► CAR magazine visits supercar club Auto Vivendi
► Offers an alternative to car ownership
► Graham King gets the new member experience
There’s a quiet residential street in St. John’s Wood, London. Smart part of town, the kind that car people walk through wondering what’s behind the garage doors. A Porsche? Ferrari? Maybe a classic Aston Martin. Or, on this street, all that and a lot more besides. For behind a garage door so unassuming I initially walked straight past it, is the home of Auto Vivendi.
Auto Vivendi is a member’s only supercar club. For an annual fee, members have access to a selection of cars you’d need a nine-figure bank account to actually own. An Aston Martin DBS Superleggera, assorted Ferraris (296 GTB and GTS, 812 GTS, Purosangue, SF90 Spider), a selection of Lamborghinis including three Sterratos, a couple of McLarens, Porsche, a Rolls Spectre and the obligatory Range Rovers. To name just some of them.
Behind that unassuming garage door is Auto Vivendi’s Club House. It’s home to many of the cars, a member’s lounge, company offices and a very high-end driving simulator. There are several levels of membership available that offer differing amounts of access to the cars and the opportunity to participate in the club’s events. The annual membership fees aren’t cheap at any level – the top package would buy a well-specced 911 – so what’s the attraction?
“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 who has run Auto Vivendi for 10 years. He previously ran the Vmax200 top speed events.
“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,” continues Craig. “For some members, it’s simply about access to the cars, some join specifically for the events, in particular our European driving tours and adventure holidays.”
I’m visiting Auto Vivendi to experience the induction process new members go through. It’s agood way of seeing the Club House for the first time and meeting the people who run it. It’s also mandated for insurance purposes. Everyone has to be signed off by an instructor – all highly qualified ex-police drivers – before they can be let lose in the cars on their own.
It’s a very impressive set-up. I’ve been to some supercar hire companies of questionable repute, but this is not that. The cars are lined up with precision and symmetry, they’re all beautifully presented and evidently extremely well cared for. Perhaps Auto Vivendi’s membership model engenders a sense of ownership in members that renting just doesn’t.
“Auto Vivendi was originally écurie25 Supercar Club, formed in 2005 by a group of enthusiasts who wanted to turn shared usage of cars into a business,” Craig tells me. “Fast forward to now and we are the world’s largest and longest established supercar club.” It’s also the only one in the UK. P1 got there first in 2000 but folded under the weight of escalating costs in 2009. Plans for a relaunch come to nothing.
I’m ushered into a conference room for a pre-drive briefing. It consists of some common-sense advice on how to approach driving high-power, high-value cars, and some illustrations showing the consequences of what can go wrong – even for experienced drivers. Then I’m shown out to the first car I’m driving, one of three Lamborghini Huracan Sterratos the club owns, resplendent in bright orange. Everyone’s very keen to make sure I feel comfortable in the car and that I enjoy myself.
Huracans are clearly very popular with the members – there are a total of five on Auto Vivendi’s fleet. “We buy all the latest supercars and super SUVs from Ferrari, Lamborghini, McLaren, Rolls-Royce, Aston Martin and more because these are the cars our members enjoy driving,” Craig says. “We have good relationships with each manufacturer and often consult our members when speccing the cars we bring into the collection.”
We head north out of London and into the Essex countryside. My instructor offers advice – a lot of it I already know but it’s always good to have that knowledge reinforced. We end up at a pub for lunch where I have a truly superb burger. We head back into town in a bright yellow 1996 Dodge Viper, one of the ‘wild cards’ Auto Vivendi has started dabbling with – the other is a delightful manual Ferrari F355 Spider.
The drive back into London is a bit of an adventure. The Viper isn’t exactly suited to narrow country lanes and the gearbox doesn’t like stop-start traffic, but it’s one hell of an experience. Fortunately, we get back to base with the car intact and the instructor happy with my performance. Again, everyone at Auto Vivendi is at pains to make sure I enjoyed myself – a taste of the hospitality members experience on the club’s events.
“As we own all the cars, it gives us the versatility to create exclusive, curated events that we know our members will enjoy,” Craig Williams says. “We’ve recently got back from Norway where we did the first AV On Ice. It was a mixture of off-grid tour in our Lamborghinis and driving on ice on a frozen lake. Our tours are often a week long, circa 900 miles driving ten supercars back-to-back, with five-star hospitality and cuisine throughout.”
Auto Vivendi rather flies under the radar. It doesn’t advertise or sponsor any race cars, yet a growing number of people are finding it and joining. There are plans in the works to drive further growth, as well. “We are in the process of looking for addition premises and looking forward to launching our first venture on water in the shape of Aqua Vivendi,” Craig says.
I thoroughly enjoyed my taster of the Auto Vivendi experience. What it offers won’t suit everyone but I can really see the appeal of having ready access to such a large selection of truly special cars without the hassle ownership brings. If I could, I probably would.