London to kerb supercars

If new laws proposed for fashionable areas of west London are ratified, it will unfairly target "wealthy Middle Eastern supercar drivers".

That's the word according to Alex Prindiville, the founder and owner of a central London supercar showroom, who clearly doesn't relish the idea seeing the Lamborghinis, Ferraris, Paganis and Bugattis disappear from the area.

The council of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in London has responded to residents' complaints – some of them councillors themselves – about the anti-social behaviour of supercar owners by proposing a Public Spaces Protection Order, or PSPO, for the area.

If successfully implemented, the PSPO would make it illegal for supercar owners to accelerate quickly, rev their engines, play loud music, honk the horn, drive in convoy or leave their engine running while the vehicle is stationary.

"The area has become a destination for boy racers from the Gulf states, and their supercars make an enormous amount of noise," Nick Paget-Brown, leader of Kensington and Chelsea council, told UK paper The Independent.

"They rev their cars and they can be heard right across the neighbourhood," he stated.

But Prindiville says the proposed laws, very similar to hoon laws in place across much of Australia, "demonise supercars".

"The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea's proposal to draft a new set of anti-social behaviour laws to deal specifically with the "menace" of wealthy Middle Eastern supercar drivers is heavy-handed and unnecessary," said Prindiville via press statement.

"Existing laws are already perfectly adequate to deal with the minority of supercar drivers who step out of line, provided they are properly enforced," he said.

"I don't doubt that some of the young Arabs in their powerful supercars do cause a genuine nuisance but apart from the price of their cars, are the rest of them so very different from young lads the length and breadth of this country?"

Prindville's view is influenced by his business, which is to sell supercars, but he argues that if he were to go shopping at Harrods in the Ferrari LaFerrari, which revs loudly upon ignition "would I be arrested and have my car impounded?"

If the laws pass, supercar owners will be fined if contravened, with repeat offenders open to having their vehicle seized.

But supercar owners in London have it easy compared with all motorists in some Australian states. In Victoria police can seize and impound a vehicle for a month for a first offence under hoon laws, for "improper use of a motor vehicle".

Repeat offenders can have their car confiscated and destroyed.

What do you think – should west London's supercar owners be reined in or are the proposed laws nanny-state nonsense? Have your say in the comments below.