Celebrity 458 Launch

The South and North clubs were so busy trying to outdoing each other on getting the first 458, the first SLS etc, that the Northern Ireland 458 Launch event almost got lost in the banter.

But there's no doubt the McAuley's took top honours when it came to celebrity attendance.

Amongst a troupe of over 40 members now, also attending Monday's launch were Graham Cole (PC Stamp from The Bill),

Graeme McDowell (needs no introduction these days!)

and TV Presenter Pamela Ballentine to ensure the 458 got a resounding welcome to the Irish shores.

The event was hosted at the Galgorm Ghost House where 3 new members were welcomed into the club on the day.

No news is good news

Wow, I can't believe a month has passed since I last posted here - that's terrible but I guess its a sign of how busy we have been - in a positive sense.

Having secured our 458's and SLS's (yes there's still one more on its way), in the last month I visited the McLaren factory to secure some early build date MP4-12C's for next year - we've been promised one of the first ten (March/April?) and then another one before the Summer so I'm pretty happy with that. I'm dying to see how the car shapes up...Car magazine just did a really good write up on the relative merits of the 458 vs MP4-12C but of course driving one and writing about the spec of the other is not the same. I think we'll be very busy with 'back to back bookings' next year where people try them both.

We also held the official Surrey launch party - 4 months later than planned, but it was worth the wait with over 200 people including a guest appearance from our latest celebrity member, Darius - who sang some of his numbers for us.

And I've just got back from this years N'ring road rally (cars in the hotel car park shown here).

So a busy, but fun Summer!

Transumers!

I've just been told I'm a thought leader in developing the all-new Transumerism trend.

The trend watching website seems dedicated to the subject and describes the concept as follows:

"To most consumers, travel equates to temporary freedom. Detachment, fractional ownership or no ownership at all, trying out new things, escaping commitment and obligations, dropping formality, endless new experiences. No wonder travel is now one of the biggest industries on this planet. No wonder too, that some of the pleasures associated with travel are finding their way into daily life, now that tens of millions of consumers have become skilled travelers. Case in point: TRANSUMERS adopting a ‘leasing lifestyle’, making use of new rental options that go beyond Avis or timeshares (now a USD 10 billion industry worldwide, by the way). What's to like, for TRANSUMERS? A mix of:
• Avoiding hassle: the more stuff you permanently own, the more you have to worry about: repairs, going out of style, theft and so on.
• The latest and greatest: with ever shorter product development cycles, leasing ensures consumers can always enjoy the latest and the greatest.
• Multiple experiences: TRANSUMERS with a limited budget can now, instead of owning one single expensive object, rent, enjoy, then dispose of many different objects, maximizing the number of experiences.
• Climbing the ladder (MASSCLUSIVITY and UBER PREMIUM): status-conscious consumers resort to luxury fractional ownership because it's the only way for them to be able to flaunt (both established and new) status symbols.

Read the full article here.

écurieWorld

As the guys in the office know, behind my desk is a whiteboard with a hand-scribbled sketch of écurieWorld - the pinnacle of my plans for é25 - with a full service members club, hospitality centre and private race track running around the clubhouse.

Well, last week in Sydney I got a taste for what écurieWorld could look like. Courtesy of Luke and Keith from Events O'Neill I was introduced to Mark Wills - owner of The Farm - a 5km private track just 40 mins drive outside Sydney. [Pictured with é25's Tim Bennettt below.]

It's a really fun circuit, with absolutely no run off! And yes, I certainly did not let my horrific jet lag prevent me from burning some rubber. With some adverse cambers, quite a lot of undulation, almost every type of turn and an awesome 5 part chicane - which I was totally pants going through - its a bit like a mini-Norschleife.

Being a private track it is by invitation only, and of course we were there working out some special privileges for écurie25 Australia members - to be honest, its worth flying in just for a day there.

é25 Melbourne

I'm currently on a whistle stop tour of the next 3 é25 branches (Dubai, Melbourne and Sydney). Unfortunately at 46 degrees, Dubai was too hot for me to venture outside and take any pictures, and anyway the deal is not done yet so its still a bit top secret, but I am now in Melbourne checking out locations with proprietor Tim Bennett

The é25 tradition has historically been "grungy warehouse style" (for our locations not our music), which I think works very well in Ye Olde England, but I was never sure how well it would export to other countries.

