Ecurie25: the supercar club
What's it like to hire an Aston Martin V8 Vantage? Nauman Farooq reports.
ecurie25's Aston Martin V8 Vantage
Buying a supercar can be a tricky and expensive affair.
Tricky because with so many dream machines to choose from, making a choice is hard. There is also a chance that you'll end up getting something that might not live up to your expectations, and that means you'll be looking to sell it.
Expensive because of depreciation. No matter what you buy today, you will lose a hefty amount a year down the road, in addition to the usual service, insurance and fuel costs.
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Add the fact you wouldn't use it as an everyday car, and it means you get little fun out of it. So owning a supercar can be downright impossible and for most if us, it's simply not an option. However, now there is a way to enjoy not just one, but several supercars, and all for a very reasonable price.
The solution comes from Ecurie25, Britain's newest supercar club. Describing itself as the “Intelligent Supercar Ownership” experience, for an annual fee of £8,000, you can spend time with a growing number of supercars from its fleet. The club has sorted the cars into three categories, differentiated by the number of points it costs you to hire a car. The cheaper the car, the more time you can spend driving it. Using your points equally among categories will see you motoring about 35 days a year.
All this driving fun, and you don't even have to worry about taking the car down to the garage for an oil change. Plus there is the personal service Ecurie25 provide, like picking up or dropping off your car at your convenience.
The experience
And that is how my time with Ecurie25 started. Flying in from Canada, I was collected from Heathrow Airport by marketing director Flora Heathcote who brought with her the lovely new Aston Martin V8 Vantage. As an experience to remember, being picked up from the airport in an Aston Martin makes you feel you have truly arrived.
Arrived and in the middle of a traffic jam and it took over an hour to get to Ecurie25's head office on Old Street, where I met MD Erik Fairbairn who had made all the arrangements for the day.
Having driven a Vanquish in the past and spent quite a lot of time with the DB9, I was really looking forward to seeing what the baby Aston was all about. One of the world's prettiest cars, it just makes you smile to look at it. It looked particularly good in Meteorite Silver paint -- a dark gun-metal grey.
Unlike Mr. Bond, I didn't feel quite as cool and composed as I headed out in London traffic. First of all, the clutch is heavy as is the gearbox and both took some getting used to, as did the London traffic. If it weren't for the car's excellent navigation system, I would still be lost somewhere in the capital.
The inevitable 911 question
Onto the motorway then, I felt much more relaxed and it didn't take long to answer two vital questions: yes, it sounds fantastic, and no, this car is not better than a Porsche 911.
First of all, full credit to Aston Martin for making such a beautiful car, which not only looks and sounds great, and handles very well. However, the 911 is still the better car to drive overall. While the 911 feels more fluid in all its controls and everything feels in harmony, there are a few things about the Aston that just aren't in sync.
As well as the clutch and gearbox, both of which are not as smooth as the 911's, there's the ride quality. You expect it to be a sporting GT car with a smooth ride with good body control, but not an out and out racer. The V8 Vantage however has a very stiff ride, which makes you feel every little tar-line and crack on the road, and there is more tyre noise when cruising than you'd expect from a car of this kind.
However, I would like to point out, that when you start driving it with a bit more vigour, things seem to flow better and the car feels more natural. After all, this car spent a lot of time being fettled on the famous Nürburgring. So take it by the scruff of its neck, and it plays its game better.
Yet the more time you spend with this car, the better it gets. Like a friendship that grows better with time, I really did start falling in love with it. Technically it might not be as sorted as the 911, I can honestly understand why one would choose a V8 Vantage as their supercar of choice.
It looks and sounds great (have I mentioned that enough?) and being in this Aston Martin makes you feel special -- and ultimately that's what a car like this is supposed to do.
It is also supposed to be very fast. While not earth-shatteringly fast, an honest 0-60 mph run in 5.2 seconds topping out at 175 mph, it's is no slouch. And not bad for a naturally aspirated 4.3-litre V8 with 380bhp. Just be careful how much you enjoy that power, since this car has a serious drink problem.
No commitment required
So it's not a bad car by any means: I took it home and it was great to arrive at my destination in it. But I wouldn't buy one, which is the whole point of clubs such as Ecurie25: if you don't like a car, you don't have to take it home.
Imagine this: if you bought a V8 Vantage and drove it 5,000 miles, you'd probably lose £10,000 in one year in depreciation alone. For less, you can become an Ecurie25 member and play with a whole collection of cars. With a vast variety to choose from at Ecurie25, you can see for yourself which supercar makes you feel more super.
Thing is though - the 911 is still a 911, seen of every street corner.
This is an ASTON MARTIN. You feel special in the AMV8.
I didn't in the 997S.
Having taken both out, its Aston all the way for me...
And doncha just love the number plate on the Aston? Ooooh..... lol
So £8k for 20 days or £12-13k for a 365 day ownership incl depreciation - hmmmmmm
I like the idea of these clubs but only the classic ones seem to make financial sense to me (other than do it for just one year to scratch all the itches)
I did, just doing summer in the AMV8 and i came out with 19 days.
Though in reality it would also be a bit in winter...
5000 miles over 19 days - i'd wager an AMV8 with 5000 miles in its first year would drop more than £8k.
But lets look at this another way - you're talking about cars you'd actually enjoy - how about the F430 Spider F1?
5000 miles in a year on an F430 will make it plummet in value, then you have insurance and servicing to think about - all in it'll probably cost you £30k if you do that mileage.
Think of it that way (as i did) and £8k becomes mighty tempting...
Then think again that you have the choice of the F430, or the Gallardo, or the 997S, or AMV8...etc need i go on?
