If you want to gawk at the rarest and most exclusive cars somewhere other than extravagant showrooms, then look no further than the narrow streets of London’s affluent areas, where rich Arabs show off their flashy wheels.
Mega-rich young Arab playboys from extremely wealthy families in Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia have indeed made London one of their playgrounds. The big question is, how are their hot wheels flown in from the Gulf States, and how much is that worth?
As Arabs try to escape the searing heat back home, they willingly pay a small fortune for their metal marvels to be flown around 7,000 kilometers to London – a city now dubbed the supercar capital of the world. They spend a staggering $30,000 – enough to pay for a brand new Mercedes CLA250 sedan – per custom-painted vehicle for a return journey, to end up leaving their cars parked on the streets of Knightsbridge, sometimes illegally. What are a few parking tickets to a Bugatti owner, really?
A few carriers offer such services, including the Gulf Agency Company and Qatar Airways. Qatar Airways boasted about its Airbus A330s cargo capabilities at the Dubai Airshow 2013, with its ability to ship up to 31 gas-guzzling motors from Doha to Heathrow Airport. Using main and lower decks, the airline offers 31 positions on each flight, ready to take supercars ranging from Ferraris to Lambos to the skies.
Once in the United Kingdom, car owners can drive their cars for two months. Some owners are actually on tour and spend only a few days in London before heading to other locations around Europe, such as Marbella in southern Spain or Cannes in southern France.