Arab cars in London

Sir's obviously quite colourblind I'd wager my old chap - yeah like they really speak like that! (Pics Jamie Lipman)

Shahzad Sheikh
28 January 2010

Many bird populations will migrate north in the spring to breed in temperate conditions and return in the autumn to the much warmer regions of the south.

Likewise, between mid-June and September a spectacular annual migration of wildlife between the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania and Maasai Mara National Park in Kenya, takes place. It witnesses the movement of almost two million wildebeest, zebras and many other species of animal.

There is also another migration that occurs during the summer season. It is equally spectacular although not in terms of mass-scale movement, indeed sightings can be rare as the herds are quite localised. But if you manage to track down the frequented feeding grounds at the right time, the rewards can be great as the species you’ll find can be uncommon, valuable and in some cases demonstrate unique plumage and markings.

It is this third group that is the focus of our investigations with the aim of bringing you the best spots to catch this unusual form of wildlife in its natural habitat, undisturbed and at play. I meet up with photographer Jamie Lipman near London’s Marble Arch underground tube station. It’s late afternoon on a balmy mid-August day as we embark on what will become a six-hour hike. We’ll be grateful for Jamie’s GPS-equipped phone and despite my poor tracking skills and jet-lagged disorientation, the familiar terrain is set to present us with alien spectacles to shock, awe and inspire.

Our interest had been piqued by online rumours of some truly exotic cars having been sighted picking their way through the congested streets of the UK’s capital. The identity tags identified most as foreign participants in the great migration from the GCC. They head west, and most, it turns out, end up in London.

There had been reports of a pink Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera, silver Porsche Carrera GT, maroon and red Dubai-plated Bugatti Veyron, hideous orange and black Maybach, and a shocking 700bhp black and white Hamann SLR Volcano amongst others.

It actually doesn’t take long to tick off the first of these on our list. Ducking into the back streets off Park Lane, we stumble on that Maybach, possibly a Mansory (I’ve seen similar paint jobs on Mansory Bentleys), nesting in a parking bay. At first glance it would appear that it isn’t part of the migration, thanks to its UK plates. But it’s hard to imagine a London resident driving a Maybach, much less one emblazoned with day-glow orange against matt black.

The mating-call Maybach is on diplomatic plates and its long-term nomadic status is quickly confirmed by an online search revealing it to be registered to the UAE mission! Jamie starts snapping.

A little further down the street we find a set of Abu Dhabi plates but curiously they adorn a car that appears perfectly at home in the W1 postcode – it’s a John Cooper Works MINI Cooper S. It’s a bit too sensible for here and despite its sporting flagship status, not all that exotic in the company it undoubtedly keeps. We leave the maverick MINI and move on.

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Kent Bax says

Re: Arab cars in London
Yeah this is a well documented yearly event. The following locally based website has images dating back to 2007 illustrating GCC cars all over Europe but mainly focusing on those migrating to London. http://www.supercarsdubai.com/vb/showthread.php?t=64 Reply

31 January 2010

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