A lineup of Porsches at The Concours Club Miami, where collector cars move from showpiece to track car and members can exercise machines they acquired during Monterey Car Week.THE CONCOURS CLUB "Sunday morning, they'll open up their garage, pick something from their car collection, and drive it out here," Aaron Weiss, president of The Concours Club Miami, told me over Zoom, explaining why the Club has become the next best thing to attending last week's Monterey Car Week. "They'll park it in front of Verge, which is our member lounge and restaurant, and the parking lot is the reason why I don't go to car shows anymore."Verge's parking lot regularly fills with cars most gearheads, if they're lucky, only ever encounter once in a lifetime, typically during Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance or The Quail, where those in the pursuit of luxury call first dibs on the automotive world's newest and rarest arrivals. Weiss runs a country club where golf clubs become horsepower, fairways give way to a racetrack and the handicap system is measured in lap time. It's a motorsports social club specifically for people who delight in taking flight at 150 mph.Miami, of course, was always going to produce a place like this. This is a city where Formula 1, FIFA World Cup, and Art Basel Miami constantly flirt with jetsetters. Hard Rock Stadium is now Formula 1's annual principality while JPMorgan Chase's expanding South Florida presence mirrors the region's growing luxury-car economy. Through Chase Auto, the bank provides private-label financing relationships for McLaren, Maserati, Aston Martin and Jaguar Land Rover for buyers who upgrade frequently and prefer their capital liquid.AdvertisementAdvertisementDuring the Formula 1 Miami Grand Prix, McLaren, Maserati and other performance brands reserve The Concours Club for customer driving experiences, giving prospects room to discover what a 750S or GranTurismo Folgore can do without the Florida Highway Patrol entering the conversation. It's how I became acquainted with the Club, when both brands invited me for a driving clinic. McLaren was first, during the 2025 Miami Formula 1 weekend, with Maserati following later in the year.In addition to its exclusive membership program, the Concours Club is also a high-performance hospitality platform for brands selling into Miami's wealth ecosystem. It gives a trial venue to owners and aspiring owners of F1-adjacent marques who watch Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri compete at Hard Rock, and think, "I can do that."Building A Year-Round Monterey Car WeekThe No. 73 Radical-Hayabusa shared by Nelson Calle and Diego Echeverri during Colombia's 2010 Campeonato Nacional de Automovilismo season. The pair raced with Aguardiente 180º sponsorship, including a rain-soaked May round at Autódromo de Tocancipá."They invented the concept of doing a 5-star car club," Nelson Calle, one of the Club's 52 founding members, told me over Zoom. "That didn't exist because of people like me that thought you only need a roof and a track. A track, and a shitty roof, and shitty service, and the mechanics brought you a coffee. All the clubs were like that. Then these guys [Weiss and Neil Gehani, Club CEO and founder] invented a 5-star Resort-type club. And they nailed it. Now there's copies here trying to do it here and there. But this was the first real 5-star resort racetrack in the world."A Colombian‑born former Formula 1600 driver turned financial advisor turned back into a vintage racing enthusiast, Calle began hearing rumors about a "world‑class motorsport facility" opening inside Miami. He'd heard variations of this fantasy many times before. "The car world has all sorts of clowns," he said. When his friend mentioned the project, Calle responded, "It's bullshit, they're not going to do that."AdvertisementAdvertisementBut then two years later, a painter who worked two blocks from the construction site told him the track was real. Calle drove over and climbed the fence."And there's a beautiful track," he recalled. "None of the buildings, just a very well-paved track with the beautiful curvings was already laid down, was ready. And I was like, 'oh my God. Even if there's just a shelter, like a roof, that's a track. I have to call these people.'"Calle's reaction made sense for someone who spent much of his life evaluating circuits by function before form. His earliest motorsport education in Colombia started when a young Calle discovered an RC-car hobby shop near his home and fell for the small gasoline-powered machines raced with full-size seriousness. RC races took place beside a local kart track, where, when miniature races ended, the full-size machines would be next."I heard the go-karts going past in the straightaway and braking into the first turn, and I could hear both the acceleration and the screeching of the little tires, so I immediately run to the fence. And I cling my hands to the fence, and I watched those guys accelerate and brake for maybe an hour. I don't think I moved an inch from where I was, just watching them. And I was like, 'Oh my God. This is heaven.'"AdvertisementAdvertisementThis was his first lesson in speed and mechanics before obsession quickly followed. "I'm pretty sure that night I slept very little, because I only kept on thinking, maybe I can do that," he said. "How can I do that? How would it feel to drive one of those? Would I be good? Would I like it even?"Calle spent much of his life thereafter answering his