Breakfast isn’t usually this difficult. Poached or scrambled? Blintzes or Benedict? Coffee or tea? What’ll it be; oh, what’ll it be?

The problem, of course, isn’t the variety of savories arrayed before you at the buffet table. It’s the embarrassment of riches awaiting you in the parking lot. Riches indeed: there’s $1,645,000 worth of automotive supercar exotica glistening under a glorious sunrise, polished and prepped, fueled and fine-tuned in the expectation of whisking you off on a Sunday drive that you’ll never, ever forget.

Scrambled eggs are as nothing compared to your own scrambled imagination at this early morning hour.

Not a Dream

You’re not imagining things. It’s just that Jean Paul Libert is so effective a stage-manager that you can’t resist pinching yourself from time to time to make sure you’re not dreaming. With his deft touch for automotive alchemy, Libert has contrived to put you behind the steering wheels of five world-class supercars for less than one-tenth of one percent of their aggregate market value. Thoroughbred exotics that you might otherwise never get closer to than in the pages of a magazine are here and now ready and willing to submit to your hands on their reins. It’s a world-class driving experience that exists nowhere else but at World Class Driving, the brainchild born of Libert’s automotive passion and marketing savvy.

The idea is so simple as to appear preposterous. At some 50 venues around the U.S. throughout the year, World Class Driving gives auto aficionados several hours of serious seat time in the cockpits of supercar stablemates that include the likes of the Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano (612 horsepower, $499,000); Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera (530 hp, $265,000); Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren (617 hp, $480,000); Porsche 911 Turbo Cabriolet (480 hp, $164,000); and Ferrari F430 (483 hp, $237,000). And for the fee of $1,495, a driver is encouraged to compare and contrast, for example, the SLR McLaren’s brute-force supercharger with Porsche’s silky, seductive twin-turbos; the Lambo’s fire-breathing, mid-engine V10 with the Fiorano’s unrelenting, front- engine V12. Do the SLR’s skittish ceramic brakes suit your fancy? Can you feel the F430’s Formula One-inspired, electronically controlled rear differential clawing for traction in decreasing-radius corners?

Does your hair stand on end every time the Superleggera’s computerized gearbox "double-clutches" in response to your paddle-triggered downshifts?

Bracing, Not Racing
Because World Class Driving is emphatically not a racing program, participants find they are not the least bit intimidated by a quintet of vehicles bristling with state-of-the-art performance technology.

Instead, the driving experience becomes an aesthetic pleasure, along scenic, winding routes designed to showcase the user-friendly sophistication of what are, after all, street-legal supercars.

Integral to the experience, moreover, is the opportunity to rub shoulders with and absorb driving tips from the likes of Dider Theys, two-time winner of the fabled 24 Hours of Daytona road race. Theys, like Libert, is a Belgian schooled in the European roadracing and grand touring traditions; and when not actively campaigning (as he is throughout 2008), he and his roadracing colleagues are adept at cajoling hesitant drivers to explore the varying personalities of the cars they’re driving—and to exploit each car’s special prowess.

"Sure," admits Libert, "after putting over 3,500 customers behind the wheel since our debut in the U.S. in 2006, we’ve had a few ‘cowboys.’

That’s not what we’re about, of course; so if we need to intervene, we do so promptly and decisively. It’s only fair to the entire group, after all, who’ve come to us for an enjoyable, memorable experience.

Still, in all of ’07, we only had four traffic citations and two, um, ‘experiences’ of unacceptable behavior.

"Really, though," he adds, "we’re far more often encouraging drivers who are unfamiliar with the exotic technology under their control to experiment with the cars, to test their potential in ways they may never get to experience again."

Just Another Million-Dollar Week
By its very nature, World Class Driving becomes something of a club whose participants know they have shared a rare experience that’s hard to describe to "outsiders." Participants range from devotees eager for their first supercar experience to corporate customers indulging in a bit of teambuilding among employees, colleagues, and customers. "We’ve had a few folks," Libert says, "who are actually in the market for a supercar, and they use our program as a form of comparison shopping."

Libert’s future plans include a "200-mph Club," in which drivers will get to experience this automotive equivalent of the Holy Grail in the safety of closed-course conditions at exotic locales. A "Seven Wonders of the Auto World Tour" is also on the books. This, according to Libert, will let drivers experience seven of the world’s best supercars at seven of the world’s best Formula One tracks hosted by seven of the world’s most successful racecar drivers in seven different European countries. Prospective pricing for the Seven Wonders Tour is tentatively set for $1,000,000 per participant.

For just a fraction of that price, however, World Class Driving’s original concept still manages to match incomparable cars with incredulous drivers for a half-day experience of a lifetime. And new cars, like the Chevrolet Corvette ZO6 and Audi R8, are being added to WCD’s stables constantly. After a stint behind the wheel of five of these cars, it becomes clear what Libert and his associates have actually accomplished: they’ve lifted the veil off the exclusive world of exotic supercars and placed wish-fulfillment within reach of every devoted car aficionado and auto buff. ET