Pictured clockwise from top left: Camilo Pardo, Ken Lingenfelter, Kris Singh, and Mark Lindee. ROY RITCHIE

From the June 2017 issue

Preston Henn (who died at the end of April at age 86) was the owner of an extremely profitable south Florida swap meet, as well as some of the world’s most elite vintage and contemporary cars. Quite a few are emblazoned with the prancing horse. Yet, although he already owned a Ferrari FXX and a LaFerrari, when the 200 exuberantly affluent buyers for the $2 million LaFerrari Aperta were recently alerted to their anointment, Henn was not among them. So he did what any respectable flea-market oligarch would do: He sued, demanding a car and a five-figure defamation ­settlement. Did this result in his acquiring an Aperta? Negative. A payout? Nope, he ultimately dropped the suit. Was the legal action likely to advance Henn’s ability to acquire rare new Ferraris from the factory in the future? Signs point to no.

Experienced experts concur that you don’t piss off Willy Wonka if you want the Everlasting Gobstopper. Investor, collector, and boutique-car designer Jim Glickenhaus has had his share of legal battles with Maranello—over his “lemon” of a 308, and then later over his right to use the Ferrari name on a one-off Enzo he commissioned from Pininfarina. According to Glickenhaus, when it comes to getting admitted into Ferrari’s innermost sanctum of owners, there are only two choices. “You either do your own thing, like I did,” he says, giving his prescription for not getting in, “or you pay them a fortune and get on their good side, and maybe they’ll let you buy one of these cars eventually.”

Almost anyone with the appropriate bank balance can walk into a dealership and purchase an entry-level exotic. Say, a Ferrari ­California T or an Aston Martin Vantage. Sure, these vehicles are ­special, but in the pantheon of automotive exclusivity, they’re akin to an ancient Egyptian retainer sacrifice, the many soldiers or ­servants embalmed and entombed to care for the Pharaoh. They’re inside the pyramid, but not in the best section. Just as a mortal cannot stroll into Giza and ride out onto the rivers of the Underworld in a funerary boat, a billionaire cannot pull up at the local Aston Martin store and simply write a check for the hyper-rare Valkyrie. This requires getting on The List.

The List is not mythological. Neither is it monolithic. But each exotic carmaker we contacted for this story—Aston Martin, Ferrari, Lamborghini, McLaren—confirmed that it has an internal registry it uses to identify potential owners for absurdly pricey, extremely limited-edition vehicles. “We know all our best clients individually,” says Nicola Boari, Ferrari’s head of product marketing. “And those are the people we have in mind when we plan a ­special series. With these cars, Ferrari already has a roster of those clients potentially interested and will thus contact them directly to see if they would like to purchase a car.”

Every man needs a place to rest his arm. Among Kris Singh's armrest options is his Lamborghini Veneno coupe, one of only three sold. ROY RITCHIE

The List is not some 1920s fraternity handbook. It doesn’t include written qualifiers or pictograms for a secret handshake. That would be gauche. (It might also be illegal.) Instead, its rules are unspoken and unshared, like the discretionary door policy of a hot nightclub. Because, for those queued up, every movement brings them that much closer to the absurd opportunity to write a check that exceeds many well-off people’s retirement portfolios.

In fact, The List determines the precise scale of that opportunity, meaning the number of cars included in any limited-production run. The core goal of the manufacturer is, of course, to ensure that demand outstrips supply such that every car has an owner before it’s even built. So, for example, when the application process for McLaren’s P1 opened and 1500 people with gold bars singeing holes in their pockets begged to be lightened by $1.15 million, this provided the company with a basis for settling on a final output.

“Realistically, the general rule is 50 percent of people are going to end up flaking,” explains John Paolo Canton, head of public relations at McLaren North America. “So that brings us to 750. And then you get to the point where you say, all right, if there are 750 serious people here, we need to keep demand higher than supply for two reasons. One, it’s the smart brand thing to do, but two, the fewer we make, the more committed the buyers will be.”

By only producing half of what the brand knew it could assuredly sell, or just 375 cars, McLaren added gratification for those blessed with a car. And it created unfulfilled demand to entice potential ­buyers for future specials. The List thus ensures a win-win for everyone.

“I can be blunt and say the specials, as we call them, they’re profitable,” says Matt Clarke, Aston Martin North America’s director of marketing and communications. “Otherwise we wouldn’t make them.” But in today’s market, where these brand-new, extremely limited vehicles no longer go through a cycle of depreciation before ­escalating in value, the profit motive also exists for buyers.

“I was looking this morning at the Vantage GT12, and they’re already selling well above list,” Clarke says, noting that prices on the 2015 model have increased by well over $100,000. “They’re a very safe investment.” The rich do get richer, just for parking their assets.

