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Executive: Felix Lluberes and Hong Long, founders, Position Logic, Naples
Diversion: Driving supercars
How they got started: When Felix Lluberes started software company Position Logic in Naples in 2008 with business partner Hong Long, he wrote a list of things he wanted to achieve. At the top of the list was to own a red Lamborghini. “This is my passion,” he says of his Lamborghini Gallardo, a red 550-horsepower convertible.
Long also has had a passion for fast cars. Growing up in Iowa, working on cars was a favorite pastime. “Every Friday night we'd go cruising,” he recalls. Now, he drives a white Audi R8.
First cars: The cars Lluberes and Long drive today are a far cry from their first vehicles. Lluberes chuckles when he remembers his first car: a 1982 Toyota Tercel. Long had a 1968 Mustang and a 1965 Impala. “They were hand-me-downs from my brother,” Long laughs. He drove a Subaru when he moved to Florida.
American dream: Long emigrated to the U.S. with his family from Laos in 1975, refugees from the conflicts in Southeast Asia. They moved to Cedar Falls, Iowa, when Long was just 7 years old, initially surviving on food stamps. In 1990, Lluberes came to the U.S. with $50 as a student on a scholarship to the Maharishi University of Management in Iowa.
Dream cars: When they started building Position Logic, Lluberes and Long couldn't have afforded the six-figure prices for these supercars. The Lamborghini cost more than $300,000 and the R8 cost about $175,000. But both men dreamed of owning such cars since childhood. “We used to have posters of cars on the wall,” says Long.
Buying cars coincided with milestones in both men's lives and accomplishments of certain goals. Setting a goal such as affording a Lamborghini helps you stay focused, they say. “You want to be heading toward something,” says Lluberes.
Learning to drive: Lluberes says he's taken half-dozen classes on driving the Lamborghini at the Homestead racetrack. The toughest thing is learning to apply the brakes and trusting that they will help you stop under control even at high speeds. “It's timing, more than anything,” he says. Long says he appreciates the design of the cars, too. “The engineering is amazing on these cars,” says Long.
Join the club: Occasionally, Lluberes and Long will take a friend for a drive. “You'd better put your head back,” Lluberes warns an unsuspecting guest. The speed will knock your head back against the headrest as you join the “150 club” — those lucky enough to experience that speed or higher. Lluberes likes to take his Lamborghini on the track where he can push it to 175 miles per hour, but he has to replace each of the $750 tires every other time he hits the track. “I go through them like crazy,” he says.
Ticket magnet: Lluberes acknowledges he's been caught for speeding more than once and has had to take a driver's education class to avoid getting points taken off his license. “I have my share,” he says with a guilty smile. “It's the only downside.” Long has been more fortunate: no tickets so far.
Share the fun: Long and Lluberes don't hide their cars in the garage or just take them out for joyrides on the weekends. It doesn't matter if the car gets scratched. “We'll buff it out,” Long says. “I'm not sentimental.”
Lluberes loves to pick up his children at school with it and drive around Naples. “Get in and I'll take you picture,” he tells strangers who marvel at the car. Clients get to drive it too, he says. “It's an opportunity we cannot miss,” he says.
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