Adam Hay-Nicholls
You join me on the Swiss Alps’ Furka Pass, a road routinely cited by enthusiasts on four wheels and two as one of the finest sections of winding blacktop in the world. It was up here, above the little Alpine town of Andermatt, that James Bond’s Aston Martin DB5 first stirred cinemagoers in 1964. In tribute, I’m at the wheel of an Aston too; a brand new V12-engined Vanquish Volante.
Welcome to the Supercar Owners Circle, a highly exclusive car club for those who have whole portfolios of seven-figure limited-edition performance cars. But it’s not about values or the number of valves. You can enter a car from 2026 or 1926; cost and horsepower are less important than style and individuality. Rather, it’s a celebration of analogue motoring at its most pure. The SOC was established in 2014 by Swiss brothers Florian and Stefan Lemberger to encourage collectors to put their cars on the road and drive them as they were designed to be driven, not just kept in garages and polished. Membership is capped at 150. One can join a waiting list, but you will be judged on the contents of your garage and only a handful of people qualify.
In any other situation, my Aston Martin Vanquish would cause much rubbernecking. Here in Andermatt it might as well be a Mondeo, because the cars that emerge from the hotel’s underground car park are unicorns. For a start, my Aston credentials are outclassed by a silver birch DB5 identical to Bond’s, a green Valour, which is a limited-run retro-inspired Aston built three years ago to mark its maker’s 110th anniversary, and two 220mph Valkyries that need to be driven with ear defenders.