So how does one get added to The List? First, acquire money—preferably Panama Papers quantities of money. Then evince a willingness to reflexively flush vast amounts of it. “The rule that we follow is first come, first served,” says Vittorio Gabba, head of ­Lamborghini’s One-Off and Ad Personam programs. “Meaning that the first customer who puts down the deposit is the first to get the car.”

Beyond being oceanically liquid, it is important to be appropriately connected and vocal. After being wowed by the radical 2012 Lamborghini Aventador J, Kris Singh, a 38-year-old Miami-based investor, let his interest in future Lambos be known. “That car really resonated with me because it highlighted what Lamborghini is the king of: crazy,” Singh says. “So I reached out to everyone I knew there, and I said, ‘Listen, the next time you guys do something like this, I want to be a part of it.’ ” The subjects of his outreach included the company’s regional sales manager, its research and development boss, and its North American division president.

List of The List: Recent Releases for the Extraordinarily Privileged

Left to right: Aston Martin One-77, Aston Martin Vulcan, Ferrari F60 America, Ferrari FXX K, Ferrari LaFerrari Aperta ROY RITCHIE

Left to right: Ford GT, Lamborghini Centenario, Lamborghini Veneno coupe/roadster, McLaren P1, Porsche 911 R ROY RITCHIE

Singh didn’t just Google-stalk and cold-call these executives. He had already built up relationships with them over the years by buying Gallardos and Murciélagos and by being active in owners’ groups. All of this is germane to List placement. While there is no overt requirement for prior purchases, brand representatives all say that being a consistent buyer helps. Singh was eventually rewarded in 2013, allowed to purchase one of three $3.9 million Lamborghini Veneno coupes, sight unseen. Recent asking prices for the roadster have been in the $8 million to $11 million range.

“There’s not a formula, per se,” says Aston Martin’s Clarke. “But you always start with your loyalists before you cast the net any wider.” This is especially true for collectors with a pedigree in ultra-exclusive purchases. “If you’ve got some credit in the bank in terms of buying prior specials, then we’re absolutely going to go to you first,” he says.

Unlike most love matches, these brands do not require mo­noga­my. “We know that the customer who owns a Bugatti, they own a LaFerrari, they own the McLaren P1,” says Lamborghini’s Gabba. But the marques are always looking for ways to gain converts. This is another way to jump ahead on The List. Canton says McLaren will often reach out to “somebody who, maybe there’s a budding relationship and they’re driving a competitor-brand car.”

This is how California investment manager Mark Lindee ended up in a P1 after spec’ing a Ferrari 458 Italia. “McLaren was a relatively new retail brand when they conceived of the P1,” Lindee says. “They had a dealership in Beverly Hills, the general manager of which had been the general manager of a local Ferrari dealership whom I’d built a Ferrari with. And when they announced the P1, he called me and said, ‘We have to do this car.’ ”

Movement up The List can also happen through good deeds. This could entail loaning the company a special vintage car for an event, but it can also include something as simple as demonstrating appreciation for an elite vehicle’s capabilities beyond that of an appreciating asset. Speaking of the brand’s recent $2.3 million, track-only Vulcan, Clarke says: “Ideally, we don’t want them all ­disappearing into collections and never seen again. We do want it to go to people who would actually race it.”

This generosity can even extend to actual charity. Michigan performance-shop owner Ken Lingenfelter has an extensive private collection of cars, containing myriad limited-run exotics, which he opens to the public for events and fundraisers. “My name, our brand, is kind of known worldwide,” he says, careful to enunciate a Midwestern humility, “and it provides a really great venue, a great opportunity for someone to get exposure for their vehicle in a kind of exclusive way.”

In this same vein, fame sometimes helps. Rock star Eric Clapton was able to get Ferrari and Pininfarina to build him a one-off tribute to the 512BB in 2012, and Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler requested a ­custom build for the first Hennessey Venom GT convertible. Likewise, social-­media presence plays an increasingly important role. “I think a lot of companies are looking for guys who are followed on the internet and tweet and post,” says Glickenhaus. “Use any advantage you have. Nothing is sacred.”

Nothing, that is, except money. Though profit is a core motive for buyer and seller alike, every manufacturer and customer with whom we spoke decried the practice of flipping cars. In the bizarro world of the ultra-rich, cashing in on your List position is a shabby violation of the tenets of automotive nobility. One doesn’t buy a Picasso to sell it. One buys it to own it.

Any McLaren P1 is pretty special. But a P1 custom-tailored to one's exact desires, like Mark Lindee's purple-and-orange car, is extra special. ROY RITCHIE

Meanwhile, the market is carefully tracked for fealty and transgression, and a quick resale might become what Aston’s Clarke calls “a black mark” against even the best customer. Slinking quietly between brands offers no cover in a tiny market where everyone knows everybody. “In my office, there are a fair amount of people from Ferrari,” says McLaren’s Canton. “And they knew at Ferrari who was keeping cars and who was flipping cars.”

