'It’s a hell of a lot more fun than Wentworth. For one thing, you can’t hit 60mph in sub-three seconds in a golf buggy, can you?': What makes Auto Vivendi the ultimate supercar garage
It's a small club, and you could be in it.
We all know the Groucho Marx line about not wanting to be a member of a club who would have someone like me for a member. But what if your values are more extreme and exotic? I wouldn’t want to be a member of a club that doesn’t require a safety briefing before joining.
Auto Vivendi is not the sort of establishment that has a hushed library or a coffee room with old masters on the wall. It’s a supercar members club. That means that when you cross the threshold, instead of being greeted with busts of Edwardian gentlemen, you can savour the rather more electrifying vista of gleaming Ferraris, Lamborghinis and Aston Martins.
'In total, the club has chewed its way through 3.5 million miles, 30 track days, and 350 vehicles — 68 of which were Ferraris'
Auto Vivendi’s clubhouse is an easy-to-miss garage on a residential road in St John’s Wood, London. It was an Addison Lee repair shop and car wash previously, but now it’s a high-security facility housing about eight million quid’s worth of state-of-the-art vehicular treasure. I spot no less than seven Ferraris — the entire current production range — while towards the back there’s a classic red F355 Spider from the 1990s. There’s a Rolls-Royce Spectre, and a stunning dark green carbon-fibre 992.2 GT3 Porsche. There’s a Mercedes G63, a long-wheel-base new Range Rover, and a couple of McLarens and Astons. And there’s at least half a dozen Lamborghinis, including the latest 1,001bhp hybrid-V12 Revuelto. At the front of the clubhouse, ready to be driven out, is a lurid orange Huracán Sterrato, the crazy limited-edition ‘all-terrain’ Lambo that looks like a 12-year-old child’s Dakar-inspired fever dream. It’s about to be mine for the afternoon.
Auto Vivendi's Lamborghini Huracán Sterrato in its more natural habitat.
On the walls behind this mobile gallery are murals of superhero characters, Formula One works by the artist and former mechanic Paul Oz, and painter Richard Scott, who specialises in linear swimsuit models. I suspect a lot of Auto Vivendi’s members will have had Athena posters of Countachs and F40s plastered on their bedroom walls as teenagers, along with that tennis player scratching her posterior. This is that, but 3D. There’s a Veuve Clicquot bar and a pop-up Hublot watch emporium, should you need to check the time and have a spare £20,000 in your wallet.
It’s fair to say Auto Vivendi caters for a crowd who might buy a Hublot on a whim. There are seven different membership levels available. The bottom rung allows for 15 annual days of car usage and just 750 miles, priced at £15,000 for the year. The highest rung allows 365 days of usage and 12,000 miles, so you can have your pick of supercars to go anywhere at any time. This subscription is from £133,875 (it goes up if you live outside London and need the cars delivered). Most members plump for the middle rung, which is 40 days’ usage and 2,000 miles each year from £31,950. There’s a one-off joining fee of £2,950. All these prices are excluding VAT, by the way.
'Julian takes a dim view of any funny business. "Supercars are like loaded shotguns and need to be respected at all times"'
If you can afford this, why not buy your own supercar? The Huracán Sterrato, for instance, could be all yours for £230,000. That’s for eternity, not for a couple of years of mileage-restricted membership. Well, with ownership sometimes comes headaches. This way you needn’t worry about maintenance bills, garaging or even insurance. Also, most of these cars will depreciate in value, and that’s not your problem. And for those who get bored easily, you can have a different supercar every week. AV currently has 31 on their books.
‘Our members come from all backgrounds, male and female, often self-made successful people, but all with a zest for life,’ says managing director Craig Williams.
‘Many of our members are supercar owners prior to joining, however they enjoy the variety and convenience the club offers. Others have little experience of driving supercars, but enjoy the freedom and hassle-free model we offer, and the lifestyle that comes with it. For some members, it’s simply about access to the cars, while others join specifically for the events — in particular our European driving tours and adventure holidays.’
Auto Vivendi managing director Craig Williams.
I’m visiting the club to experience the induction process that all new members go through. Each new member must undergo a ‘self-drive awareness day’ before they’re let loose on their own. It’s basically geared to ensure you’re not a menace on the road, and if you haven’t a huge amount of performance car experience the AV team will coach you. Either way, it feels a little like sitting your driving test again, but with a 600bhp Lamborghini rather than the 80bhp Ford Fiesta you first did it in. My driver coach for the day is Julian Phillips, who is one of 10 ex-policemen who work with the club. I’m told one of them took two months off last year to tour as a member of Taylor Swift’s security. Julian’s old gig is potentially even more gossip-rich — he worked in royal protection, specifically for the couple formerly known as the Yorks.
Before we get to the driving bit, I’m ushered into a conference room and have to sit through a video. It dispenses some pretty common sense advice on how to approach high-power high-value cars, but imagine watching Die Hard II before you head to the airport — except instead of crashed planes and terrorists it’s smashed Ferraris and comical excuses for reckless driving. ‘One long-standing member of the club did that the day after their wedding,’ says Julian, pointing at the screen to a destroyed F430. ‘Cold tyres’. Apparently another wanted to defer paying the £25,000 insurance excess – ‘Can I pay for my holiday first?’ they asked. Being a former copper, Julian takes a dim view of any funny business. ‘Supercars are like loaded shotguns and need to be respected at all times.’