Sure enough, with our Melbourne branch being located in the uber cool downtown Yarra Marina, the place isn't old enough for any warehouses so Tim has opted for a disused art gallery - all glass and steel and with views of the marina on one side and a sushi bar down the street.

Hopefully by the time we launch in October it will have some sunshine too.

458Italia Launch Party

The launch event was by far and away the best é25 event ever...over 500 people attended the evening and there was an incredible buzz but don't take my word for it, read the reviews here:

Best of the Best and Fractional Life

Let me know if you hear of any other write ups.

Best of the Best interview

Tim Oldland interviewed me for his blog on the new Best of the Best website.

It's quite a neat article which he also posted on Pistonheads where they decided to censor it once again. Such a shame considering that it offers some interesting insights as to why é25 has succeeded during the recession and other clubs have failed - a subject that seems to have dominated over 100 forum pages already.

Looking forward to our 458 Launch party on Thursday. If you have not already RSVP'd, please do email andrea@ecurie25.co.uk

See you there.

Open the champagne!

June was the best sales month we've had for 2 years and the third best in club history so to celebrate I took the team to the Grand Prix Ball at the Hurlingham Club. It does look a bit one-sided with only Joss representing the fairer sex, but Andrea and Hannah were both on holiday - what can you do?

Needless to say, Joss wasn't complaining with the attention on the night, and nor were we with the SugaBabes in attendance!

Congratulations to Jonny and his team for a great event - look forward to seeing you take on more of the F1 social scene.

Budding models

It never hurts to get them started young.

Just in case you were thinking I've been feeding my girls on growth hormones (and bleach), these two belong to Michael Roberts, proprietor of é25 South-East.

Thanks Sophie (left) and Charlotte (right) for modelling our new design staff shirts. Who could resist buying a membership from one of these two?

BRM partnership

Observant ones amongst you will have noticed the BRM signature watch-clock has appeared on the Home page of the UK website.

This is the first in a wave of marketing partnerships that I am seeking to develop with other leading luxury automotive brands of the world.

BRM watches are configurated by the customer and 'built to order' just like the best cars, and Bernard Richard shares a strong automotive passion which runs through his entire collection and design philosophy.

Aside from undertaking joint social events, such as track days and factory visits/champagne tours with BRM top clients, we are producing a limited edition run of 25 specially designed é25 watches. The final design is yet to be worked out but the picture here is our "concept car". It's not easy to see in the photo but aside from the corporate colours it has an é25 logo on the crown!

Congratulations to Danno!

Many congratulations to Dan and his partner Ellie who had their first born, baby boy this week.

His name is Solomon - so I wish him the wisdom of, and also that he turns out a better driver than his Dad - the latter being significantly easier to achieve than the former!

I am sure Dan would be delighted to receive any well wishes - you are welcome to email him at dan@ecurie25.co.uk

R8 V10 Spyder - launch party

Summer is here and "Club Nights" are back - last night we had the V10 Spyder launch party and I was pleasantly surprised to have about 80-90 folks swing through.

Next up is the 458Italia launch - that will be the big Summer party - put it in your diaries - 29th July!

Drive a Ferrari for free!

The Azzure California is the first example of a car that was financed by a member throughout its life with the club. As such it provides a pure example of the economics of the Vehicle Owners Programme without any assumptions needing to be made to fill in the gaps. It provides a compelling story - here's what the owner of the car got for his investment:

COSTS:
Depreciation: £23,000 (Purchase price: £165,000, Sale price: £142,000)
Servicing: £1,350
Total: £24,350

INCOME
Club Mileage: 14,800 @ mileage tariff of £2/mile = £29,600

Own usage:
1200 miles: 2 weeks (at Christmas/New Year) and 3 other weekends

NET RETURN
£5250, giving an effective return on £165,000 of 3.2% over 9 months = 4.3% annualised. (If the investment had been undertaken in a VAT-rated business, the ROI would rise to just over 5% - not shown here)

This member purchased the car specifically for the é25 scheme, so it is not appropriate to consider the other costs that would have been saved by him, but if he already owned the car and gave it to us he would also have saved on the following estimated costs:
Insurance, £2500, Road Tax: £350, Parking permit/Garaging, £5400
Adding in an additional £3000 saving based on a combination of the above figures, would increase to a 6% return (7% for VAT-rated businesses)

Obviously depending on individual circumstances, this return can be viewed in several ways - if you already own a car (that you don't use very often) or if you have the cash in the bank earning 0.5%, then this is almost a no-brainer.

