These Amazing Aston Martin Adventures Are Hilariously Expensive

Aston Martin has begun offering a series of amazing driving experiences for well-heeled fans of the brand, but brace yourself for the prices.

Let’s open the bidding with a simple factory tour. Yours for £350 per person based on two people attending together, you’re escorted around the latest models, heritage cars and special projects during a comprehensive run-down of the brand’s 104-year history. You’ll see the production line in action and hear from people who actually build Aston’s cars in an event usually reserved for Aston Martin buyers only.

But that’s small-fry. Try the Nurburgring Driving Academy for €1399 (you need to provide your own Aston Martin), or the Millbrook Performance Driving Course for £1500 per person. At least you can borrow a Vanquish, V12 Vantage S or a DB11 for that one.

But, again, this is still pocket change as these things go. For £4250 each you can step up to VIP status at Red Bull Racing’s pre-season testing action in Barcelona. Witness the RB14’s shakedown with exclusive access to the team itself, eating lunch with the team staff before some handshakes and selfies with one of the drivers.

You also get a drive through the countryside in a current Aston Martin, ending up at a winery (obviously) for lunch and fermented grape-sniffing. There’s yet more time to explore Barcelona.

If not that, then how about the £6000-per-person Norwegian adventure? A four-day experience along the Atlantic Ocean Road takes in fjords, waterfalls and stunning mountain scenery, not to mention the finest food.

Still not quite… premium enough for you? Allow us to present you with the £11,000 (each) Monaco Grand Prix Weekender. On a five-day jolly you can take in the Col de Turini in a borrowed Aston, then have a mystery insight into Aston Martin’s future during an Aston-executive-hosted champagne reception among Prince Albert of Monaco’s private car collection.

Of course, you get first-class seats for the race weekend, pretty much constant hospitality and access to the famous (or infamous) Red Bull party in the harbour.

The most expensive option, if that special someone in your life has been really good lately, is the two-day European Race Track Driving Experience. If two of you go, the price is €17,850. Each. And you don’t even get a night in a hotel. What you do get is an Aston Martin GT4 racecar, with insurance, tyres, all ‘wear items’ and petrol, an Aston Martin technician, an instructor, one dinner with the team and catering throughout.

As for the circuits, you can choose between the awesome and challenging Circuito Ascari, which several CT staff know well enough to recommend hard, or the fearsomely tricky Portimao in Portugal, Jerez in southern Spain or Monteblanco, 30 miles from Sevilla.

You can also take a single day for €9460.50 each. Either way, the two of you will share the same car over your time with it.

Also available are Scottish escapes, Japanese ice-driving, Goodwood Revival adventures and Festival of Speed trips. Where would your money go?