Wow, where did the last ten years go?
Seems like only yesterday that we were a bunch of automotive enthusiast people in our 20’s, who knew they loved everything about driving but had no idea how to turn that love into a thriving business. To say this ride has been a blessing could be the understatement of all time. After all, how many of us out there really get to say that we love what we do every single day, and get paid for it?
Our goal of bringing the experience of driving bespoke supercars to the people, and our severe addiction to entrepreneurial endeavors, means that our eye for bringing folks the finest supercar experiences was bound to grow, but this time we aren’t just some kids in their 20’s.
Open Road brings the supercar experience to some of the most stunningly scenic, and technically challenging roads in the United States. The concept is simple, and yet it requires a whole host of behind-the-scenes magic where the rubber meets the road.
You’d think we’d have learned everything there is to know about creating bespoke supercar experiences for our guests, but launching Open Road has taught us that is so far from the truth.
Here are the 3 things we’ve learned from launching Open Road.
1. We’ve learned a lot in 10 years
When you’ve been putting massive smiles on the faces of car enthusiasts, and non-car enthusiasts alike at supercar driving events all over the nation for a decade, it’s easy to take the lessons you learned along the way for granted.
Turns out, all the collective experience, passion, and practical knowledge of traveling with a parade of supercars have given us just the type of niche knowledge to successfully launch another supercar focused driving brand that takes people’s love of the not so humble supercar to another level.
One thing we know better than anything is our customers, but this didn’t happen overnight. It took time and umpteenth number of events to really settle in on exactly who our customer is and what they want to do. Some are those car enthusiast types that are brimming with enthusiasm for driving vehicles that may be out of reach, you know, the type of cars that they had on their bedroom wall as children. Others never thought they’d even care about supercars but someone else in their family thought that they would have a good time. Frankly, we love every level of enthusiast and always welcome newbies into the fold with open arms.
It also takes a particularly unique brand of knowledge to scope out location, arrange for a cavalcade of supercars to show up on site, and book every meaningful part of the journey in a seamless way. Learning and adapting to these types of scenarios in a seamless way is only possible because we’ve had to learn so many hard lessons along the way. Although Open Road presents an entirely new set of challenges for the team, we’re confident that we’ll be able to get it done right.
2. It’s Still Hard and Takes Work
2021 was a landmark year for Xtreme Xperience.
It’s easy to focus on all the positive elements of running a pair of supercar experience companies (I mean, come on, there’s a lot) but getting the job done is far from easy, and that’s just the way we like it.
Every event requires adequately staffing events to properly sourcing out host locations, dealing with transporting not only people, but supercars as well, the best routes for Open Road drives, and so much more. The logistics of keeping things moving positively forward takes a gargantuan effort from every single person that chooses to work with Open Road.
Maybe we’re all just a little more mad than we realize, but the men and women of Xtreme Xperience love rolling their sleeves up and getting the job done. We celebrate every successful track day like it’s a milestone, because, well, it is! We’ve provided 70,000 experiences alone in 2021, at locations all over the country, and we did it safely.
Hard work? Sure. Fulfilling, you bet!
3. People Don’t Change
Much like a performance vehicle, the best people within an organization are inherently balanced in their career alignment, and their personal values.
Making someone do something that they have no desire to do is the equivalent of throwing a Ford Mustang onto a track and expecting it to perform and feel like a Ferrari. No matter how much passion and power you throw down, at the end of the day it’s still a Mustang and not a Ferrari. While this may sound negative, it’s far from it!
While the Mustang isn’t a Ferrari, solid organizations realize that it doesn’t really matter. For a certain kind of enthusiast, the Mustang is the absolute peak of automotive perfection. There’s no doubt that it’s an American icon, and perhaps one of the most famous brand names anywhere in the world. A Ferrari is, well, a Ferrari and it’s meticulously designed to scream around a track, look outrageous and stir your soul. Each has value, and each is relevant.
We’ve learned that people are pretty much the exact same way! There are those that live and breathe in a customer support function, while others are happy to avoid social interaction, and whittle away behind the scenes helping our fleet of cars make it from one epic location to another.
The lesson we learned? People don’t change, so rather than fight it, embrace it.
Open Road Is Just The Start
We dream big.
While some companies might hammer the brakes as their growth starts to ramp up, we thrive on the thrill of bringing more experiences to more people all over this great country.
Our team just spent a few days in Florida looking out until 2030 and are dreaming up the next round of incredible experiences for our adrenaline loving fans! We don’t see the end, we only see the beginning, and Open Road is just the start.
We can’t wait to see you at the track, or at one of our premier Open Road events near you in 2022!