'Our tours are often a week long, circa 900 miles driving 10 supercars back-to-back, with five-star hospitality and cuisine throughout'
The European driving tours are a highlight of Auto Vivendi membership, a chance to really test the fleet of 31 supercars.
We end up taking the Sterrato out of London and into Buckinghamshire for a pub lunch, before heading back into town. Given I don’t think we ever got outside of a 50mph zone, and it was all on tarmac as opposed to the dirt, sand and gravel its four-wheel-drive and raised ride height are designed for, it probably wasn’t the best demonstration of its abilities. Nevertheless, the burble of its 5.2-litre naturally-aspirated V10 is incapable of not raising a smile, and other motorists and pedestrians stare slack-jawed at seeing a Lamborghini that’s been spec’d by Mad Max.
A more suitable drive would, of course, be on one of the European road trips Auto Vivendi likes to arrange. A convoy of members recently visited the beautiful blacktop in Croatia, and went ice driving in Norway. Every year, they descend on the Monaco Grand Prix where they have access to a superyacht.
‘As we own all the cars, it gives us the versatility to create exclusive, curated events that we know our members will enjoy,’ Craig says. ‘Our tours are often a week long, circa 900 miles driving 10 supercars back-to-back, with five-star hospitality and cuisine throughout.’
Craig’s business card reads ‘Life is tough… I used to be an oil broker’. Doubtless it gave him his eye for business and understanding of the lifestyles of HNWIs. He first got into the supercar club business in 2000 with P1, a groundbreaking venture fronted by Formula One’s Damon Hill that ultimately folded in 2009 under the weight of escalating costs. Craig had already gone his own way and established Ecurie 25 in 2005, before it changed its name to Auto Vivendi in 2014. It’s now the world’s largest and longest established supercar club, and has proven sustainable by celebrating its 20th birthday with a glamorous party at the clubhouse last December.
'Members say "I came for the cars and stayed for the people". They’re not necessarily petrolheads'
Auto Vivendi is one of only three supercar members clubs in the UK, the other two being the Supercar Members Club (Ronseal, anyone?) which has rates from £16,500-a-year to £130,000 and a slightly older stock of cars than AV (they have a very good stock of Lamborghini Aventadors SVJs), and Prestige Keys which is predominantly a rental outfit with a £500-£1,000-a-month subscription scheme. Should you wish to skip the membership, they’ll rent you a Lamborghini Huracán Performante for £1,300-a-day.
‘There were six or seven supercar members clubs in the noughties, but it was usually owners trying to turn a hobby into a business,’ says Craig about the drop off of clubs. ‘The members they were attracting signed up because they couldn’t afford to own one themselves. And if their circumstances changed, they would quit the club immediately. Auto Vivendi is a more sustainable model. We have 130 members and capacity for 200. The cars are only out being used 30% of the time. About 95% of our members are based in the UK, and 90% of them are in London and the Home Counties. It’s a high barrier to entry, but that’s a reflection on what we’re able to offer and the fact we’re well established. Members say "I came for the cars and stayed for the people". They’re not necessarily petrolheads. Members socialise here at the clubhouse, and they sometimes go on holiday together. There’s a real family feeling to it.’
While I was out driving the Lambo for a few hours, Craig went and bought a new £334,000 Aston Martin Vanquish. The club keeps each car for 18 months on average, before replacing them with a new model. Sometimes members buy the cars off Craig when he’s done with them. There’s a WhatsApp group where members can lobby for different machines and specs. In total, the club has chewed its way through 3.5 million miles, 30 track days, and 350 vehicles — 68 of which were Ferraris.
A convoy of members recently visited the beautiful blacktop in Croatia.
I met a couple of members milling around the club, including Jason, a Nigerian businessman who’s in London enough to justify the spend and has come to pick up a 986bhp Ferrari SF90. Another, called Ben from Surrey, made his millions in the cleaning and pest control racket. When I asked him what the best car he’s had was, he told me the Ferrari 599 that he got up to 190mph on the way to his house (I’m guessing he doesn’t live at the end of a private runway, but let’s give him the benefit of the doubt). That’s nothing compared to another member, called Sharan, who hit 212mph during a club event — and that really was on a runway.
While most of these cars are hot off the production line, there’s a bright yellow 1996 Dodge Viper at the back that I would definitely book out immediately were I a member. Craig calls this and the F355 and a replica Porsche 356 the club owns as his ‘wild cards’. I reckon the perfect supercar garage needs a few retro heroes from the 1960s, ‘70s, ‘80s, ‘90s and ‘00s in there.
A supercar members club isn’t for everyone, even if you’re a petrolhead. Some want pride of ownership. For others, their worst nightmare is being trapped in a room with people who just want to talk non-stop about horsepower. But I can certainly see the appeal of having ready access to such a large collection of very special cars without any of the hassle that ownership brings. It’s a hell of a lot more fun than Wentworth Golf Club. For one thing, you can’t hit 60mph in fewer than three seconds in a golf buggy, can you?
Auto Vivendi has had 68 Ferraris on its books, including the SF90.
