As our cities are becoming more congested by both residents and passenger cars, local authorities are looking at options to make life better and healthier. One such option involves banning cars from the city or from city centers or implementing a high daily tax that discourages driving.
This is the ULEZ scheme in London in a nutshell: an initiative where drivers have to pay a daily tax if they wish to drive their non-ULEZ-compliant vehicle in London. As of August 29, following months of debate and a hearing at the High Court, ULEZ has expanded to cover all of Greater London.
On Sunday, September 10, supercars, classics, and all manners of modified vehicles drove into the capital to protest against the latest ULEZ expansion. If you're thinking that this sounds stupid because these people are protesting a scheme that aims to make London's air healthier and thus reduce the number of deaths and illnesses caused by pollution, you're wrong.
ULEZ stands for Ultra-Low Emission Zone and bans all gas and diesel vehicles that fail to comply with minimal emissions standards. The goal of the initiative isn't to fight climate change but to improve air quality in London and thus lighten the burden on the NHS (National Health System).
Introduced in 2015, it was implemented in 2019 and got its first expansion in 2021. With the latest expansion, the area doubled in size and added another 5 million Londoners. Roughly speaking, this means gas cars older than 2006 and diesel vehicles older than 2016, and an estimated total of 200,000 vehicles, have been rendered obsolete.
Photo: YouTube/The Brown Car Guy
This also means that many vans, buses, and taxis, along with many personal cars, have to pay £12.5 (approx. $16) a day to enter the city, regardless of whether they work in services or are commuting to work. Meanwhile, restomodded classics, tuned vehicles, and supercars are deemed ULEZ-compliant, and they can roll into the city without paying the tax. Ironically, no one's livelihood depends on these vehicles, and chances are they also pollute more.
That's how the Superconvoy protest came to be. Drivers gathered by Ciro Ciampi, the founder of Petrolheadonism Club (and the owner of Viola Ophelia, the only Lamborghini Aventador Huber ERA in the world at the time of her death by self-combustion) and Keith Steers, rolled from Regents Park to Downing Street to protest the hypocrisy of the ULEZ scheme.
They protested, but they also celebrated the awesomeness of the cars, as Ciampi says. This was the petrolheads' way of showing solidarity with the average working person, who will be the most impacted by the ULEZ expansion. Previous protests have also called the expansion a "bogus war on the motorist," paving the way to banners like "Stop the clean air lie," also used at Sunday's protest.
"I've got a V12 in the garage or my mate's got this 8-liter litre V8 supercharged monster that is Ulez free. It's not about clean air," Ciampi told The Brown Car Guy during the Superconvoy. "It's absolutely somebody being a narcissist, jumped up, bloody-minded egotistical, arrogant mayor that just won't listen to anybody."
Sadiq Khan, that egotistical and arrogant man Ciampi is talking about, has previously doubled down on criticism that the ULEZ expansion is hitting the average working Londoner the hardest during an already difficult moment. He's yet to address the latest round of protests.
Elena has been writing for a living since 2006 and, as a journalist, she has put her double major in English and Spanish to good use. She covers automotive and mobility topics like cars and bicycles, and she always knows the shows worth watching on Netflix and friends. Full profile
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