RENTING THE CAR OF YOUR DREAMS

More and more people are driving fast cars--for a day or so. Paul Markillie joins the club, and takes his son along...

From INTELLIGENT LIFE magazine, Winter 2008

Usually it’s a male thing that begins when you are young. The give-away symptom is when car posters start appearing on the walls of a boy’s bedroom. Spotting exotic vehicles during car journeys soon follows. Eventually it leads to loud arguments in pubs. The afflicted are tormented by a single question: what’s the world’s best supercar? There is rarely any agreement--not least because so few ever get to drive any of the contenders. Ownership may be beyond the reach of most, but at least the dream is becoming easier to rent.

Which is why I’m sliding into the driver’s seat of the latest Porsche 911 (type 997) Turbo and William is getting into the passenger seat. Father and son hit the open road in an amazing vehicle that is capable of almost 200mph (322kph). And immediately the generation gap opens. “The rear spoiler is retractable,” I inform him in that older-person way. “It doesn’t rise until you are going fast to help keep the back end on the road.” He reaches forward, presses a button and up goes the spoiler--at only 30mph. And so it continues. When Sam Barker, the photographer covering our day out, asks if anyone knows how to drop the roof on a Lamborghini Gallardo Spider, William instantly obliges. For an 11-year-old, he’s clearly watching too much “Top Gear”.

Being able to drive two supercars in a day is a treat. But we have four more to try out before tea: a Ferrari F430, an Aston Martin DBS, an Audi R8 and a Bentley Continental GT. In all, that’s about £750,000-worth. They belong to dreamcarhire.com, a company based near Oxford, which hires out a fleet of supercars. For £995 you get an hour behind the wheel of six of the best on glorious routes winding through the Cotswolds.

It’s a mixed bag of folk who fork out this sort of money just for a drive. They range from petrol-heads who have been saving up for the thrill of spending a day behind the wheel of something they adore, to those simply enjoying a weekend birthday treat. Then there are visiting executives who want to hire something a bit flash for a week or more. Some renters are already supercar owners frequently keen to test-drive a new model without a salesman in the passenger seat.

There are various ways to get behind the wheel of such vehicles without buying one. Joining a car club can provide regular access to top models. There are many schemes available. Steve Marshall, who runs Driving Spirit, a Hampshire-based car club with a pristine fleet of modern and classic performance cars, operates a system in which points are bought with different tiers of membership and then traded for between 20 and 75 days of driving. Much depends on which cars are used and when. Hence taking the club’s Aston Martin V8 Vantage out for a weekend in the summer uses up more points than borrowing the 1961 Jaguar Mk2 on a weekday in the winter. It costs £500 to join with annual membership fees starting at £3,700. Each membership includes two named drivers and insurance, but the excess (what you could pay if the car is damaged) might reach £5,000 on some of the pricier motors, although it can be greatly reduced with an additional fee. Owners can park their own cars at the club’s secure premises when they take out a vehicle.

Driving experiences have become one of the most popular attractions offered by Red Letter Days. About three-quarters of its participants are male and their days out are mostly bought as a gift by wives and girlfriends, says Bill Alexander, the company’s managing director. Most driving events are held on circuits. They range from driving supercars to race cars, rally cars and monster trucks. I should keep this quiet, but a new package gives children aged from 12 a chance to drive a Ferrari--after a bit of practice in a Mini Cooper.

Aware that motoring experiences can be a marketing opportunity, some manufacturers are now getting in on the act. Land Rover, for instance, stages off-roading events that allow you to wallow along muddy tracks in a Range Rover. And Mercedes-Benz World, near the old Brooklands race track in Surrey, has become something of a one-marque automotive theme park. The thrills available for hire include taking some of Mercedes’s top models out on a handling course and being shown how to slide them through a skid pan.

But back to the super six and the tricky decision about which one, assuming our lottery numbers come up, we should take home. William began with the Lambo at the top of his list and never swerved. It is the next best thing to having a racing car on the road; striking looks and stunning performance, but I worry about practicalities. The Ferrari is wonderful, seductive and terrific going around corners. The Aston sounds glorious, a superb mix of elegance and power. The Porsche is fast, impressive and feels like it has been built to go for ever. And as a new entrant to the supercar league, Audi’s R8 is hugely competent and an attention grabber because of it newness. In fact they are all good, but in different ways. Aston Martins have always been at the top of my list, but when you get a chance to drive some of the world’s finest cars back-to-back, your impressions can change. It is probably advancing years, but I found something very comforting about the Bentley. And with 600bhp it could still keep up with most of this pack. But best of all it also had a back-massager built into the driver’s seat. Just the thing after a hard day playing with supercars.

VROOOM

Bentley Continental GT Luxury on wheels. One days hire, £495. dreamcarhire.com

Aston Martin V8 Vantage A gentlemanly set of hot wheels. Annual membership from £3,700. Driving Spirit

Ferrari 360 An Italian sensation. Two to four hours at Donington Park racing circuit, from £250. Red Letter Days

Jaguar E-Type Roadster A 1970 icon from a classic specialist. One day's hire, £350. The Open Road

Mercedes-Benz AMG An extra quick Merc. One hour on a circuit, from £150. Mercedes-Benz World

Picture Credit: Sam Barker

(Paul Markillie is innovation editor of The Economist. In past columns he has written about the world's sexiest brakes and driving economically)