Car Club Blog

There’s a scene in the movie Titanic where Leonardo DiCaprio’s character leans over the front of the ship and screams “I’m the King of the World!” I’m guessing that’s how most customers of Supercar Life feel after they have finished a day racing around a designated track in a host of supercharged exotic cars.

Supercar Life is a company that allows people to get behind the wheel of several exotic cars to test their mettle and experience dream car driving for an entire day. For a fee, of course. Supercar Life’ driving menu features a Ferrari F430, Lamborghini Gallardo, Aston Martin DB9, Mercedes CLK63, and a Porsche Turbo 997.

In addition, the Massachusetts-based organization holds special supercar driving events from New Jersey to Florida throughout the year. In addition, the events include amenities, such as the opportunity to visit with professional drivers, a catered lunch at the track, and a champagne reception after the fantasy car driving experience is completed.

The cost for this day of high-octane fun starts at around $5,000.

This concept of bringing exotic cars to the people is not new. In fact, several companies provide them to car enthusiasts throughout the United States. Among these are DFW Drive Your Dream in Dallas-Fort Worth and Gotham Dreamcars serving the New York.

“People love the opportunity to escape, and behind the wheel of an exotic car is me and my customer’s favorite place to do just that,” says Ron Sturgeon, author, speaker on entrepreneurship and DFW Drive Your Dream owner.

DFW Drive Your Dream is an exotic car tour organization that offers both full and half day tours that feature five exotic cars. While the Supercar Life sticks to fantasy car driving on tracks, Sturgeon’s outfit lets participants drive the cars on the open roads of Texas. “Our tours follow preplanned routes that have been selected for scenic value and because they allow tour participants to see what the cars can do on the open road,” notes Sturgeon.

In addition to the exotic car tours, Sturgeon offers sports car rentals in DFW, Houston, Austin, and nationwide through his exotic car rental agency. This company offers both weekend and weekday rates.

In addition, the Texas entrepreneur offers car enthusiasts the opportunity to belong to DFW Elite Car Club, Texas’ premier exotic car sharing club. This club allows members to purchase as much drive time as desired in any of the more than 25 luxury, classic, and exotic cars in the club’s paddock.

Written by G.D. Gregory. If you are interested in having me write articles for you or seeing my portfolio, please contact me at ggpsu@yahoo.com.

It is one of the seminal moments in one of the defining films of my generation.  The year was 1986 and the film was Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.

The particular scene involved a distraught Cameron lamenting his loveless relationship with his father who, according to Cameron, loved his small collection of exotic cars more than he loved Cameron.
 
As any distraught son in an 80s John Hughes film would do, Cameron blew a gasket and took out his frustration on his father’s cherished Ferrari 250 California Spyder, eventually sending the classic Ferrari careening into a ravine 50 feet below its elevated garage.

Oops.

Car fans can take great joy in two things:  First, the California Ferrari destroyed in the movie was a replica and second, Ferrari is set to introduce a new California Ferrari very soon.
 
Surprisingly done just a few months prior to the Paris Auto Show, Ferrari leaked out several photos of the 2009 Ferrari California.  Special thanks to Matthew Phenix at Wired Blogs for the tip.

At first glimpse, the new Ferrari takes styling cues from the 612 Scaglietti, but don’t think for a minute that this car is just a cut and paste job.

For starters, the 2009 Ferrari California will boast the company’s first retractable hardtop.  And don’t think that just because the Ferrari California looks like art, it won’t perform like a Ferrari.
 
Word is that the newest front engined V-8-based Ferrari will boast 450-plus horsepower and get from zero to sixty in four seconds or less.  That compares extremely favorably to my Honda Civic’s 110 horsepower engine that requires a minute hand to clock!

“It has always been our experience that Ferrari doesn’t do anything half way with their cars.  A Ferrari’s performance is every bit as immaculate as their styling and our customers always cherish their time driving a Ferrari,” says Dallas small business consultant Ron Sturgeon.
 
Sturgeon operates an exotic car club in Fort Worth TX that allows its members to use a fully stocked exotic car garage at their whim.  By utilizing a tier points system with different levels of membership, DFW Elite Car Club provides members the exotic car driving experience at a fraction of the cost and hassle of direct ownership.

Additionally, Sturgeon operates a company that specializes in luxury car rental in DFW. DFW Elite Auto Rental.com helps car buffs to get their hands on luxury car rentals for weddings in Dallas, classic car rentals for Dallas high school reunions, trade shows or other business events.
 
Finally, Sturgeon oversees an exotic car tour business that treats participants to a full eight-hour day of driving five different exotic cars throughout Texas’ most driver-friendly roads.

