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Friday Night on London’s Hans Road

Harrods Hans Road.jpg

Closing time for Harrods department store in London is at 8PM on a Friday night. Across from its Hans Road entrance is a mediocre but well-positioned Italian restaurant Zia Teresa. VehicleVoice correspondents grabbed a table across from the Harrods’ door that was a great venue for the supercar version of Detroit’s Woodward Dream Cruise. Of course, none of these cars could drive more than about 20mph down the street that was a narrow single lane with cars parked on both sides.
A brief inventory included: 1 Bugatti Veyron, 2 Lamborghini Gallardo Spyders, 2 Lamborghini Gallardos, 2 Lamborghini Countachs, 2 Lamboghini Murcielagos, 1 Mercedes SLR McLaren, 2 Porsche Carrera GTs, 5 Aston Martin V8 Vantages, numerous Bentley Continental GTs, one Bentley Flying Spur in black with orange bodysides, a Morgan, many mundane Porsche 911s and Cayennes, more 2006/7 Mercedes S-Classes than could be counted. Oh yeah, there were a couple of vintage Daimler limousines carrying shoppers to and from Harrod’s.
Why this proliferation of super iron? Apparently, because of the difficulties in Lebanon, many vacationers from the Middle East opted for London this year. Where they congregated in the Edgeware Road area in previous years, this year their loci is Harrod’s. A high percentage of the supercars were left hand drive with Arabic number plates. Probably air-freighted from Saudi Arabia, Qatar or Dubai.
Veyron at Harrods.jpg

Parked at the curb (kerb), Veyron shared space with a bicycles and chauffer-driven Range Rover in the background.
Harrods SLR.jpg

SLR illegally parked at end of Hans Road attracted dozens of admirers most taking mobile phone photos. SLR in the flesh and in traffic was underwhelming.
Harrods Carrera GT.jpg

Getting even more attention than the SLR was this red Carrera GT with Arabic plates (SLR and Veyron also had Arabic plates). Note the Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder cruising by in background.
Down the street, around the curve, there were more Lamborghinis parked in a two block area than would be seen in Turin at any one time.

1 Comment

  • Dan Hall| August 25, 2006 at 2:11 pm

    The ‘Slade traveling behind the SLR next to the pedestrians looks a bit odd in London. The whole shot looks like a Cadillac TV ad.
    Dan:
    Real deal. Besides, if it were a Cadillac ad, it would be a 2007 Escalade rather than GMT800 Escalade. Dwarfed the SLR didn’t it? Of course, there was the Excursion stretch limousine that came a few minutes later.

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