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Car Share Clubs: The Ownership Alternative

Jennifer Hall

October 1, 2005

Instead of driving your own classic six weeks a year while the 40-year-old engine gums up in the garage the other 10 months, car share clubs keep regularly driven classic automobiles primed to drive at all times. For Classic Car Club and most others, member drive time is calculated on a point system. Multiply the desired car brand by the chosen day of the week by the month driven to determine the number of points a drive will cost. For example, booking Classic Car Club’s 1961 Austin Healey Frogeye Sprite for two weekdays in September uses about 12 points. If you want to take a Ferrari for a weekend in June, expect to forfeit 192 points. Point packages start at $7,000 annually for a 750-point silver membership.

Although car use is shared among members, both companies keep availability a top priority. Classic Car Club maintains a five-to-one member-to-car ratio, and Club Sportiva, on average, keeps half of its fleet home at the club. If your client calls to cancel a same-day meeting, you can dial Club Sportiva to reserve a Bentley Turbo R for later that afternoon. “That car is practically on autopilot to Napa,” Fuller reports. “It’s just too perfect for wine tours.” More of a classics guy himself, Fuller takes off in the yellow 1962 Corvette convertible or handmade 1982 Morgan Plus 8 in British racing green during his leisure days.

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American muscle cars, such as this Mopar and Chevy, are favorites at Classic Car Club Manhattan. (Click image to enlarge.)

Until this year, domestic car share access has remained available only for Americans fortunate enough to live in the Bay Area or near Exotic Car Share, a small club based outside Chicago, unless they travel to Europe. P1 International and Parc Ferme, both based outside London in Surrey, accept foreign memberships. P1 International, cofounded in 2000 by Formula One World Champion Damon Hill, keeps an $8 million dollar fleet of 50 cars and has built a membership of more than 200. Cars range from sports cars such as an AC Cobra, Lotus Exile S2, and Noble 400 to current exotics like the Ferrari F430 Spider and Lamborghini Murciélago. The club offers an overseas membership to those who reside outside the UK. “If you will be traveling to Monaco for a few months, why not drive the kind of car you are used to driving at home?” asks Nick Gatrell, a spokesperson for P1. For such requests, the company offers delivery of the car in a covered carrier to any location in Western Europe. Club Sportiva’s Munich branch offers similar delivery services overseas.