Wheels on Fire: Hong Kong Celebrities and Their Love for Fast and Furious Cars

Hong Kong is easy to travel around and has fantastic public transport connections, so in this city, a car is not a necessity. While locales around the world work tirelessly to push the electric car and other environmentally friendly public transport options, Hong Kong seems to stay in its own bubble, continuing to celebrate the more luxurious, high maintenance car models. Just take a drive along Gloucester Road and Queen’s Road Central in Wanchai to get an idea of what people in Hong Kong want to buy. From Lamborghini and Ferrari dealerships to Porsche and Rolls-Royce showrooms, all the big names are waiting to be taken for a spin - often by drivers of equally impressive stardom.

And as if the big engines and flashy alloys weren't enough, there is also a huge demand for private number plates to accompany the cars. Very often these number plates are added to quite standard BMW cars because their owners want to add a bit of individuality to their vehicles by giving them a name like 'GIGGLES' or ‘DREAMY,’ or the more arrogant drivers use their plate to make a certain kind of statement, with ‘U WISH’ and ‘ARRIVED’ displayed on the front and back of two Hong Kong sports cars. The most common vanity plates in Hong Kong include the lucky number 8 - or they use the owners’ initials to turn the car into even more of a status symbol. This is the case for Bank of East Asia’s CEO David Li, whose car has the number plate DL 1, and China Club’s David Tang who has at least two licence plates beginning with the letters DT. Hong Kong tycoon and ‘King of Gambling’ Stanley Ho is also known to be a fan of this style of number plate and has been rumoured to own a yellow and silver Rolls-Royce Ghost with the number plate SH and another silver Rolls-Royce Phantom with the well-known HK1 plate.