Last month in the Arizona desert, Eli Kogan opened a car club.
His brainchild, a 47,000-square-foot space lined in reclaimed barn wood and expensive modernist artwork, is not what you might expect to find nestled in Scottsdale saguaro. Otto Car Club has a theater in its 4,000-square-foot members lounge, a library, full bar and private dining room, an indoor car-only elevator, and climate-controlled storage for 185 cars. Its state-of-the-art mechanized stacker can hold 75 cars set on top of each other like million-dollar blocks.
At the opening party, guests who had flown in from New York and L.A. ate shrimp lollipops and teetered in stilettos. Kogan, 24, in spectacles and his girlfriend Britni Sumida, a blonde bombshell model and fellow car enthusiast, held court while their 450 guests mingled between the Singer DLS Lightweight, a McLaren P1, and a LaFerrari, among other six- and seven-figure vehicles.
With a social calendar that includes track days, private rallies, and whisky nights, Kogan seems to have thought of everything for the 175 members he hopes to attract.
What he does not have is a track.
“If you’re a car person or car-centric and love design and art, there’s nowhere central to go meet with friends and spend time besides the racetrack or a cars ’n’ coffee,” says Kogan, who estimates he spent $10 million on the club. “But not everyone likes to go to a racetrack. As one of my collectors said, ‘Why would I go at 6 a.m. in the morning to stand around in a parking lot where I feel uncomfortable?’”
Kogan’s club is the latest example of new business cropping up around car culture. Whereas past private car clubs from Palm Springs to Miami have historically centered around racetracks, both literally and culturally, a new group is focusing on the clubhouse and garage. These entrepreneurs are betting that storage and a social life, rather than direct access to a track, will be enough to attract wealthy clients.
“We refer to it as a safe space,” says Kogan. “We are in the convenience business—all you have to do, if you want, is arrive and drive. You’re not coming here to get cars sold to you.”
The clubs are often located in the center of rather more cosmopolitan areas than racetracks, which must be located miles out of town due to noise and usage ordinances. Some, like the Classic Car Club in New York and London, come with a built-in collection of classics owned outright by the club; others store members’ six-figure toys as well. Others, like Caffeine & Machine in England’s Cotswolds region, do a little of both.
The idea is to combine the best elements of a social club with the practicality of storage. And to make it easily accessible to young and young-at-heart car lovers who live nearby.