In summary, owner members of top-end cars can look forward to an economic return of between 4 and 7%, and about £12,000 worth of motoring in a premium supercar which you might otherwise have had to wait 2 years to get.

We have 2 Mercedes SLS (Gullwing) in the pipeline and one is available for a VOP member (September arrival). I expect the economics to be quite similar to the example above. Let me know if its of interest.

Something old, something new

Ok, well to say a California is old at 9 months is a bit harsh, but now we have our Rosso version in the collection, I decided to move this one on to make way for our latest friend - the R8 Spyder

Come to the Club Night on June 10 to see this car in the flesh - and for the chance to make a priority booking on it.

Oh, and the chirpy chappy sandwiched between the cars is our new Membership Director, Richard Thomas - formerly from the Supercar Club in Australia - welcome to the team Rich.

Monaco 2010

It's that time of year...Monaco GP.

This year I took our plans to the next level with hospitality on a 90 foot yacht in the harbour - champagne, canapes all day...oh and did I mention there was some motor-racing going on?

The star of the show was probably the hot new Merc SLS - cleverly deployed as the Safety Car - we saw more of that car than anything else really - but what a car! I love it and can't wait for ours to come in September!

My tip of the weekend: On Friday night head down to Baoli night club in Cannes for an excellent dinner and then cruise the Film Festival scene. Thanks Kelvin for the tip and Katrin and Ilke for the modelling!

So you think you can drive?

I spent a day at 888 Race Engineering this week. Absolutely fascinating to see how they prepare 'production' cars for racing - I was already aware that these race teams completely strip out the interiors but I had no idea that they actually drop the body shells in a vat of acid to thin the metal and eat the sealant...to make them even lighter.

Another 888 race tip is that they generally operate Left hand drive cars because most UK circuits have mostly right hand turns so LHD allows them to see into the corner better - talk about attention to detail.

In case you were wondering, the reason for me being there was to plan an 'ultimate' track day for later in the year - on track in real race cars, hot laps in a Caparo, and for those who want a bit of competitive spirit - some timed exercises and a race for those who really want to know how good they are...

Wacky Racers 3

Arrived safely to Copenhagen, no thanks to Sheik Mo from UAE who undertook us on the hard shoulder in his hideous drop top Phantom to gain one place and nearly took out the broken down car parked there...and we still beat him to the check point. We've been in the bar a few hours now (3:15 local time)and cars are still arriving...and there are still Gumballers waiting for their cars to be unloaded from the last transporter (15 in total) at the airbase and have a 3 hour drive to get here. Tomorrow we head to a race track somewhere in Sweden before heading to Stockholm where we spend one night before flying to Boston MA. We're supposed to finish in Times Sq NYC on Fri but can't see them wanting us with the recent terror alert...

Wacky Racers 2

An LP640 SV with a roof box, and a one off 599 that exceeds the forthcoming GTO spec. Only on gumball

Wacky Racers report 1

Two punctures, one set of brake pads and an 'air suspension failure' warning. And this was before we even reached the start line...

When the first range rover heard we were taking it on the Gumball it shat itself...(Overfinch oil pic) so Gumball organisers kindly donated their own Vogue for the purpose of camera/tracking car. Although with the front pads totally shot grinding metal on metal we decided some new pads were in order, along with replacing the spare, which was flat with a screw poking out... Just the thing for doing 3000 hard miles in 6 days I'm sure you'll agree. We finally made it to the start line only an hour late, and saw the crowds laughingly wave us off as the last car...not great for getting shots of the numerous 458s and Veyrons on the rally. We made up lots of time (with one ticket in Belgium)and made it to Amsterdam to the most amazing welcome, I've not slept since Sat night so can't quite articulate it but it was phenomenal. This is the first time I've had a chance to write anything as we're now all sat in a disused airbase somewhere in Denmark waiting for the cars to arrive on transporters. Why? Because the German gov decided to ban all GB cars at the last minute so all the drivers went on coaches...they were not impressed. We decided to risk it and removed some of our decals (namely Gumball ones!) And just made it through safely ourselves and were the first car into the checkpoint! A first in a RR when up against this calibre of vehicles. not so lucky was the gold gallardo we saw getting a police escort back to the border... I just heard he's banned from entering Deutschland for another 24 hours, end of the rally for him.
So we're setting off now for the next 350km to Copenhagen and will hopefully have time to do another update from a proper computer as my thumbs are worn away doing this on a blackberry. Tomorrow Stockholm. Watch this space...

