A car enthusiasts guide to the world’s best supercar tours

Gear up for luxury, glamour and high-octane horsepower with these supercar tours that are revving it up in life’s fast lane.

For some travellers, the car is the journey – and even the destination. A couple of decades ago, the makers of performance and luxury cars began to recognise that over-trafficked, over-policed and under-maintained roads were making it increasingly difficult for customers to justify owning such capable machines. These cars needed to be experienced in elevated settings.

This came to mean haute luxury tours in exotic destinations, high-performance driver training on famous racing circuits or on frozen lakes, and other brand experiences that brought together their like-minded customers to forge new friendships (and encourage yearning for the latest model). We’ll look into some of those brand experiences shortly. But what of the traveller who’s just curious to augment their adventure with time at the wheel of a supercar – or, for that matter, a smorgasbord of them? It could easily be you.

A new type of luxury touring

Supercars today aren’t what they were. The poster-car icons of the 1970s and ’80s, cars such as the Ferrari 512 BB, Lamborghini Countach and Porsche 911 Turbo (aka ‘widowmaker’), were physically challenging and neither easy nor especially enjoyable to drive. Their controls were heavy. Those tight, two-seater body styles were shaped for visual drama, not accessibility or comfort.

Today, however, advances such as paddle-shift automated transmissions and light, responsive controls make the modern supercar almost as easy to drive as the average sedan (always bearing in mind their exaggerated width and low ground clearance). In terms of automotive relativity, the typical $40-$50,000 per-person cost of a week-and-a-half’s luxury touring in a supercar roughly equals the price of a new, medium-sized SUV.

Ultimate Driving Tours

Ultimate Driving Tours is one of a few specialty tour operators ready to dangle the keys in your direction. The Melbourne-based company offers a staggering catalogue of arranged tours for destinations and events in Europe, the US and Australia, supplying a fleet of machines from Aston Martin, Ferrari, Porsche, Lamborghini, McLaren, Mercedes-Benz and more.

Ultimate’s ‘signature’ tour is a 11-day luxe-fest (from $39,000 per person) that includes watching the Monaco F1 Grand Prix from a superyacht, amid tasting the curves and cuisine of five European countries. Ultimate has dozens of offerings, along with curated ‘Drive Your Own’ tours, including France and Tasmania.

Captain’s Choice

Melbourne-based international travel group Captain’s Choice made its name curating private-jet journeys. It has recently added supercar tours of both Spain and Italy. The 11-day, 1,000km-plus Italian event (from $47,800 per person) includes visits to the headquarters of Ferrari and Lamborghini and dining at Michelin-starred restaurants.

The car manufacturers’ own brand activities are mostly concentrated on existing owners. And with the list price of Ferraris in Australia spanning $410,000 to $1.2 million, its customers can look forward to some very nice (if accordingly expensive) experiences indeed.

Ferrari Tours

The broad menu of Ferrari Tours begins with road adventures in various European destinations. These often incorporate VIP treatment at the Formula 1 Grand Prix, although the Women’s Edition tour in Tuscany is another notable option. More speed-oriented options are held on motor racing circuits that include Ferrari’s hallowed Fiorano test track, where participants can even sample a range of classic, museum-worthy Ferrari models.

Lamborghini Tours

Lamborghini’s accessible Esperienza program allows both prospective and existing owners to sample the brand’s supercars in appropriate motorsport environments. Or, indeed, the incongruous scenario of 300km/h-plus supercars slithering (at much slower speeds!) around the ice and snow course of Livigno in the Italian Alps.

Porsche Tours

Porsche, meanwhile, underlines its brand’s motorsport heritage with a Track Experience program that includes provision of Porsche sports cars extending to the racing thoroughbred 911 GT3 Cup model. Owners and non-owners can do anything from sharpening their road- driving skills, to training all the way to a racing career – or step off at any time into international event programs such as the Porsche Ice Experience in Finland.