Throughout the very short British summer, visitors to London are treated to one of the best motor shows in the world, and it's all completely free of charge. July and August welcomes many guests to my country’s fantastic capital city, many of whom are from the Middle East and escaping the extreme heat of their home countries, often with their prized supercars in tow. The streets of London, particularly around Kensington and Mayfair, are literally awash with almost every supercar you can think of — either parked randomly on the streets or cruising around ‘circuits’ chosen by their lucky drivers. I've experienced this "show" first hand with a good friend, a Sheik from Qatar, who owns many amazing cars. This summer, he brought three of his favorites to be with him to London: a Porsche 918 Spyder, Bugatti Grand Sport Vitesse and a Ferrari LaFerrari - together with some support vehicles, including a beastly new Brabus G-Wagon. Driving a LaFerrari up Sloane Street on a Sunday afternoon is like landing a UFO on the lawn of the White House; the attention it gets, from a really ridiculous amount of car spotters, is insane. I’ve been around supercars for longer than I care to mention, but this was an experience I'll never forget. Hundreds of car spotters jostling for the best position, lighting up the internet in real-time with clips, photos and videos of the various cars. The cars, however, are not all class - and range from the sublime to the ridiculous. There are some interestingly wrapped cars such as a "Tron-style" Lamborghini Aventador, a velvet Ferrari F12 and a garish, gold-wrapped Ferrari 458. Other unusual cars include huge Mercedes G Wagon 6×6s and a unique Maybach coupe that the owner had specially commissioned. The real heavyweight contenders I saw included Pagani Huayras, Bugatti Veyrons, a few Porsche 918s, McLaren P1s, Ferrari LaFerraris — and my absolute favorite car of all time, the Pagani Zonda Cinque Roadster, which I spent a day in with some friends from Saudi Arabia, together with chassis #001 Huayra and a beautiful red Enzo. Not everybody is happy with the noise this Arab invasion brings - indeed some of the residents get extremely irritated with cars, their V8s, V10s and V12s rumbling away, driving late at night on what would normally be quiet suburban streets. Personally, every person I met within the Arab "car fraternity" has been nothing but considerate and respectful of the people who live in the relative neighborhoods. Personally, I would prefer the symphonic rumble of engines to drunken louts walking home singing loudly and kicking over trashcans any day; but ho-hum, you can’t please everybody. The only thing I would suggest, if I were Boris [Johnson, Mayor of London], is that the owners of imported cars would pay a temporary road tax and congestion zone charges — neither of which the owners of these multimillion dollar cars would bat an eyelid at. So there you go. If you want an excuse to check out London next summer and you happen to like cars, grab yourself a camera and head to the cheapest, and one of the best, supercar shows on the planet!