It's funtime!

Gumball starts tomorrow - this year its a jaunt in Northern Europe followed by a whizz round the Eastern seaboard of USA.



And our very own Jon Eliel from London is on the rally so I've given up my blog to him so we can follow their progress and the various cars...



Be careful Jon, remember my wife and kids read this blog! :-)

Breaking all the rules

I just launched the new é25 website last week. Its designed to lead the next stage of our evolution toward becoming a much more interactive members club than just the supercars.

I know I am going to be in for a certain amout of stick for this website because it breaks all the rules regarding Search Engine Optimisation, and requires 'more than normal' wait to get in...but as the number one organic search listing for supercar clubs, I don't think our challenge is for people to find us. Instead, I have deliberately designed a site that, once you are in, is intended to reflect the membership experience - dynamic, exciting and highly interactive.

Must sees, I think, are the new configurator - which you just drag and drop cars into which can then be saved and even emailed to friends and the online version of é25 magazine.

Many thanks to the team at Treacle Media who painstakingly put the site together over the last 5 months...next project will be to upgrade the Members Area so that networking and information sharing is a lot more interesting.

599GTO World Launch

There are times when I have to remind myself that I have the best job in the world, but yesterday was not one of those days.

Having confirmed our order for a 599GTO, Ilke and I were guests of Ferrari for the World Launch of the car at the Military Academy in Modena. The event was obviously fantastic, culminating at the end of the evening with an amazing entrance of the cars into the Palazzo.

The fastest road going Ferrari ever, only 599 of these cars will be made. I learnt on the night that this is more a 599XX made road legal than a beefed up 599 GTB. I’ll wait for the media reviews to understand what that means in real terms but either way, it’s an awesome car and the ideal product for é25 to launch its hypercar category later in the year.

I also learnt what it takes to be a top Ferrari customer – one chap I met had bought 63 Ferraris – and he’s only 46; that’s about 3 a year since he was 18 – I’ve got some serious catching up to do.

Snetterton - awesome

I couldn't sleep on Monday night - I was so excited about driving both a Gallardo and F430 on track which I've never done before...

In the morning we had a rain-soaked track which in hindsight turned out to be great for honing your technique because mistakes are punished more severely, and towards mid-day the rain stopped and the track dried out - it felt just like being in the Melbourne F1 - even with a few Massa-like spins throw in from some of the members - you know who you are!

Best of all, due to the inclement weather forecast, there weren't many other people which meant there were only about 15 cars on track at any time.

Personally, the first instructor's session with Colin was super useful and I really improved my driving although with no sleep the night before I was totally wiped out by mid-afternoon.

Thanks to Paul Williams for posting his photos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pcw/sets/72157623612964873/ and for this quote "Thanks for a great day yesterday - although I think we all missed out on some track time because of the weather...it was really good having the Trackfocused guys teach us a lot of good skills, and great to drive that little Exige, the awesome Porsche and the F430!"

Next é25 Motorsport is scheduled for 12th May at Oulton Park - reputedly one of the toughest circuits in the UK - we'll definitely have the 430, Boxster Cup and Exige S there plus hopefully a Radicle if I can arrange it.

2010 Formula 1 - boring or not?

I know F1 has come-in for its usual stick about being boring again this year. With the lack of refueling limiting the options for the teams and the now regular legal dispuates about diffusers - I generally agreed with this view until yesterday...but after watching the Melbourne race my opinion has changed.

Jenson Button was able to drive 4/5ths of the race on the same set of tyres and still post the best lap times of the race in the dying stages - contrast that with his stablemate who burnt through his fresh set of tyres in about 7 laps during his dastardly attempt to crawl back to his lost third place.

I previously thought Button was a bit of a wimp, who only ever enjoyed success because of a technical loophole, and that Hamilton was a real tiger behind the wheel, but these new rules bring back another dimension to racing - Driver Efficiency - which also puts more emphasis back on the driver's skill which I think is a good thing.

Tomorrow I'm off to Snetterton for our first é25 Motorsport event of the year - I've never been behind the wheel of a Gallardo on a track before but I'll try to keep driver efficiency foremost in my thoughts and not just blast that pocket rocket to its top speed as aggressively as possible!

