Exclusive club makes mega-rich hearts race

Michael Fux paid US$1.8 million ($2.84 million) plus tax to join the world's most select and secretive high-speed society. There is no membership card.

Instead, Fux, a US mattress manufacturer, walks into the garage of his Miami home and awakens one of only 29 carbon-fibre Ferrari FXX sports cars the Italian automaker recently delivered to a coterie of uber-wealthy owners from Tennessee to Tokyo, known as the Ferrari Client Test Driver Club.

"There's absolutely nothing street-legal about the FXX," Fux hollers, his voice a whisper against the discharge of a 6.2-litre V12 engine that kicks out more than 800 horsepower at 8500 rpm - practically the same performance numbers that empower the Formula 1 racers Ferrari SpA in Maranello, Italy, constructs for Michael Schumacher.

The FXX is about as subtle as an erupting volcano, so potent that Fux says the US Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Air and Radiation monitors all FXX imports, slapping club members with a US$27,500 fine should the car enter the country without a proper licence.

"Once the FXX is legally in the US, it's up to state and local law enforcement to ensure the vehicle is driven only on a racetrack," says Dave Ryan, spokesman for the EPA's enforcement division.

As for who's doing the driving, "we don't reveal names", says M. Toscan Bennett, public relations director of Ferrari North America Club Members

For the 62-year-old Fux, the track is the only prudent place to exercise the FXX alongside fellow clubbers, who include United Auto Group chief executive Roger Penske and Lawrence Stroll, co-chairman of A&G Group and former co-chairman of Tommy Hilfiger.

And with speeds over 386km/h and a gearbox that executes shifts in less than 100 milliseconds, the language of the ancient Mongol Empire perhaps contains the only verb to express the action a novice experiences behind the FXX wheel: "temul," the look in the eye of a horse that's racing where it wants to go, no matter what the rider wants.

"Even good guys look like they're sawing wood with their hands in the FXX," says Le Mans winner Leo Hindery jnr, managing partner in the New York-based buyout firm InterMedia Partners.

"It's a display car for guys who want to spend 200 grand a year to drive around a track in demonstration events."

Bruce Clarke, a track official at the Homestead Miami Speedway, knows about the perils of demonstration. Thirty minutes before Fux and seven other FXX owners make their inaugural run, Clarke tells the group they can go as fast as they want and pass whomever they want.

"I sure hope they keep their heads on straight," he cautions. "These cars are dangerous."

The FXX isn't a prancing horse for Wall St bonus babies to saddle up. Ferrari currently manufactures five retail models and the FXX isn't among them.

"You don't go into a Ferrari dealer and order an FXX," explains Fux, who owns a dozen Ferraris.

"Maranello contacted us after conducting a long and private vetting of customers."

Client test-driver Henn reckons his membership car required divine intervention.

"Ferrari's North American operation called to see if I was interested in an FXX," says the 75-year-old Henn, who has raced at Le Mans and owns 20 Ferraris.

"My nomination was reviewed by Maranello and I was given to understand final approval came from the Pope."

Ferrari engineer and production director Giuseppe Petrotta says that more than 60 customers so far have cold-called the company for membership in the Client Test Driver Club since 2004, when his team began planning the project for vehicle delivery this year.

"The FXX gives us the opportunity to test-drive new Ferraris with our customers," Petrotta says while preparing Fux's red FXX for the track. "We must limit the number of owners to 29 because including more would detract from the amount of service, assistance and hospitality we can provide."

Petrotta says client confidentiality is paramount.

"FXX owners are made aware of many Ferrari technical secrets that our competition would like to be aware of," Petrotta explains.

"Telemetry data from the FXX is priceless, and giving customers access to the information is part of the programme because it allows them inside the development process for our future cars."

The FXX comes with a squad of five Ferrari factory mechanics and personalised driving tips and training from Schumacher.

Standard equipment includes three gigantic metal trunks filled with specialised helmets, fireproof racing suits, red racing sneakers, a smorgasbord of purpose-built tools and a more than 300-page instruction manuscript housed in an FXX carbon-fibre binder.

Henn says collectors of Ferrari ephemera are willing to pay US$10,000 for the codex. As for the car, "I've already heard about offers of US$4 million".

Fux says the greatest joy of the FXX is handing its keys to Jamie Camara and Ian Beltri, young race-car drivers less than half his age and looking for a break on the professional circuit.

"If I can find somebody to drive it better than me and showcase their talent for Ferrari, then that's the ultimate thrill," Fux says.

"My first car was a beat-up 1950 Ford," recalls Fux, whose current stable of 50 cars includes an Aston Martin Volante, a Formula 1 Ferrari, a Saleen S7, a Ford GT and two Lamborghini Murcielagos. His $1.4 million Bugatti Veyron is scheduled to arrive in June.

"I swapped the Ford for a 1949 Plymouth with rotted floors,"Fux says. "The FXX is a much better investment."

Classic-car specialist Malcolm Barber, CEO of the US unit of Bonhams auction house in London, says the jury is still out on the FXX. "Squillionaires want the FXX to pump their adrenalin and it will take a generation to see if the car does the same for their investment portfolios," Barber says.

"The FXX is about macho and nothing else," says Hollywood film producer Mara Beth Sommers, who spends her weekends at the track racing an F430 Spider against men in the Ferrari Challenge Series.

Ferrari's Petrotta says any discussion of the FXX's free-market worth is premature.

"An owner has the right to sell his car, but unless we approve the sale, the new owner is not a member of the club," Petrotta says as the FXX fleet rumbles to life in the paddock. "That means no assistance, no mechanics."

The partnership between the Ferrari unit of Fiat SpA and FXX owners runs through 2007. The two-year agreement stipulates that Ferrari will sanction seven FXX events a year: two each in North America, Europe and Japan and with an annual grand finale in Italy.

"It's one hell of a public relations programme for Ferrari and we're paying for it," Henn says. "Ferrari's people crank it up, warm it up and wipe it down after we race. The FXX is a car for someone who lives their life every day as if it's their last."

FXX client manager and Ferrari mechanic Andrea Galletti expects each car will clock up about 3500km over the term of the contract. "If owners want to drive the FXX on their own," Galletti adds, "we will do everything we can to have a factory team of engineers and mechanics on hand."

Slipping into the driver's seat of his yellow FXX, Bachman says he intends to permanently garage the Ferrari in Maranello in order to sustain its Italian provenance. "Driving this at Homestead is great, but I want to maintain its European pedigree and keep it on European tracks," the 68-year-old car dealer says over the bawl of eight FXXs revving their engines. "I sell Pontiacs to pay for Ferraris," Bachman shouts, "and this one is over the top with power."

In pole position, Fux gives a thumbs-up and blasts off around the 3.5km track. Nausea sets in after the fourth lap and he returns to the pit, his white beard matted with sweat, a top speed of 338km/h on the telemetry system and a mischievous smile on his face.

"I'm a little boy," Fux says, the words streaming from his cracked lips. "Wild, just wild. One hundred and sixty miles per hour is slow in this car. There's someone out there doing 240," he continues between gulps of pink lemonade.

"The FXX is it, the best of all my cars. The only thing wrong with it is that I can't drive it on the street."

- BLOOMBERG