Strength to strength

Leeds just keeps going from strength to strength.

This month they have brought in 2 new cars - a Vantage Roadster and a brand new LP560-4 Spyder.

I'm sure by now all e25 members appreciate that they can drive any of the cars from any of the branches, but the really cool part of the e25 concept is that we rotate the cars around so the Lambo will be with Londoners too in January and February.

In the doghouse

I've come in for a bit of stick on Pistonheads for my last post. To be honest, I think it's quite fair, reading it now it is a bit obtuse. Apologies to Michael et al. I must have been having an off day when I wrote it.

After so much discussion this year, I still find it amazing that people cannot understand the key reasons why cars clubs have historically failed - two reasons:

1) The old P1-style points system is not profitable and
2) If you cannot retain members, then the cost of customer acquisition is too high to make the club work, ie it costs more to recruit members than the profit that you earn in their membership. Most clubs suffer from low retention because people get bored with just driving the cars and want more social interaction - ie to be part of a club, not glorified car rental.

If you are lucky enough to have your own supercar, you can still join e25 and as well as driving other cars, you can earn an income from your own car when you are not using it - ie, really sharing the cars and sharing the experiences, isn't that what a club is all about?

For a fuller explanation, visit my post from May 5

Maybe another e25 branch

Big news!!! Dan and I were down in......

leafy Surrey...

last Thursday taking a look at some premises for a new branch. It does not take long to realise why this is arguably the most lucrative location for a supercar club anywhere in the world - million pound houses on every street and great driving roads.

The picture attached shows the location we most liked the look of; obviously it doesn't look like much at the moment but it's amazing what a splash of black and orange paint can do.

I can't say where it is exactly since negotiations are still on-going but hopefully e25 Surrey will be up and running in the Spring.

We also took the opportunity to "mystery shop" P1 - not so much mystery since they know Dan and I but we thought we would pop in unannounced to see what the latest is - in short, they have a small warehouse in the grottiest part of Epsom (Longmead Industrial Estate) which is principally full of Michael Breen's personal collection of old cars. We saw about 20 really nice classics, but in terms of supercars only an F430 and an R8. I think he might be better off re-opening as a Classic Car Club instead - oh how the mighty have fallen.

Barca Rally Part 2 of 3

No the limo in the picture is not on the Gentlemen Drive supercar fleet but Oriol and Daniel (shown in the picture) thought it would be a nice touch to arrange a limo to take us from our hotel to the footie match in Valencia.

They are 2 of 3 brothers who own and operate Gentlemen Drive , a supercar club based in Barcelona with a branch in Madrid and soon to be opened in Miami.

Aside from the supercars, their father also owns a fleet of classic cars that makes the Classic Car Club fleet look pathetic - including a 1930's Bugatti that must be worth over £1m alone, and a car from 1903 which still runs. They even had my favourite classic the Jaguar XK150.

We have been in talks with the guys for some time and to a large degree this mini-rally was a pilot collaboration to test out how well we work together in terms of club ethos and business philosophy; the idea being that if we can build a good working relationship then we could do more shared events, and maybe one day even allow members to use cars from each other's clubs; that is easier said than done since membership qualification criteria, points systems, vehicle groups, and insurance excesses are all different, but let's see where we get to.

Barca Road Rally Part 1 of 3

Just got back last night from our second rally of the year - this time in sunny Spain...

I've got so much to say about this trip that I am going to blog in 3 parts - the trip, the supercar club that we partnered with and plans for future rallies next year.

Many of you may not have heard all about this rally. It was organised at short notice, based on the success of the now legendary 'Ring Rally, and on a limited scale in trial partnership with another supercar club based in Spain called Gentlemen Drive. Since there were only 10 places on the trip, e25 only had 5 of them and these were snapped up pretty quickly.

Overall the trip was the perfect way to sneak a few more days out of Summer; its hard to imagine we packed so much into only 3 days. Highlights included: Driving a 599, Paella in the traditional Valencia-style, driving round the F1 track, Barca-Valencia football match, 26 degrees!, seeing the private Classic Car collection of the Vilanova's and of course the Tapas!