7 days to go...

Surrey is opening in 7 days, so I thought I would give my avid readers a sneak preview of what's going on...

James Murfin and Michael Roberts are the joint proprietors of the branch. James is the pretty one on the left! James is a serial entrepreneur with businesses mostly in technology, and Michael has a track record in car leasing and has an interest in a race team - more of that later.

For those who want to mystery shop, the branch is located 26a Lyon Road, Hersham, Surrey KT12 2PU, but P1 fans should resist posting on PH that there are no cars there until next week.

Shown here is where the cars will be stored...

and the members' lounge doesn't look like much either at the moment but some comfy chairs, some plants and some e25 posters can do wonders for your interior designs.

New e25

Its been 6 months in the planning but the e25 branding is getting refreshed.

We did a new calendar at the start of the year, there's a new website on the way, and a new e25 Magazine - the first in over 18 months. But the latest instalment is a new Head Office...

I've mentioned our Park Lane facility a few times in my blog, but from next week it will be fully operational all neatly dressed with our new frontage.

Working from Head Office will be the Marketing and Events team, and the Franchise support team, and me! And the location doubles as a complimentary vehicle collection/drop-off point for those for whom the West End is more convenient.

It's just at the bottom of the entry slip road to the Park Lane car park; 5 minutes walk from either Marble Arch or Hyde Park - pop in if you are passing through and we'll take you to the Dorchester for a coffee!

Surrey - opening at the end of this month - it's official

One of my member's Matt gave me a real dressing down yesterday for not keeping my blog up to date. It's nice to know I have a few avid readers.

Truth is, the past few weeks have not been so newsworthy. Last week I was supposed to attend an R8 Spyder preview event but due to torrential rain I got stuck in gridlock and had to give up on it.

Anyway, its old news for my blog, but I am pleased to confirm that Surrey is all firmed up and ready to go. We've found a better location now in Hersham - equidistant from Esher and Woking and still close to the station.

The club will officially be open for bookings from March 29th with the Ferrari 599, Aston Martin DBS, Ferrari California, Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder and Maserati Quattroporte. We're doing a Founder Members Offer of a free weekend in the 599 and priority bookings on new cars for the first 10 members, although there are only 5 of these left.

With the sun shining brightly as I write this, it looks like we could even sell out the Founder Offer before the club even opens its doors which would be an amazing first.

More photos of the site and details on the Launch Party once its finalised.

4th Birthday Surprise

Wow, I've just realised I've not posted for 2 weeks - it's been so busy with setting up the Marketing and Events for 2010. We are planning an unprecedented 17 events this year - many of which are already over half sold. If you are planning on joining the Nurburgring trip you'll have to hurry, we have only 6 places left!





Anyway, last night we held our first London Members Only Event - we celebrated our 4th Birthday with the arrival of our Ferrari 599.



Rather than our usual huge party crammed with freeloaders we decided to invite only members and their guests, and I'm really pleased that we got about 40 members to show up - that's 30% of our membership which is quite amazing for a weekday night. A big thanks to all those members who showed up and gave us the confidence to do more Members Only events.

As for the 599 - I was starting to worry that this was turning into my nemesis! It's the third time in 6 months that I have tried to get one - each time, I have just not been able to line up the financier and an appropriate car at the same time and even this time the sale nearly fell through a couple of times in the last couple of weeks. I am so relieved to have one because to be honest I felt a bit naked without one - it was the one car that I have always felt is missing from our fleet and we really OUGHT to have and yet because they depreciate so badly from new, it never made sense to buy a new or ex-demo one and since there aren't many around to choose from, finding a second-hand model with the right mileage, age, and onwership history was really tough.

Anyway, we're there now and our other additions for the year are looking solid. The R8 Spyder is on track for April and I have a confirmation letter from Ferrari stating a July delivery for the 458 (note: slipped by a month already) - for the sceptics amongst you just pop into the office if you want to see it.

458Italia Preview

Reservation-holders for the 458Italia were invited to an exclusive UK preview of the car at the Hurlingham Club last night and I went along with Martin King, one of our long standing members in London (see him grinning in the photo below).

The car is absolutely fantastic...with lots of new design features that you don't really appreciate from pictures, but I'll try all the same...

