Car spotting in Notting Hill
If you ever heard of Notting Hill (not the movie), or have even been there, you may recognize one of London's most desirable areas for its pastel-colored houses, lovely cafes, and the thriving Portobello Market. For me as a passionate gearhead and car guy, this lovely area offers way more than that. While London is famous for its luxury cars, the best spotting area recommendations mostly consist of Sloane Street, Berkeley Hotel, and the area around those. Admittedly, those might be your best shots to see your dream car street parked or just casually driving by next to you, I would also highly recommend the Nottinghill area, for a calmer and more diverse car spotting experience, without worrying about the crowds of people walking through your shot or just bumping into you. Notting Hill will provide you with the perfect mixture of real drivers' cars, exotics, or vintage gems. This might be a longer post, but I wanted to cover as many bases as possible, so bear with me. Let's start our walk together, shall we?
My go-to route starts at St. Ann's road, followed by the streets towards Nottinghill Gate, and Holland Park Station, or up the Hills towards Portobello Road. My first sighting was this lovely Triumph 2000 MK 2. This was one of the first fuel-injected cars and the first estate ever! Sadly it was the last big Triumph, ending the production with the Mark 2500 S in 1977. Note the 4 side mirrors as well!
The Italians are also represented in a wide variety, mostly with Abarth and Fiat 500s in various configurations. What caught my Eye were a few vintage ones, just look at the size differences compared to that F-Pace! Lamborghini Uruses make also a quite common appearance, and hiding behind one gate was a gorgeous 488.
Speaking of Italian, how about some glorious V6 monsters, in the form of a Stelvio and Guilia, both the top tier Quadrifoglio specs of course. Would you pick those over their German rivals?
It's not hard to tell that British people have a soft spot for German sports cars, mostly Porsches. Just a peek in every Street of Notting Hill is enough to see a handful of various models, ranging from SUVs, Boxers, to 911s of all kinds and a ton of Taycans. I have a particular soft spot for older 911s, such as 964s, or the 912 generations, seen behind gates in the pictures, in a mint condition.
Of course, we can't mention German cars without BMW, Mercs, and Audi, which are plentiful. G-Wagons are so common here, that you might think they are handed out like the daily mail for free. Outstanding to me was a pair of e90 series M3s, with a glorious V8, a dark green e36 (with matching soft top), various AMG models, and a lovely RS6 just meters from an RS4. What a lineup!
Also, a rare experience to encounter an Alpine B3 in the wild, the perfect modern-day sleeper!
Don't know why, but I have a particular soft spot for the W123 series Mercedes, either sedan or estate, such a timeless and beautiful look. (The VW Bus even had a built-in kitchen btw!)
Of course, I need to mention the huge amounts of Astons and Land/Range Rovers as well, with some beautiful examples, doesn't matter if new, or old.
Quite popular are also Nissan Figaro's with a quite playful retro look.
Even managed to run across some french gems, like a 2 CV in a fairly beat-up condition and this old Peugeot GL.
The French theme continued with this brand new A110, in the legendary Alpine blue.
Lastly, the obvious minority is the Americans (Teslas don't count here as special cars, sorry not sorry). They might be low in numbers, but there are still some real hidden gems! Take this new Lincoln Navigator as an example, left-hand drive of course.
Joining in, we have 2 legends from the glorious 70s: A Chevrolet El Camino, and a gorgeous Mach 1 rushing buy, which I barely could get a shot of leaving behind a glorious rumble.
Hopefully, you enjoyed this little virtual tour with me through those lovely streets, highly recommending this area to anyone with a soft spot for beautiful architecture, lovely parks and cafes, upscale boutiques, busy markets, and of course, car lovers!
