205 said:
I think it's fair to say, the key to membership is flexibility - if you're the sort of person who can plan ahead a bit, you'll enjoy your membership and get into the cars you want.
If you're the sort of guy who expects a Ferrari 348 to be available for the weekend on the Friday before -you'll probably be disappointed.
The bookings were done in a '4 week window'. The high band cars were hard to pin down during that time. A 24 hr period if I was lucky. It wasn't permitted to book outside the window without jokers. I didn't pay all that money to borrow a TR6 or similar as thats attainable, its unattainable cars to me that I joined for.
And like I say its a good idea and would do it again. Mark
From Warwick, getting into central London on a Friday night to pick up a car for the weekend, and then taking it back on Monday morning? Some hope!
However, if your work pattern allows and/or you live/work close then I can see nothing but good.
I kept getting the mailings for ages after deciding not to go ahead. Eventually I gave them a proposition: you buy a Countach LP400 and I'll join. No news so far....
We joined the Southend, Essex branch in September last year as founder members. We knew of the CCC and had no hesitation in handing over our money. Borrowed an absolutely beautiful Fiat Dino (1972) for our first car and believed it to be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
Didn't use it over the winter months but phoned up again in March of this year to start borrowing cars again. The problem was that the CCC Southend had closed down and nobody had bothered to tell us! You can imagine my 'surprise'. I immediately phoned London and they agreed to let us continue our membership there.
We found the cars we wanted difficult to get hold of - even when we used a joker. The cars seem to be used by a lot of non enthusiasts who have no idea how to treat them and consequently they suffer greatly in the hands of numpties. The cars are generally in a fairly poor state of repair unfortunately and some never seem to get treated. For a whole year we saw a Porsche 928 not move from the same spot desperately needing work. Same for the Caterham and one of the Jags.
The final straw came when we left our car there for the weekend and came back in the dark to collect it. Looked at it the next day and there was a huge dent in the back of it. I can guarantee it wasn't there before we dropped the car off - we're incredibly fastidious. Couldn't prove it though so we never mentioned it - our decision admittedly.
To sum things up, my husband ended up carrying out maintenance to 75% of the cars we borrowed from CCC. They are beautiful cars and they deserve a lot of respect but the majority of people borrowing them don't give them this. Added to this the turnaround time of these vehicles from drop off to the next pick up is so short that the poor tech's there don't have time to do the work required and are literally patching up on a regular basis has convinced me that there are better things to do with my £3k.
The 928 and Caterham are still there. I think the Caterham is for track use only, but to be fair with CCC they seem to have an ever changing fleet and any car that's off the road for a while seems to get taken off the website.
On the flipside, I've driven the new Porsche 911 Turbo which isn't even listed yet on the website.
I am an enthusiast and definitely not a 'numpty'.
I've never had to work on the cars myself - that's why I'm a member and find it weird you even contemplated some diy.
From my experience, they seem an honest and trustworthy bunch. My monies with CCC this year.
If I have to get my spanners out, I'll let you know!
Took out the club's new 911 Turbo last week - crikey it's blisteringly fast. 0-60mph in 5.2 secs for a 25 year old car. Only covered 70k from new and been Autofarm cared for - it's a real beauty! Returned it hassle free and picked up a Ferrari 308 GTS on the same day!!! Took the roof out to get the Christmas tree back from Homebase...don't tell the club!! Sshh!!
Loads of looks and put a smile on a lot of peoples faces - not too sure whether it was the car everybody was admiring all the freezing loonies in it!
I shan't name the club I went to but I was massively disapointed with the condition of the cars, namely worn shock absorbers, bad steering and just general lack of maintenance.
Their answer was that you have to expect some wear in older cars and I dispute that when you have that sort of income from these cars that replaceable parts should be left until they are making the vehicles dangerous,IMHO
By the way the company concerned are in the Midlands
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