I really like these rallies - they are the perfect way to enjoy driving the supercars with like-minded people who share the same passion - it's easy to forget that it's actually my job!

Donuts

Despite not allowing members to do doughnuts in our cars, I am delighted to see Krispy Kreme have recognised the supremacy of the ecurie25 Supercar Club by creating an orange and black donut in our honour.

Thanks to Jackie who spotted this delight and decided to buy a 12-pack box for us to devour yesterday.

OK so I'm being a bit whimsical but wouldn't you be if you were off to Barcelona for the ultimate Boys Weekend - supercar rally, Valencia vs. Barcelona football, trackday and obligatory nights out on the town -viva l'Espana.

Makeover

Changing Rooms, Grand Designs, Nip and Tuck, 1o Years Younger....everyone is into makeovers these days so we thought we would get in on the act.

Witness our beloved "LK55" - with almost 40,000 miles on the clock she has served us well but instead of retiring her we have decided to give her a facelift with a splash of Botox for good measure.

She is being wrapped in Matt Black, (popularised by our sister company, Quadriga) and having a few other bits of trim added and our plan is to keep her as a back up car. In future instead of letting a member down if a problem develops on a car they have booked we can offer them a supercool looking F430 Spider as an alternative, and when the car is not needed we can stick Orange e25 stickers all over it and draw the crowds at Marketing events.

It will also be interesting to see how much demand there is for Matt Black - it will not be listed on the booking sheet but let us know if you want her.

Thanks to Creative FX for wielding the scalpel.

Photogenic - NOT!

The Panamera has to be the least photogenic car in the world. Every picture I have seen of it looks dreadful - I know its a cliche but it does just simply look like a squashed Cayenne!

Having said that, at our recent Brands Hatch trackday I saw one in the flesh and to be honest it looked quite nice. I had in fact taken the Quattroporte down with me so I took the opportunity to line the two up side-by-side for a comparison since that is the car it would be replacing if we got one.

It's certainly very imposing, but the Quattro still looks so much classier. Let me know if you feel differently.

PS You can clearly tell that I am not the guy who does the photography for our website!

More new cars

At our open evening last week we showcased 2 more additions to the fleet - the return of the ever popular GT3 and the first UK Tesla to be sold to a customer - any Tesla you have seen so far has been a press car or demonstrator; this one you can have for the week - but don't expect any help if you run out of juice halfway down the A23.

The other car that should be on its way but we could not get sorted in time for the Open Evening is a 599.

We are now miles ahead of any other club in terms of our current range of models and our share of the latest new cars for 2009.

And if that was not enough, sales at Leeds are going so well that they have just put down a deposit on an LP560-4 Spyder (ETA mid October). This is a double-whammy because apart from adding another car to the selection, it means London members will effectively gain another e0 car - from now on when an e0 car leaves London on rotation to Leeds, their Spyder will come back the other way. If they don't already hopefully London members will start to see the benefits of the broader branch network.

Everyone's a winner at e25.

e25 Track Club

Yesterday was our inaugural track club event. It didn't quite go perfectly to plan after a supposedly very reputable track day contractor let us down in a big way failing to book our slots at Silverstone, but at the eleventh hour Joss managed to pull a rabbit out of the hat and get us a drive at Brands Hatch instead and with a neat selection of replacement cars (although sadly no 2-11).

Under the circumstances the day was still enjoyed by all, and frustratingly for me was in fact over-subscribed in the end which meant I didn't get a drive. :-( Still, the steak and pavlova was nice!

Of utmost importance for me was the very clear message that I got from members that they wanted to be able to use their credits for more of this type of event - combining speed driving, a bit of skills improvement, and socialising with other members.

Based on this success, for next year we will plan 6 e25 Track Club events (including 1 overseas one), and we will proceed with our track car debenture programme which means we will have a really cool top end track car of our own that members can experience at our Track Club events and even use for their own Arrive and Drive if sufficiently experienced.

Please get in touch if you are interested in the Debenture Track car scheme.

Thanks to Paul Williams for the above photo, more of which can be seen here