35 days a year, accessible definately but it isn't an alternative to ownership. Anybody who owns any of these cars and only drives them 35 days a year doesn't deserve to drive them, let alone own them. Unless they have a dozen exotics in the garage
You are exactly right. The most important factor in buying a car is how fast it is around the Isle of Mann (just as the most important factor in buying a house is clearly how large it is). Seeing a 911 "trounce" the V8 by a six second margin on a wet course would be enough to put any logical person off of the car. Fortunately, logic does not always win out.
John
For instance, I love being able to get into a car after a bad day at work and enjoy the evening at a moment's notice to forget about it all. Or commute in it/see it out of the window every morning to remind me why I work. Or decide at the last minute I want to go off onto the continent for a weekend's driving when a couple of days free up. And, for £8k a year, you could fund running anything from a Tuscan to a 911 on a daily basis. Hell, you could run such a car as an everyday motor for TWO years for £8k (yes, including depreciation, servicing, etc). 30 days a year... 10 (not-all-that) long weekends a year... 30 days without having a "toy" to play with for every 1 (not-all-that) long weekend's fun? Again, I'm sure that suits some people beautifully, but it still doesn't sound like a Utopian world to me; something that didn't quite come across in that article, I'm afraid!
Nice write-up on the Vantage, mind.
suryade said:
Haha. That is a great post. Buying a car and a house are two different things though. I live in a 3200 sqft house and of course I love it more than my previous 1800 sqft house. Because it is indeed bigger and more spacious and has a lot more luxury than the previous one. Similarly with the Vantage and the Porsche there is simply no comparison. With Porsche I know my car wont break down. With the Vantage I would be worried about that. With my Porsche I will wake up every morning and think gorgeous car and it goes faster than it looks. With the Vantage I would think...looks flash but doesnt go flash enough and I would be disappointed. It could have been better but somehow it isnt in the end. No need to take it so personally mate!
The only problem with that argument being that when you look out of your window in the morning, you will see 400 porsche's for every AMV8 (my point being that with mass supply, demand will drop which will lead to plummeting values and just being plain sick to death of seeing porkas everywhere), but I realise some people prefer a lap time to class thats understandable. BTW in recent years Porsche have had many more engine and transmission failures than any Aston, as seen on quite a few 996's.
But hey I dont think a Porsche owner and an Aston owner could meet in the middle on this discussion, so lets just agree that Im right
suryade said:
Haha. That is a great post. Buying a car and a house are two different things though. I live in a 3200 sqft house and of course I love it more than my previous 1800 sqft house. Because it is indeed bigger and more spacious and has a lot more luxury than the previous one. Similarly with the Vantage and the Porsche there is simply no comparison. With Porsche I know my car wont break down. With the Vantage I would be worried about that. With my Porsche I will wake up every morning and think gorgeous car and it goes faster than it looks. With the Vantage I would think...looks flash but doesnt go flash enough and I would be disappointed. It could have been better but somehow it isnt in the end. No need to take it so personally mate!
Having had both a 997 from new and a Vantage from new my experience is that the Vantage won the reliability contest. After the first 2000 miles the Porsche had three reasonably serious faults, the Aston had none.
As for the performance difference, there isn't enough of one to tell that there is a difference in normal driving. Even on a track any difference in time would be more down to the driver than the car. Sure, in the wet the Porsche probably has the edge - with all that engine sat over the back wheels it should - and that is what the Top Gear test showed. But in everyday driving there is little in it.
As for how you feel, that is personal, but my Porsches (I've had a 996 C2, a 996 C4S and a 997 C4S) have all been cars I respected, but none make me feel how the Aston makes me feel. And the same is true for other people, they go out of their way to let you into traffic in and Aston, I'm not sure I've driven it without someone giving me a thumbs up. People stare at it and love it. That never happened in the Porsche.
siscar said:
Haha. That is a great post. Buying a car and a house are two different things though. I live in a 3200 sqft house and of course I love it more than my previous 1800 sqft house. Because it is indeed bigger and more spacious and has a lot more luxury than the previous one. Similarly with the Vantage and the Porsche there is simply no comparison. With Porsche I know my car wont break down. With the Vantage I would be worried about that. With my Porsche I will wake up every morning and think gorgeous car and it goes faster than it looks. With the Vantage I would think...looks flash but doesnt go flash enough and I would be disappointed. It could have been better but somehow it isnt in the end. No need to take it so personally mate!
Having had both a 997 from new and a Vantage from new my experience is that the Vantage won the reliability contest. After the first 2000 miles the Porsche had three reasonably serious faults, the Aston had none.
As for the performance difference, there isn't enough of one to tell that there is a difference in normal driving. Even on a track any difference in time would be more down to the driver than the car. Sure, in the wet the Porsche probably has the edge - with all that engine sat over the back wheels it should - and that is what the Top Gear test showed. But in everyday driving there is little in it.
As for how you feel, that is personal, but my Porsches (I've had a 996 C2, a 996 C4S and a 997 C4S) have all been cars I respected, but none make me feel how the Aston makes me feel. And the same is true for other people, they go out of their way to let you into traffic in and Aston, I'm not sure I've driven it without someone giving me a thumbs up. People stare at it and love it. That never happened in the Porsche.
I feel the same and have had similar experiences. The Porsche is good...... but not at good as the V8.
I'd love one as a second car.
997S owner
. Makes you look and feel great, goes like nothing else and leaves you wanting more......but at the end of the day she's not yours to love and cherish and you have to hand her back for the next "client" to abuse. BTW, the aston for me over the 997 everytime. No contest....1000 times cooler.
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