“We’ve got several Ferraris, and knowing me I won’t be able to resist the new California model for long,” claims Sturgeon.  In the meantime, I’m sure his clients will find special joy in driving the newly arrived 2008 Lamborghini and 2008 Dodge Viper.  And I’ll keep hoping someone gives me a exotic car rental gift certificate from DFW Elite Auto Rental.

Written by G.D. Gregory.  If you are interested in having me write stories for you or seeing my portfolio, please contact me at ggpsu@yahoo.com. 

Dynamically, the Aston Martin DB7 is as good as it needs to be, and at $125,000 ($135,000 for the convertible), it needs to be plenty good. But the obligation of a car like this is to provide its owner that which isn’t measured by stopwatch or skidpad.

Aston Martin DB7 was the first Aston Martin developed under Ford Motor Company, and the DB7 qualifies as the highest-volume Aston Martin ever.

 

Introduced in Europe in 1995 and in America in 1996, the Aston Martin DB7 was the first Aston Martin developed under Ford Motor Company, which took control of Aston in 1987. Ford also owns Jaguar, and the DB7 shares with the new Jaguar XK8 a Jaguar XJS central floorpan; its engine block is also of Jaguar origin. Ford money helped develop, test, and certify both cars, but the DB7 was designed by Aston to be an Aston — to carry on its defining DB series, in fact.

Thus it has a refined dohc inline-six enhanced by an Eaton supercharger. Acceleration is best described as rapid; the DB7 is too heavy to be quick. It feels sportiest with the Getrag five-speed, though virtually all U.S. cars get a General Motors four-speed automatic. Ride is composed on every surface, braking is strong and, despite uninvolved steering, the car is balanced, sticky, and predictable in turns. This is a sporting machine that makes few demands on its driver, but it is not the DB7’s performance that will compel a purchase. Neither will the 2+2 cabin, which relies on Connolly hides and gleaming walnut to divert attention from generic switchgear.

The Aston Martin DB7 has a central floorplan and engine block of Jaguar origin, which is a popular sports car also owned by Ford Motor Company.

 

A stronger lure is the voluptuous body. The mix of steel and composite panels is unique to the Aston Martin DB7, despite a visual similarity to the XK8. Styled by Aston’s Ian Callum, formerly of Ford’s Ghia studio, the shape is contemporary but respects the magnificent DB4, DB5, and DB6, especially in the charismatic grille opening.

Combine that look with exclusivity — production of just 650 per year, a scant 200 for America — and the DB7’s nature is revealed. The new sports car from Aston Martin represents discriminating taste, a certain breeding. It is not Italian, and it certainly is not German. In a realm where price is irrelevant, a car must make its owners feel special. The DB7 does.

Given the uncertain fate of Aston Martin remaining a part of Ford’s Premiere Automotive Group, it’s understandable that the high-end British make has decided to keep its presence at the Geneva show decidedly low-key. As a result, the Vanquish S Ultimate Edition wasn’t on the Palexpo’s show floor, but instead, will be rolled out to customers who request one of the 40 models that will be handbuilt at the firm’s Newport Pagnell works. Priced over $360,000, the Vanquish S Ultimate features no real changes to the mechanical package, but features a new exterior color, Ultimate Black, and a semi-aniline leather interior with coarse stitching and black chrome accents. Each car is fitted with personalized sill plaques denoting the limited-edition number. Aston also announced that owners of existing Vanquish models can now order a factory retrofit 6-speed manual if they wish to convert their automatic paddle-shift models to a conventional gearbox. The price for the conversion is approximately $26,000.

http://www.roadandtrack.com/article.asp?section_id=15&article_id=4844

The Bentley Continental GT coupe has been a runaway success, but that hasn’t stopped the engineers in Crewe from working on the next phase of the project, the 2007 Continental GT convertible. In the product plan right from the start, our latest spy photos show that the convertible Continental GT is well on its way to showrooms. Disregard the Mercedes grille and Maserati taillights, as the rear-quarter panels are a dead giveaway that this is indeed a Continental GT-based drop top.

It’s expected to keep all the same specs as the coupe, meaning a 552-horsepower W12 under the hood and standard all-wheel drive. The convertible soft top will most likely add a few hundred pounds of additional weight, but as we have seen in the case of the Continental Flying Spur a little extra weight doesn’t hold the big 12-cylinder back much. Expect an official announcement of this Continental GT convertible from Bentley by the end of the year.

I heard Dfw Elite has one of these on order. I can’t wait to rent that one….

This sleek auto comes with a minor facelift and some new options. New to the front bumper spoiler area is an additional horizontal trim bar giving the front end a wider appearance. The headlights now use clear glass and use transparent glass panels to cover the turn lights.