My favourites are the triple pipe exhaust, the Prancing Horse at the front (which is actually in suspended animation), and all the driver controls have been moved on to the steering wheel so there are no indicator and headlight sticks. It looks lovely, although I'm not sure how easy it will be to figure out which way to indicate when your hands are half-twisted when you are on a roundabout - Of course Italian drivers don't use indicators anyway so I can see why they didn't bother worrying about it!

Personally I really like it in this 'new yellow' colour but Martin wasn't convinced and when we found out it was a £12,000 option, the debate ended quite sharpish. Best of all, I did't meet anyone with an earlier due date than e25.

Note to self: I really must get better at taking pictures.

Superboat club?

It doesn't look like much now, on a cold and rainy day in January, but wait till May when she will be on the fleet at only 200 credits per day inclusive of skipper, hostess and all the trimmings. (in Poole)

For those of you who want to know more, it's a Sunseeker Portofino 47, sleeps 4, hosts upto 12 for a day.

R8 V10 Spyder

I've just been offered an R8 V10 Spyder for delivery in February (cancelled order). I thought that is 2 months before the first ones were due to arrive in UK - can anyone shed any light?

I'd love to snag it, but unfortunately it's caught me on the hoof since I had budgeted to buy our one in April and I don't have £120,000 of financing in place right now. Anyone out there that is interesting in running it on the Vehicle Owner's Plan do get in touch - with the current waiting list running to March 2011 the depreciation on this car will be very little over the next year and it will be a strong earner in the club - so its a good purchase if you have the funds.

Lightning on the 27th

Back in Blighty - too cold to type! Just arranged a special preview of the Lightning at our next clubhouse event on January 27th. I've never actually seen the car in the flesh, so I'm quite excited.

Love your car enough to sleep with it?

I have now had 8 enquiries to open an international franchise of e25 in as many days.

Perhaps the most exotic of which has to be from the Bolton Corporation in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. They are building a development of 70 super luxury apartments in the city centre - each with its own car port! You literally drive into a lift and take your car up to your apartment and sleep with it - plenty of e25 members who would like the sound of that.

They are interested in enhancing the reputation and quality of the development by offering e25 memberships with each apartment.

I don't know why more developers don't do this - not the car port, but offer a car club membership as part of the luxury services, instead of an exorbitantly priced parking space.

For anyone with a reason to be in KL, more info available here

Barren Bahrain

My trip to Bahrain turned out to be a bit of a damp squib. I had thought that with over 100,000 British ex-pats and an F1 track there could be a nice market here for an e25 branch. Unfortunately it did not take long for me to realise that the island is only 20 miles wide at its longest point, and a nice drive would involve driving 300 miles through Saudi Arabia in a dead straight line (with any female in your group covering her head) and you need to reach Qatar before you could look forward to enjoying a beer. Most of the guys I talked to said they would rather just fly over to Dubai and enjoy membership there (or in Qatar). So instead I just took a bit of time off and played some golf in what must have been the world's biggest bunker, interspersed with green bits.

I'll leave you with some pictures of a 27m boat (sleeps 8) in Dubai. I met the owner of this beauty who is very keen to promote it to e25 members to use on a shared basis - I'll thrash out a deal when I get back to Blighty.

Now back to Istanbul to pick up the kids.

X marks the spot

Happy New Year. I wish you all a healthy and prosperous 2010, and a better year than 2009 (which shouldn't be too hard to achieve!)

I start the year on a market research trip to the Middle East.

It was always going to be a good trip after my wife managed to sweet talk us into a free upgrade to Business on the flight to Dubai.

First stop was to Gabby and Shomail's house - 2 e25 members from London who have a collection of 5 supercars that they are interested in VOPing if we open up in Dubai. Best of all was the 612 but I couldn't resist asking them if we could borrow the Phantom (with chauffeur) to visit the Yas Island Formula 1 facility.

It was the first time I've been on the "passenger side" of a Rolls Royce and I was really excited. [Note to staff: it's easy we to forget the adrenalin rush from getting into a smart set of wheels - although we do it everyday, for our members its a really special feeling and we should always promote that moment.]

We did a good reckie around the marina, hotel and Ferrari World, and Ilke is modeling the preferred location for our Abu Dhabi F1 members trip in November - outside the sushi bar, trackside next to the marina and with a nice view of that fancy hotel lighting blob.

Next stop Bahrain...