P1 Supercar Club in administration

The P1 Supercar Club seems to have fallen by the wayside.

In a buoyant economy, with plenty of ‘Readies’ floating around, the Supercar Club Concept (where members pay an annual fee for the use of a fleet of Supercars for a fixed number of days a year) works well. Clubs in the UK have sprung up all over the place, inspired by the success of the P1 Supercar Club, co-founded by Damon Hill in 2000.

But as the economy has gone in to freefall, members have been reluctant to stump up their annual fees (anything up to £20k a year) when, let’s face it, having your jollies in someone else’s supercar is possibly the ultimate definition of discretionary spending. As a result, many of these clubs have fallen by the wayside recently.

And this week the biggest of all, with some 300 members and 40 cars at its disposal, P1 International, has gone in to Court administered bankruptcy, pushed in that direction, it would seem, by Damon Hill trying to get back the money he was owed after he left the business 3 years ago.

So what now for Supercar Clubs? Well, in the short term most will probably disappear, although those that ride out the current storm may well survive by picking up members from those that go under. But the Supercar Club is a sound concept, and this is a real opportunity for a brave soul.

With Supercar prices at an all time low, real bargains can be had. And that could make the business model very viable, as one of the major cost factors for such an enterprise is depreciation. And as almost new Supercars can probably be picked up for 30% less than they could 18 months ago setup costs, and therefore annual membership costs, will be much reduced.

Anyone fancy chipping in to launch the Cars UK Supercar Club?!