But the most important factor in placement on The List is perhaps the least intuitive. Though decisions seem to be made centrally at brand headquarters, even at this lofty level, the local car dealers are still the front line of consumer interaction. They’re the first call a manufacturer makes as it scouts quality prospects, and they’re the requisite legal locus of every transaction.

“The best dealers will give their best customers a hint that something special is coming,” says Clarke. “And they will know straight away, ‘There are three people I know who will take that, without my even asking.’ ”

Lingenfelter concurs: “One of the reasons I get invites to buy some of these great cars is because I’ve had a long-standing relationship with my Ferrari dealer. And they know that when I buy them, I don’t buy them to flip them and make money; I buy them to enjoy them and to invite other people to enjoy them.”

Yet even for those inscribed on The List, there’s always a chance of not making the cut. A production run may be too limited. A regional allotment may be fulfilled. Having 500,000 Instagram followers may be insufficient.

For manufacturers, the challenge here is that at this price point, everyone in consideration is an extremely privileged person, used to always having their demands met. How does one say no to people who are accustomed to only hearing yes?

“These people, they know what they want and they sometimes are insistent, but they know the limit to where they can push,” says Lamborghini’s Gabba. Consolation prizes help. “Most of these people, if you say no, they are put in priority for the next one-off. So for sure we know we always take care of them in the best

way possible.”

Like us, Ken Lingenfelter parks all his red special-edition Ferraris together in reverse chronological order: LaFerrari, Enzo, F40, and 288GTO. ROY RITCHIE

Singh certainly found the limit when he tried to get to the top of McLaren’s list for the BP23, the triple-seat successor to the famed F1. “They basically told me, ‘Register your interest.’ And they said, ‘You’ve never owned a McLaren.’ They’re like, dude, we can’t say no to P1 owners and F1 owners to give you one. And I said, ‘You know, I actually respect that.’ ”

Still, at times these companies take great pleasure in saying no. “I mean, if ­Justin Bieber is putting his name down, I would definitely say no,” says Aston’s Clarke. “But we don’t tend to attract those people that we’d like to say no to.”

Of course, testing the limits of no can cut both ways. “One time I asked Lambor­ghini to put a rocket launcher on my car,” says Singh, chortling at the obvious joke.

“I was like, ‘I want an actual rocket launcher coming off the back. I want to be able to shoot lasers at people.’ And, they called back and said [affects Italian accent], ‘Kris, we have heard back, and we cannot do the lasers or the rocket launcher. For safety reasons.’ ”

The Blue-Oval List: The Maker of the Tempo Gets Choosy

Exotic carmakers have cultivated relationships with exclusive clients for decades. Not so at Ford, which for the most part has spent the past 114 years peddling mass-­produced affordability, from the Model T to the Taurus. As the $450,000 GT supercar comes to market, the most expensive model in the current catalog is a $78,000 Super Duty F-450—not exactly lustworthy unless you have a decommissioned battleship to tow. So the company faced a dilemma in allocating the first 750-car batch of GTs (out of a promised total ­production run of 1000). Ford did not want to just ship the cars to preselected Ford dealers, as it did with the 2005 GT, and see them slap on huge premiums. Nor did it want to sell its new halo car entirely on a first-come, first-served basis.

“When we sat down and looked at the numbers, we thought, ‘How do you do this fairly?’” says Henry Ford III, Ford Perform­ance marketing manager and the great-great-grandson of the guy who first put his name on the building. “How do we get these cars in the hands of those we think are true Ford brand ambassadors and will really go out and enjoy this vehicle and use it in a way we think, and they think, helps celebrate the Ford brand and the innovation and technology behind the Ford GT?”

Designer of the 2005 Ford GT, Camilo Pardo shows off the order kit each buyer of the new Ford GT was sent to work out a preferred color scheme. ROY RITCHIE

The answer was to create an online application system, querying would-be buyers on, among other things, their Ford vehicle ownership, racing credentials, chari­table intentions, and social-media reach. More than 6500 applications came in, the great majority earning polite rejection letters, some of which appeared online. Plenty of those chosen by Ford also shared their good fortune publicly, as if they’d earned an Ivy League spot.

Among those awarded the right to buy was Detroiter Camilo Pardo, who just happened to have designed the 2005 Ford GT. But he still filled out the application.

“I had to call Raj Nair, who is the main engineer behind the whole vehicle. And he said, ‘Just fill it out the best you can, and there’s an area in the bottom for comments. Fill that all up.’”

Ford’s list wound up becoming a hugely public display, the very opposite of the typical quiet discretion of exotic brands. This, of course, generated a lot of press for Ford, which seemed to be the real point behind its scheme. What’s more, Ford ended up choosing quite a few GT aspirants who didn’t own another Ford—13 percent, according to Nair, Ford’s executive vice president of product development and chief technical officer. Ford now has a backlog of applications for the final 250 cars but has vowed to reopen the application process by 2018 to other interested parties, meaning you have some time to build your Instagram following.

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