own questions by racing karts in Colombia, winning a national 100cc championship, then Formula 1600, then Formula 2000 once his family moved to the United States. Racing's economics forced him out of the cockpit as he discovered talent and ambition don't pay for tires and race prep. He abandoned his obsession to build a career in finance, eventually co-founding a successful advisory firm."That feeling of speed and that desire to go fast and perfect your lap and perfect the way you turn, it's never stopped," Calle reflected, having relapsed from the straight path of wealth management back into the winding roads of racing. He now campaigns vintage Porsche 911s in gentleman-driver series across the U.S. and Europe.The Concours Club has given him a Miami address for his craving, along with storage, service, coaching, and a place to keep his own racing history in motion. Alongside other member cars, his restored 1995 Formula 2000 car now lives there and regularly makes it back onto the Club's circuit.AdvertisementAdvertisement"If you ask me why, I have no idea why," Calle said of his passion, given no other family member is interested in racing. "If you ask me why some people like it and some don't, I can't tell you why."From Monterey Car Week To The Pit LaneLilian Raji, suited up and ready to head onto The Concours Club circuit for a one-on-one coaching session with Rod Macleod, stands beside one of the Club's BMW race cars before taking to the track."All car guys think they're good drivers," Weiss told me. "But only racers really want to find out."As a former street racer (think The Fast & The Furious), I began legally exercising my lead foot at Porsche's driving academy in Birmingham, then during one- and two-day clinics with BMW and Lexus at Atlanta Motor Speedway and Road Atlanta.Discovering from my first visit through McLaren that my newly adopted city offered such a club was exhilarating. When Maserati brought me back, exhilaration turned to fixation, which Weiss happily indulged by bringing me back for a third time to be coached by Rod Macleod. Macleod's job begins where driving clinics end.AdvertisementAdvertisementFor the uninitiated, Macleod graduated from working on Formula 1 cars for Tyrrell and McLaren to winning championships behind the wheel, eventually racing in what is now known as Formula 2, motorsport's final proving ground before Formula 1. He predicted a then-16-year-old Norris would become an all-star almost a year before McLaren realized the same."He was doing things that were just so far ahead of his time," Macleod said of seeing Norris for the first time as a junior in a New Zealand series surrounded by drivers closer to Formula 1. "In terms of his experience level, his car control, his calmness, his approach. He just made them look like total amateurs. That's how good he is."Now, between coaching both members and private clients on the Ferrari Challenge circuit, testing cars for private collectors and helping promising upstarts follow Norris's trajectory, Macleod serves as the Club's Lead Driving Coach & Driving Events Manager. Weiss has assembled the Club's instructors from professional drivers he once admired, including Macleod."One of my driving coaches, I had a poster of him on my wall in college," Weiss said. "And now he hangs out here. He's here 5 days a week as one of my driving instructors."AdvertisementAdvertisementBeyond the bravado of going as fast as possible, Macleod teaches precision, beginning with how brake pressure shifts a car's weight and sets up a corner long before the apex. "The process is completely opposite to the way you drive on the street," he told me after our session. "In racing, it's more to less because of efficiency."In addition to Formula 1-standard safety barriers on the track, GPX Stream sends a driver's in-car data and video to the pit lane, where Macleod can review braking, balance and line without occupying the passenger seat. Telemetry turns the lesson into data points for improvement.I'm proud to share that, against members who had considerably more professional training than I, my time after a four-hour session with Macleod was only the second slowest on a leaderboard of roughly 10 drivers (which included Calle in the top two), about 38 seconds behind the fastest after I'd started the day dead last. There may or may not have been extenuating circumstances as to why I beat the person below me, but really, all that matters is I beat them.A McLaren, BMW or Porsche driving clinic can make anyone feel like Steve McQueen in Le Mans for an afternoon. Macleod's job is to teach members how to drive like Steve McQueen in Bullitt.AdvertisementAdvertisement"In a traditional school, there's a student-to-instructor ratio," Weiss explained. "And the class progresses with the lowest common denominator, right? If one person in your class hasn't picked something up or is slow, you continue on that until they get it. All of our instruction is one-on-one."And while horsepower may supply the soundtrack, it's the driver that carries the plot. "A Maserati program is a great way to learn those cars and experience how capable their streetcars are. Our race program is not about the car. It's about the driver."The C-Suite Lessons Behind Monterey Car Week LifestyleGPX Stream gave The Concours Club Lead Driving Coach Rod Macleod a live pit-lane view of Lilian Raji's driving session, transmitting in-car video alongside real-time telemetry including speed, RPM, gear, lap times and throttle and