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.

Some Hong Kong celebrities do not need even their initials on their cars to identify them; they can easily be recognised by their rare and racy cars alone! Hong Kong's hero leading film star, Jackie Chan, is a self- proclaimed car enthusiast, who says his love affair with cars started on the film set. In fact, Chan has made one car brand part of his films and his personal life after a 30 year deal made Mitsubishi more or less the only car brand to feature in his films. At the beginning of his career, Chan only had the opportunity to drive in films, but as he earned more money he started buying his own flashy cars. He admits to once having driven around Hong Kong at very high speeds; winding around mountain roads and whizzing through tunnels. These days, Chan has calmed down a bit, but still has an impressive car collection - which Mitsubishi have also contributed to in the shape of a Mitsubishi GTO and number of Special Limited Edition Mitsubishi Evolutions kept here in Hong Kong. In the same garage, Chan stores his Ferraris, a Bentley Continental GT and a Rolls-Royce!

While this might seem impressive to the average one car owner, Jackie Chan’s car collection is said to be quite modest in comparison to a number of other Hong Kong stars. Singer and dancer Aaron Kwok (one of the Cantopop Four Heavenly Kings) has become known for his passion for motor sports and luxury cars almost as much as for his stage success. His well publicised car collection includes Ferraris (F50, F512M, F355 GTS, F360 Modena, Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano), a Lamborghini Diablo SE30, a Mercedes-Benz SL600, a Mercedes CLK DTM, a Porsche 911 Turbo, a Lamborghini Reventon Roadster, a Lamborghini Murciélago, Gallardo, a Porsche 996 GT3 and a Nissan GTR. Kwok also loves driving as much as collecting, and he has participated in circuit races in Australia, Shanghai, Macau and Abu Dhabi, and has taken professional training to learn more about the technology, the power and the speed of the cars he owns - especially his favourite brand, Ferrari.

Kwok is known to share his love for all things automobile with former model and now film star Shawn Yue who spends a lot of time with Aaron and has adopted the same expensive taste for cars. At the release of his film “Motorway” last year, journalists asked Yue if he preferred cars or women, to which he confidently replied: "Now I only love cars, I have to be the coolest driver." He has been spotted driving a one million yuan Mercedes-Benz around Hong Kong; Yue is said to have owned an Audi RS4 in the past, and has publicly talked about his dream of owning a Porshe 911 Turbo. His passion for cars occupies a lot of his time; Yue makes regular car-related posts on Facebook and Instagram with photographs and comments about his cars and his new car investment plans. He also regularly attends car events like the Lamborghini 50th anniversary, the Audi Q3 party and Formula One races.

To add a third wheel to the Kwok-Yue pair, they are both known to go for regular hotpots with Hong Kong businessman Sham Kar-Wai, chairman of IT Limited fashion company. No prizes for guessing the topic of conversation over dinner; yes, cars. In fact, Kar-Wai’s garage is rumoured to be the most expensive in Hong Kong, rivalling Aaron Kwok’s and reaching a level close to Jay Leno’s world famous car collection. Kar-Wai has so many cars that they take up five floors of a car park in Hong Kong, which is a massive investment alone and it is estimated to cost about 80 million Hong Kong Dollars to house his 40 car collection! The garage includes a rare and bright green Ferrari F50, a bright orange Porshe 911 GT3 RS and a sleek black Porshe Carrera GT.

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