A rookie's guide to car spotting

Where in the world are you more likely to see a Ferrari than a Ford Fiesta? Outside of Maranello, Dubai or Monaco, I’d suggest that a walk around central London gives you the best odds.

It’s why car spotting, the art of going into town and seeing what rare metal passes you by, thrives in the more exclusive parts of the capital (think Knightsbridge, Belgravia and Mayfair).

There are few other places around the globe that offer such ease of access to wealthy folks with interesting cars, as well as the stellar transport links needed to quickly bounce between their meeting spots.

But without knowing where and when to look, it can be a bit of a crapshoot. The flood of Ferrari 812s and Lamborghini Uruses quickly grows old and properly special cars like one-off Pagani Zondas are few and far between.

What changed the game was the rise of social media. Photography apps, particularly Instagram, gave budding car spotters the means to share a location and then the excitement of a special find. It’s like a Panini sticker book with extra bragging rights.

Upping the ante is the knowledge that, whether you’re shooting stills or video, there’s a potential reward for doing it well. Several online personalities have built media empires from car spotting.

Take Tim Burton (no, not that Tim Burton), better known by his online handle Shmee150. He started uploading clips to YouTube in 2010, gradually building his on-screen persona and a following. Today, he has 2.6 million subscribers and a supercar collection of his own.

I’ve never been car spotting before, but I’m keen to get in on the action. I want to understand how and why people do it, and whether there’s an underlying thrill to it all that I’ve been missing.

So I arrange to meet Autocar snapper Jack Harrison – whose start in photography came with car spotting – at the Hilton hotel on Park Lane. Of all the places in London to find a special motor, it surely has to be by some of the most prestigious dealers in the country.

But I arrive with slight bewilderment: where on earth are the supercars? For a sunny Sunday afternoon, it’s surprisingly quiet. The only thing of interest either of us have seen on the way over is an original Vauxhall Zafira. Parked at the front of a queue of limousines opposite the Intercontinental Hotel, it’s an incongruous, even surreal, sight.

It’s only when we hit Berkeley Square, half a mile down the road, that the day starts to bear fruit: a Ferrari 430 Scuderia. We have a quick natter about how they all seem to be tucked away in collections nowadays, grab our pictures and move on. At which point Harrison’s phone dings. It’s a tip-off.

Apparently, someone is going to bring the UK’s first Mercedes-AMG One out of hiding. It’s generating quite a buzz. 

We hotfoot it over to Belgravia, stopping only for the occasional oddity. A Sunbeam Alpine, a navy-on-tan Ferrari F355 and an AC Schnitzer BMW 7 Series all capture our attention. On the way, Harrison drops his first nugget of wisdom. “Always check the mews,” he says. I’m reluctant, but he reckons it’s fine so long as you come and go quietly and quickly.

The detour proves memorable: we find a Bugatti Veyron tucked away in the back corner of a courtyard, sitting on a wonk with its front wheels cocked leftwards. There’s a real irony in seeing one of motoring’s most revered cars ditched like a delivery van. Pictures grabbed, we once again move on.

An hour passes before we notice a crowd building outside the various embassies on Belgrave Square. Behind the swarm of teenagers, there it is: our AMG One. It’s apparent that we’re late to the party and most of the group is standing back to let the hangers-on fly around the machine with their phones. The owner greets a couple of spotters with a wide grin, clearing a space around the car to have his picture taken. Then he clambers back inside it and silently crawls away.

I must admit to feeling flat and confused as to why some of these people have travelled from far and wide to chase this hypercar. Sure, it’s exciting to see something so rare, but is that it?

Before I can complete my thought, the group bursts into life, sprinting over to the next corner in the square. The AMG’s mighty V6 bellows as the car leaps to the next exit off the square and the crowd erupts with cheer. Now I get it.

As much as we love cars, and as much as there’s a rush in seeing something that most people won’t, the real highlight is the camaraderie. The bounty is in sharing that excitement and then watching it ripple through an online community in the hours after.

It’s a theme that comes up in later conversations with a couple of prolific car spotters. Josh Scoot says: “I started at 13 with all my schoolmates, who were an hour outside of London. Now I’m 22 years old and pretty much everyone I know is from the car community. It’s truly like a family now. I travel around the world with my mates, who do the same car stuff.”

Nathan Craig – who is from California but in the UK on holiday and couldn’t resist a day’s spotting – says most of his closest friends come from car spotting. “We have a big group chat which, for the most part, is just random stuff, but it also doubles as a means for us to communicate about when and where we see a cool car,” says Craig. He adds that he tends to go out spotting on his own but often ends up finding a new friend on the way.

I have just one burning question: do the owners like the attention? The AMG’s driver clearly loved it, but is that the case for everyone?

“It’s quite mixed,” says Scoot. “Some owners love to flex their cars. You know who they are because they’ll wrap their car in the craziest colour or put the loudest exhaust on. They love the attention.” However, you also get some people who are, as Scoot puts it, “very funny” about their car being photographed.

He explains: “Some owners will drive around London putting their middle fingers up. Some have actually got out, trying to take cameras off people. There are many stories of mates of mine who have been chased down by the security detail of the owners. It’s a hard one. You are driving on public roads; you can’t have the best of both worlds. If you’re driving a £5 million Bugatti through South Kensington, you can’t expect people not to take photos.”

Regardless of any negative experiences, what strikes me most about the car-spotting crowd is its sheer enthusiasm. There’s never a bad day, nor is there a dull moment, because there’s always a new tip to follow or another mews promising hidden treasure. I’m hooked.

Three tips for car-spotting rookies

1. Pay attention

“Every good car spotter will have their head on a swivel,” says Craig. “They don’t want to miss out on the car driving by, but it also means looking out for oncoming traffic if you’re standing somewhere where that’s possible. There’s no excuse for standing in the middle of the road when there’s a car coming and I’ve seen that happen a lot.”

2. Know where you’re going

Harrison and I covered an area of only a few square miles between Park Lane and Belgravia. The Tube links within that zone – Hyde Park Corner and Green Park – made it much easier to quickly chase any rumours of cars out on the street.

3. Don’t be fooled by that bus

According to Harrison, “a London bus idling sounds exactly like a Lamborghini Aventador”. It sounds ridiculous, but he’s not wrong. Don’t fall for it.

Meet the spotters

Josh Scoot, Instagram @scootsupercars

Followers 140,000

How did you get started?

“I was always into collecting stuff like football cards or toys. I saw these cars as things I wanted to tick off. If I saw a certain car, I wanted to see the next one. My dad and I would go into London. We saw some of these cars and the next day we saw something else get posted – so we had to see that. It was an ongoing thing where you just want to see them all. We ended up going every weekend for the next five years, trying to see each one and not miss them. It was fun.”

Nathan Craig, Instagram @nathanlovesbacon

Followers 29,000

How did you get started? “I remember seeing a poster in my dad’s room for the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. That same year, I ended up asking for a camera for my 11th birthday so we got this cheap camcorder. That same month we drove up to LA. While there, I saw a bunch of cars I’d never seen before. Seeing those cars in that environment and photographing them however I wanted was a feeling I’d never experienced. Ever since, I’ve been hooked on that feeling.”