brake inputs, allowing him to assess her braking, balance and racing line without occupying the passenger seat."I had an uncle who was also bitten by what my father calls 'the defective gene,'" Weiss said. "My dad appreciates cars, but he's not a car guy. But my uncles both were, particularly one of my uncles who was a surgeon, who always had the latest, greatest Porsche."Weiss has since learned he and his uncles weren't uniquely afflicted. The Club exists for people who hear a V8 or flat-six and can't explain their excitement to a normal person. Carrying that same defective gene is the true price of membership. Being able to afford the dues only gets you a meeting.AdvertisementAdvertisement"I don't frankly care what kind of car it is, as long as you have a reason and opinion," he said. "What I don't love hearing is, 'oh, it's a brand nobody else can get, and that's why I like it'. I love this car because I like this design, I like this experience, I like this ethos. You have a reason, you have an opinion. And that opinion shows that true passion and that true engagement."For C-suite executives hoping to turn customers into a community, The Concours Club offers four lessons worth taking off the track.Curate For Chemistry"It helps to know an existing member, number one," Weiss said of the Club's admission process. "Number two, be willing to display a true passion for automobiling."Weiss wants prospective members to explain why a particular car matters to them, whether the answer lives in design, engineering, history, sound, driving experience or a childhood memory no one else understands.His admission criteria operate as retention design. Every member becomes part of the product other members experience, so the Club screens for people who will use it, contribute opinions and turn up. A membership full of participants holds more value than one filled with customers checking off a status-symbol purchase.Treat Time As Product Design"We've weaponized that ADHD lack of patience and used it to remove as many friction points as we can," Weiss explained. "So that the limited time our members have to enjoy their hobby is spent enjoying the hobby and not having to deal with the administrative levels and layers that most motorsport and sport in general are bogged down in."The Club's app opens the entrance gate, with members bypassing security stops required of visitors. Weiss calculates five minutes saved across five visits returns 25 minutes to the member. The math sounds trivial until you understand the customer. People wealthy enough to outsource inconvenience still have finite time, and time remains the one asset no concierge can replenish.Earn Belief Before Asking For FaithCalle and the Club's other 51 founding members bought a promise before Verge had its parking-lot car show. He saw promise in the clean asphalt and finished circuit, and immediately knew a true motorsport's club had arrived."I used to be amazed at how people ran Four Seasons or Ritz, or any of those businesses," Calle said. "Well, guess what? Now I go to a Ritz, or any fancy hotel, and they don't do a job as good as what they do at the Club."Founders often spend too much time polishing the story when skeptical early adopters are looking for evidence of execution. Giving the hardest part first – a functioning product, credible prototype or an unmistakable demonstration of competence – makes everything still under construction easier to accept.Expertise Compresses The Learning CurveVelocity isn't competence, and ambition without technique usually ends in expensive bodywork. Macleod's job is to shorten the distance between confidence and capability."Being able to explain that in simple terms," he said, "will hopefully help them to get to a much higher standard in a much shorter space of time."Sophisticated tools become more valuable when expert instruction helps customers or employees master them faster. Newly found confidence in mastery will encourage repeated use, and ultimately, create curiosity at what an upgraded model will teach. That's how you keep them coming back.A Monterey Car Week Acquisition Needs A Proper PlaygroundAn aerial view of The Concours Club's private circuit at sunset in Miami, with Miami-Opa Locka Executive Airport stretching beyond the track."I would sit in the backseat on the passenger side with my eyes closed," Weiss told me as we traded stories on how we recognized our respective afflictions. "And my dad would say, open. I would open my eyes, look in the side view mirror at a headlight behind me, close my eyes again, and tell you what kind of car it was. Then that evolved to sitting on the front porch of my house with my brother, with my back facing the road, and every car that would go by, I would tell you what engine was in the car."AdvertisementAdvertisementMy less innocent origin story is a bit NSFW but nonetheless exhibits my own set of loose screws found in all motorheads. Those loose screws make membership at The Concours Club less about status signaling and more about giving members a route back to the person they were before adulthood forced a detour – and within an environment where you don't have to explain to the person sitting beside you at the Verge why the purr of a Corvette ZR1X igniting titillates you in, again, NSFW ways.For South Florida collectors who came home from last week's Monterey Car Week with a shiny new toy, The Concours Club Miami will let you really play with it.This article was originally published on Forbes.com
