Mayfair supercar crackdown: Wealthy drivers who cause havoc by revving their engines and racing round affluent streets face fines
A Labour-run council is cracking down on wealthy wannabe boy racers wreaking havoc in their luxury supercars on some of London’s most exclusive streets.
Super-rich residents in Soho and Mayfair have been enraged by speeding drivers loudly revving their engines through some of the capital’s most sought-after enclaves.
But in a major supercar crackdown, Westminster City Council is now planning to fine motorists £100 for anti-social driving, including playing loud music, revving engines, car racing and performing doughnuts.
The clampdown will be enforced in London’s most affluent neighbourhoods – covering most of St James’s, Knightsbridge and Belgravia – home to millionaire tycoons, celebrities, sports stars and business moguls.
Just last week, police seized £7million worth of uninsured supercars – including two identical purple Lamborghinis.
One of the two drivers had been in Britain for just two hours, and behind the wheel for only 15 minutes, before being caught.
The seized vehicles signal the start of the city’s ‘supercar season’, when wealthy Arabs flee the scorching hot temperatures of the Middle East and cruise around the capital in their extravagant vehicles.
Tourist hotspots such as Bond Street, Piccadilly Circus and Oxford Street have also been blighted by anti-social drivers causing chaos.
Supercars have been taking to the streets of central London late at night (as seen here in 2020)
Drivers were seen last year gathering for car meets less than a mile from Buckingham Palace
A fleet of expensive luxury sport cars were seen in central London ahead of a meet last year
Just three weeks ago, a ‘large group of masked individuals’ turned up on New Bond Street with 30 cars and 20 bikes and attacked a bus with smoke canisters.
Westminster City Council say they have issued 368 fixed penalty notices over the last three years for alleged violations of the order, many for illegal meets on Exhibition Road, South Kensington.
Evidence collected by the New West End Company (NWEC) revealed that police had to be called 25 times out of 33 recorded car meets in New Bond Street between April 2023 to June 2025.
The NWEC said the average number of vehicles attending the car meets is 63, with the Metropolitan Police deploying a vehicle to the area on 14 occasions during that timeframe.
An extract from the council report reads: ‘The impact of this behaviour is a growing concern for the public, local businesses, and the Council.
‘Tyre burnouts leave lasting skid marks on road surfaces, contributing to the visual deterioration of a high-profile retail area and necessitating more frequent resurfacing at a cost to the Council and its partners.
‘Additionally, evidence gathered by NWEC indicates that anti-social vehicle use is disrupting retail security systems, triggering false alarms and leading to the unnecessary deployment of costly resources such as security fog systems, which are activated by the loud disturbances.’
Just last week, police seized £7million worth of uninsured supercars – including two identical purple Lamborghinis – in a major clampdown against wealthy lawbreakers
Pictured: a Ferrari seized during the clampdown last week. The flash sports cars were confiscated across Hyde Park, Kensington and Chelsea
Some drivers were found to have been on the roads without a valid licence, using a mobile phone wile driving, not wearing a seatbelt and having illegally tinted windows. Pictured: a yellow Porsche confiscated during the operation
Fed-up councils have previously been seen issuing penalty charge notices to owners of luxury vehicles for flouting parking rules
Two gold supercars have previously been seen with parking tickets slapped on their windscreen after illegally being left outside the Jumeirah Hotel in fashionable Knightsbridge
Police are seen targeting London’s millionaire boy racers during an operating in Kensington
For other supercar tourists, jetting into London offers them a way to flaunt their expensive fleet of motors – like the reported Saudi billionaire owner of these two gold cars
Pictured is his Rolls-Royce was spotted turning onto Cadogan Place, where the average house price is just over £9.2million
The cars were photographed outside the five-star Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park hotel, which, on its website, boasts ‘world-famous restaurants’ and a ‘stunning spa’
The Saudi’s fleet of high-end gold sports cars are thought to be worth more than £1million
Special Chief Officer James Deller from the Met Police, who was in attendance at the operation, said that the operation represented the force’s commitment to tackling anti-social behaviour. Pictured: a Met Police officer seizes a vehicle
Pictured is a supercar which was stopped by police during a previous operation
Parking enforcement officers from Westminster Council are seen issuing fines after two luxury cars were parked illegally
Martin Saunders, Head of Uninsured Driving Prevention at MIB, urged motorists to ‘check their insurance policy is in place, is appropriate for their needs and to reach out to their insurer if they are unsure on any part of their policy’
The acoustic cameras, which would be used to catch breaches of the order if the proposals are approved, are activated when they detect events over 80-90 decibels – which is as loud as standing next to a passing London Underground train.
The camera then uses AI to differentiate an engine’s sound from a typical car horn by monitoring the sound patterns.
Cllr Max Sullivan, the council’s cabinet minister for streets, pledged that the council would take a ‘zero-tolerance approach’ to such behaviour and labelled dangerous driving ‘a blight on our streets’.
He added that they would work with the Met ‘to tackle illegal car meets head-on’.
Soho Society chairman Tim Lord told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: ‘We have had a spate of motorbike racing late at night which appears to be dangerous and is incomprehensibly loud and frightening for visitors, residents and businesses.’
The arrival of the luxury motors has become a regular event in recent years, with rich Kuwaitis, Saudis and Emiratis seeking to out-do each with their souped-up vehicles.
They are often spotted waiting in gridlocked traffic in some of central London’s most popular areas or parked up outside designer shops and luxury boutiques, including Harrods.
It is thought owners pay in excess of £20,000 to fly their vehicles around 3,000 miles to London. Qatar Airways is one of the operators that facilitates the transportation, with airport staff securing vehicles to the floor of the relevant aircraft before flight.
However, the fleets of high-end motors racing through the capital’s historic roads at all hours of the day and night have previously caused a headache for locals.
In places like Kensington, mega-rich owners shamelessly flout parking rules by leaving their fancy cars in the road without paying for the privilege.
Fed-up councils have previously deployed armies of traffic wardens and tow-trucks to tackle luxury supercars left in disabled bays on yellow lines.
The car owners, many believed to be from the Middle East, are likely unbothered by the £110-£160 parking fines in the likes of Kensington – having already splashed out a small fortune to import their swanky machines into the UK.
Other instances have seen police being scrambled to tackle nuisance drivers as they loudly rev the engines of their high-powered cars through the city into the early hours.
