Photos courtesy of OTTO Car Club
If cars could choose where to go on vacation—or where they’d like to be parked while we do—this would be the place. This membership club for collectors is all about providing the ultimate ownership experience by keeping the focus on the cars rather than worrying about where to store and maintain them. All the potential headaches that come with owning a special car are left to the experts at this facility, ensuring they are taken care of with the latest techniques and highest-quality components.
Named after Nikolaus August Otto, (the father of the internal combustion engine, with the surname to match), the Otto Car Club was founded by Eli Kogan, the young and passionate car enthusiast behind the Scottsdale, Arizona-based club.
The building, exquisitely designed and constructed to hold almost 200 vehicles at any given time, has spaces for cars to be stored and worked on, as well as plenty of space for members to socialize and enjoy the company of other like-minded collectors.
This ambitious project started five years ago in Eli’s mind: “There is one, main pain point of collector car ownership and—even if people will probably laugh about it—there is a so-called first world problem of having too many cars to keep at your place. Sometimes it becomes a full time job to store them, maintain them, run around town to get them ready for track days, rallies, an event, or just to keep them exercised. There had to be a way to take people who love cars, design, art, and all the other interests that we share, and create a space for them to enjoy a passion-in and stress-out community. Sort of like a Cars & Coffee atmosphere in some ways, but brought into an upscale environment that also includes a top-class collection management program.”
Otto Car Club, in addition to a beautiful members area, has a well-stocked library, a workspace for members, their concierge service offices, 185 car spots in the warehouse, plus 19 private garages with security cameras that members can access 24 hours a day, and, of course, a detail bay. Everything is climate-controlled, as you’d expect.
Why Arizona? “We are from Los Angeles and that’s where we initially thought we were going to make this happen, but then we realized that the area was too big to pick one spot which was easily reachable from most parts of the city, that’s why Scottsdale sounded like a better solution: the car culture there is huge, there is a great, dry, climate, a lot of concentrated wealth in a small area, and the local residents are used to club memberships. The quality of life is amazing, traffic doesn’t seem to exist here, and the roads are amazing; on the east coast, cars are put away for winter hibernation for example, while here it’s the opposite. Only the significantly older cars won’t be driven between June and September due to the heat, but other than that, the rest of the year is pure enjoyment.”
Rallies, members’ events, new model premieres and track days are on the OTTO docket too: Scottsdale is a good starting point, considering the vicinity to the California circuits, but the best news is that Apex Motor Club is building a new track just 45 minutes away. And, as it is 2019, there’s an app for all this: all of the services provided by OTTO can be conveniently scheduled via their dedicated app, from servicing to transportation, car prep and tire changes, or to check out the events calendar and make reservations.
The team is pretty selective when it comes to accepting membership applications, and it’s all about finding the right community: “We want this place to be as friendly and passion-centric as possible, and not all the car collectors out there are good characters sometimes, and our process of acceptance considers how well the members will integrate with our environment. We just want to make sure that whoever joins will be able to make the most out of the membership.