This new model sports a new cockpit look design with more elegant door panels and easier to reach window buttons. New for the first time, is a HUD, or heads-up-display to enhance that “cockpit” feel. The 530i will have an aggressive 3.5L 272HP power plant accelerating you from 0 to 60 in about 6 seconds; while the 525i will have a 3.0L generating 218HP and the 523i will have a 2.5L. Transmission options are a 6-speed manual or 6-speed automatic for the 530i.

Not yet available in the US, I’d be willing to say when it does finally hit our shores you can probably bet you’ll see one at DFWEliteAutoRental.com very shortly after. Sporty yet elegant, this is sure to be a very nice ride for the night on the town!

For those who simply couldn’t wait until the release of the Cadillac Sixteen when Cadillac released the car as a concept in 2003, I have some rather disappointing news: GM recently decided to shut down any ideas or further production of the luxury Sixteen that was greatly anticipated. I remember seeing the Sixteen at the 2003 auto show at the world-renowed State Fair of Texas and thinking to myself that this car would surely bring the Cadillac name into the intense spotlight of high-end luxury car makers. These hopes are all but gone now.

GM claims that although the Sixteen was incredibly luxurious (deemed the Cadillac of all Cadillacs), they couldn’t risk putting the car up against Bentleys, Rolls Royces and Maybachs because of such low sales numbers in the high-end market. Cadillac did, however, promote the new 2008 CTS for some reencouragement after the news regarding the Sixteen. They boasted all new styles of the CTS to make a family of sedans, coupes and wagons similar to the BMW 3-series, hoping to attract buyers from all different regions and markets.

Cadillac Sixteen

New and VERY LIMITED Mercedes Benz SLR McLaren 722 edition. Get’em while they’re hot, for they are in a very limited supply, 150 to be exact.

A little bit of history here; back in 1955 Stirling Moss and Denis Jenkinson won the Mille Miglia in a MB SLR that they, in a sense, created the trademark for MB: 722. Why the odd number? This was the team’s starting time in the race, 7:22AM, thus the huge red number painted on their car. So now the car maker has given this same number to a limited edition of the old SLR, the McLarren built SLR.

If you don’t own one, you can be one of the few, the proud, and the “about $1 million less in my bank account” group. Actual cost is about $480,000, plus figure getting here to the US and paying the luxury vehicle tax and so on, will tally up to right around that $1 million mark.

They will be painted Crystal Antimony Grey and come with unique 19″ alloy wheels that are painted black. Drive train  is an impressive 5.5L supercharged V8 which is hand=built in the AMG engine shop in Affalterbach, generating 650HP and boasting a 0-60 speed at 3.7 seconds! Top speed is reported to get up to about 210Mph.

Interior, bucket-type seats are upholstered in leather/Alcantara which are made to provide outstanding lateral support. Combine this with Lamborghini-style doors and a sleek aerodynamic body and you have one helluva ride!

A “supercar” that started in 2001 originally, it was the successor to the Diablo. Originally sporting a 6.2L version of the V12 engine coupled with either a 6-speed manual or a 6-speed sequential automatic trans, it also had a rear spoiler that could elevate to an angle of up to 70 degrees to improve aerodynamics as well as side scoops that automatically opened to the just-right size to let the appropriate amount of air in to cool it’s engine.

Today, you can get an even sleeker model with a 6.5L V12 pushing over 600HP! For 2007, Lamborghini even brought out a new Roadster model called the Murcielago LP640 Roadster. This exceptionally beautiful car can be seen briefly in the latest Batman movie, “Batman Begins”.
The coupe’s base price? Starting at only $273,000, which is about $90,000 more than it’s smaller cousin, the Gallardo.

That’s right, now you too can travel in not only comfort and style, but now in even more safety in DFW Elite Auto Rental’s newest acquisition- a custom-built, lightly armored 2006 Hummer H2.

The lightly armored H2 looks like your average every-day H2, but is equipped with a Level 2 protection as classified by the US Military. This translates to: it has bulletproof glass on all windows and can withstand gunshots from weapons up to a .30 caliber carbine! It is also impenetrable by such instruments as hammers, bats and hatchets. Underneath, you have ballistic steel plates protecting its front, sides and roof.

In addition to all the above, the vehicle’s undercoating is designed to repel the shock effects of any kind of explosive charge, including land mines and grenades. The steel reinforced Run-Flat tires won’t deflate, even when punctured by an object such as a nail, spike or bullet.

This is truly the perfect way to travel low-key in protection, in what looks to be a standard H2 Hummer. No one but the driver will know without a doubt that they and their party are safe from most means of harm. This is the ultimate in personal protection!