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Postcard from... Hong Kong

 

Jamie Merrill
Tuesday 22 October 2013 15:54 EDT
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Six hundred Ferraris would be an unusual sight in Monaco in the height of summer, but in Hong Kong, where the speed limit is usually a sedate 30mph, it’s bizarre. The Prancing Horses were marking the Italian firm’s 30th year in the former British Colony.

Now Hong Kong isn’t much bigger than London inside the M25, yet for every Ferrari you spot you’ll see half a dozen equally brash machines on its gridlocked streets. It’s the underground car park of the One ifc (the city’s most prestigious mega mall) that’s a super car spotter’s dream, with Lamborghini Aventadors parked next to Bentleys and Aston Martins.

This turbo-charged buying boom isn’t all it seems, though. Rumours abound that most buyers are mainland Chinese who have money they can’t legitimately shift in Beijing or Shanghai. Hence the surging super car sales in Hong Kong’s less-closely monitored Special Economic Zone.

It’s just a shame that, well, there aren’t that many roads to drive them on.

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