[Curt2000]

Saw this parked a couple blocks from the palace in London...Nice!



I was wearing a full suit with aviator sunglasses on and I was trying to not look like a tourist so I kept my camera in my pocket, when I wanted to take a pic I would whip it out with one hand while hitting the power button and snap the pic then quickly put it away and keep walking...After I took the pic I realized there were cops in the car and they got out and approached me...they were there as security because some sort of protest that was happening at the parliament (Big Ben) a couple blocks away and I must have looked shady trying to take a incognito shot. I told them that I was just a tourist and drove a bimmer back in the states and thought their police car was cool and they let me get on my way.

[m3pare]

nice!

[Lobaeux]

Cool. A bobby in a bimmer.

[flem]

and a black 430 in the background lol

[lvVIVAlv]

nice!!!

[MCMLXXXIX]

hahahahaha!

nice!

[Minefield]

Originally Posted by Curt2000

Saw this parked a couple blocks from the palace in London...Nice!

I was wearing a full suit with aviator sunglasses on and I was trying to not look like a tourist so I kept my camera in my pocket, when I wanted to take a pic I would whip it out with one hand while hitting the power button and snap the pic then quickly put it away and keep walking...After I took the pic I realized there were cops in the car and they got out and approached me...they were there as security because some sort of protest that was happening at the parliament (Big Ben) a couple blocks away and I must have looked shady trying to take a incognito shot. I told them that I was just a tourist and drove a bimmer back in the states and thought their police car was cool and they let me get on my way.

you would probably sound like a tourist LOL

[shift330]

lol. at the Ferrari in the background

[Curt2000]

Originally Posted by AiyahPK

you would probably sound like a tourist LOL

Oh yeah they would know as soon as I opened my mouth! I could fool people if it were a one or two sentence conversation and I was trying to speak like a local but at the pubs there was no fooling them

[Curt2000]

Originally Posted by shift330

lol. at the Ferrari in the background

Yeah everyone had a sweet ass ride over there...the 1 series hatches were like efing civics, one out of ever 10 cars. they also had a myriad of different engine types, I saw 118's 120's 125d....Im proubly getting it wrong but it seemed like every bimmer had a different designation, a lot of diesles too.

but anyway, I saw stuff like this all over:

This R8 had curb rash alllll over its rims and was parallel parked with the rims touching the curb...it makes no sense to me! I just dont see how you can be driving something like that in the city and leave it on the curb.

I saw a couple TVR's, a shit ton of Ferrari's, even more Bentley's, and an amount of BMW's and Mercedes comparable to Chevy's and Ford's over here. 911's and 911 turbo's were about as common as vettes and Z06's over here

[DenverJayhawk]

There are TONS of nice cars in London. When I was there in 2007, I can't remember how many Astons I saw. There was even a Gallardo outside Paddington Station Underground waiting for a pickup. I was also shocked to see so many trucks and SUVs as well given the price of fuel. I can't believe how much money people in London have.

[Garduna]

haha nice story

[SteveMD]

Originally Posted by Takashi

If I am correct, Cars in London is like a status symbol. People in Europe and Asian countries are very into this sort of thing. All people care about in Canada and us is the size of the engine and how many hp the engine has.

Not really. If you live in Central London, you have dough. Huge Arab population, I was there last August and in one day, just driving around the old neighborhoods I saw over a dozen Bentleys. Benz S550s are as common as Honda Accords in Knightsbridge/Chelsea.

We always sit outside The Tea Clipper, a pub around the corner from Harrods and watch the hardware roll by. I saw a Zonda last time.

Oh...and the London plod have been using 5 series tourings for a long time. You will see a lot of T5 V70 Volvos on the motorways for high speed pursuit (my police buddy drives one in Cumbria).

[bulldog_yyc]

I miss England .... except the rain

[Yoshii]

nice...but damn i would expect the 5 series to be in white if its a police car...red is a weird color for a police car....

[smallbore]

Originally Posted by Yoshii

nice...but damn i would expect the 5 series to be in white if its a police car...red is a weird color for a police car....

They were all white until recently. Some forces went to silver. The Metropolitan Police have a few different colours and I would expect it helps when they take all the decals off and sell the vehicles.

It is quite fun trying to spot the covert cars in London.

Red does look particularly weird though!

smallbore

[JeepJeep]

Originally Posted by SteveMD

Not really. If you live in Central London, you have dough. Huge Arab population, I was there last August and in one day, just driving around the old neighborhoods I saw over a dozen Bentleys. Benz S550s are as common as Honda Accords in Knightsbridge/Chelsea.

We always sit outside The Tea Clipper, a pub around the corner from Harrods and watch the hardware roll by. I saw a Zonda last time.

Oh...and the London plod have been using 5 series tourings for a long time. You will see a lot of T5 V70 Volvos on the motorways for high speed pursuit (my police buddy drives one in Cumbria).

I take it that the immediate area around Harrods is posh, right?

I stayed in a hotel a block away (The Capital Hotel) and there were lots of really nicely modded Porsche's and Range Rovers. There was even an Enzo outside of a little Italian restaurant we ate at around the corner (don't remember the name, but there was a lot of people eating outside just so they could over the cars)

I was kind of surprised at how many cars were manual compared to the US. I can guess the reasons why though...

[Davin]

when i was up their last summer, i saw a couple of E39 540i's with the m-sport package

[Curt2000]

yeah I saw a ton of Msport packages on various models

[E92Fan]

The MSport packages are very common over here, so not surprising you saw so many! Also, the Metropolitan Police (London police) use a whole bunch of different BMWs - predominantly though the 330d and 530d in both sedan and touring versions. Colours vary as well - white cars for normal vehicles, and in Central London red cars for rapid response vehicles and the armed cars.

Out in Essex, which is one of the home counties around London, they have a whole fleet of modded Subaru Imprezzas and Mitsubishi Evos as response vehicles. One of the other police forces in Warwickshire used to run a Lotus Esprit 300 as their highway pursuit vehicle!!

We're used to seeing high-end cars here in London - a Carrera GT or Zonda is not such a rare occurrence anymore Bentleys are almost a dime a dozen, and Ferraris and Porsches don't even turn heads. Just in my apartment building car park, there are three 911 Turbos, three Astons (two DB9 and one V8 Roadster), a classic Ferrari Dino, Audi R8, a Bentley Flying Spur, and two SL55AMGs !!! My E92 is completely and utterly ordinary in that company (at least in the looks and ownership factor !!) I do have benefit from all these great cars being here - the security in the complex is fantastic!!

[Deda]

cool!