'Wannabe boy racers' doing doughnuts near Buckingham Palace in modified Mercedes and BMW sports cars

Shocking video (click to play above) captures the actions at a late-night car meet, where ‘boy racers’ performed burnouts and revved their engines just off Pall Mall in central London. Footage shows a large crowd gathered round filming a car on their phones while it does doughnuts in "dangerous proximity". Four drivers have all been issued with fixed penalty notices after being caught on camera, near Buckingham Palace. Some of the cars found guilty included a highly tuned BMW coupe and a Mercedes C63 AMG worth almost £100k, Westminster City Council (WCC) said.

Others were caught blocking roads and revving their engines close to residential areas producing noise at around 90 decibels - which is as loud as standing next to a passing London Underground train. The drivers were caught after they triggered acoustic noise cameras. Installed in 2021, the cameras are activated when they detect events over 80-90 decibels. The camera then uses AI to differentiate an engine’s sound from a typical car horn by monitoring the sound patterns.

Cllr Aicha Less, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Children and Public Protection at Westminster City Council said: "Driving like this is not only unwelcome in Westminster, but also incredibly dangerous. "We often notice an increase of this behaviour during the summer, but we will continue to work throughout the year to deter this from happening.

"We have a zero-tolerance for antisocial driving, so I welcome the latest round of fines and hope by working with our partners we can identify others. If you are looking to meet up with cars like this, our streets are not the place for it."