Photos & Video from driving day

28/29 March - OPEN WEEKEND

The darkness is gone and all round Scotland sleeping sports cars get rolled out of garages and washed as it’s time to DRIVE again. Sunshine, long light evenings and slip-free tarmac mean that for those who love to drive, the rest of the year starts now!

And for those of you with curiosity about the merits of some of the most exciting metal on the roads, help is at hand. For here at CCC we’ve spent over £200k on new SUPERCARS. AMG S55L, Ferrari 550 Maranello, Porsche 911/996 Turbo, TVR Tamora, big Healey, Porsche Boxster S, Caterham 7 SV, Bentley Turbo RL and I *think* (long story) an Aston DB7 V12 Vantage - all new for 09.

Ladies and Gentlemen, that is some SERIOUS fun. And the best news is that a membership of CCC allows you to drive the cars above, and 11 other very desirable motor cars, when and where you wish. See www.cccedinburgh.co.uk for full details of the fleet, and how the club works. You could be driving off in a legendary 1999 Ferrari 550 Maranello. 5500cc, V12, 485bhp, 199mph for stat heads. Timeless elegance, genuine object of desire, sheer luxury for the aesthetes. Unbelievable VALUE for £200 per mth!

Even better, is that if you happen to be in Leith over the weekend of the 28/29^th March, and drop in to see all the cars at our Open Weekend, we’ll give you an extra 10% driving free when you join! (Not Country) See you there 11-6? To all current members - bring all your pals to envy at your fine selection of motor vehicles. And if any of them take the plunge and join, we'll give you 10% for each off your renewal!

PS remember the Clocks on Sunday!

A frustrating week for CCC

I just wanted to share some of the frustrations that have wasted far too much of my time this week, and apologise if this impacts any member. As you can see, all of this was out of out my control, but incredibly annoying.

1) The good news - I agreed to buy a 2001 Aston Martin DB7 V12 Vantage on Tuesday. The bad news - since then the owner has turned his phone off and disappeared. Very odd, but back to stage one on the Aston hunt I suspect.

2) The good news - the Exige mentioned in the previous post sold for £2500 less than we originally bought it for. The bad - not to us. British Car Auctions 'Live online' system crashed 2 mins before our auction and didn't let us bid, despite the fact that we would have happily bid higher than the winning bid. I vented my anger by writing stroppy letters to the head of BCA and also to Black Horse, the underlying vendor.

3) The good news - we were offered a low miles 2003 Honda NSX 6-speed gearbox for a good price. As the current one is starting to show signs of sloppiness, and as the current 5-speed takes an expensive twin plate clutch, the new box will not only be nicer to shift, have a taughtness about it and a nicer clutch action, it will also pay for itself after 2 clutch changes. The bad news - despite being expected to arrive a week ago, TNT have managed to lose it. It's only a little gearbox on a pallet, so I can understand how it might have slipped down the back of someones desk. God only knows when and if it might arrive.

4) The good news - the Boxster is in the club garage, complete with V5 to tax it. The bad news - on thursday someone marched into the garage and ran off with the only set of keys that came with the car. This means that the car has to be unlifted to Porsche, who then order a new set of keys from Stuttgart, and then spend a couple of hours being reprogrammed. About £500. Annoying, but it should be ready by the Open Weekend.

I know that after 6 properly great months for the club I really need to put this into perspective, but it still frustrates me that stuff like this can impact on you guys. Anyway, the sun is shining, and I'm off to collect our new Bentley from the paint shop. Pics on Monday!

MN

Boxster S is here and Exige?

On friday I bought you guys a Boxster and an Exige - more of the latter later...

The Boxster is a 2000 S manual in Silver with black leather and sat nav. It's currently sitting on 997 turbo 19" alloys which don't look right on it, but I may put them on our 2002 Turbo and get some original wheels. Here to replace the S2000 it will be an interesting comparison for those of you who enjoyed the Honda. I'm just waiting for a V5 so I can tax it, then it's good to go!

I also bought a 2006 Lotus Exige. Black, with black wheels and black interior, it's everything you'd want an Exige to look like. I bought it at the trade auctions, but shortly after I bought it I threw a strop because driving it away it was clear there was a problem with the gearbox. So, the car will go back to auction with the auction house declaring a defective gearbox, and maybe we will buy it again for a decent amount less!

Remember the open weekend next weekend - come along and see all the great metal we've bought!

cheers

Matt