A black cab fit for a millionaire
Those who want their luxury truly quiet will love the Sutton VIP taxi — innocuous on the outside, with all the trimmings of a high-end vehicle on the inside
Well, it sure beats an Uber. And, these days, it’s possibly not much more expensive. At least mine turns up bang on time, as arranged, at my house in Hackney, east London. The Clive Sutton LEVC VIP Taxi (externally identical to the iconic black cab — inside somewhat plusher, to put it mildly) sits unobtrusively in the street, its driver, Juan, keen to talk me through the finer points before chauffeuring me to work. My office is at the Shard end of London Bridge. Luckily Juan does not say, “I don’t go south of the river, mate.”
He does say that he gets “hailed all the time, even though the light is never illuminated”. We’ve all tried that one, I guess, more in hope than expectation, especially when it’s raining. The same thing would happen to Stephen Fry when he favoured a black cab to navigate London. Reportedly King Charles once owned a cab too. Who knows whether he ever got any fares? “Sometimes when you’re parked cabbies will peer in and have a look. But hardly anybody else realises it’s not a registered London taxi.”
It’s this relative anonymity that persuades customers to part with close to £130,000 (yes, the line about not costing much more than a minicab was a joke) for a customised model. “Our clients want the comfort of a Rolls or a Bentley,” Luke Sutton of the luxury car dealer Clive Sutton tells me. “But they don’t want all those eyes on them when they pull up to a restaurant, so they go for this.” Some wealthy individuals favour the taxi for their children’s school run. They like the hybrid engine, the famously tight turning circle and (rumour has it) the odd cheeky foray into the bus lane. Their kids presumably like the TV screen mounted on the dividing bulkhead, where you’d find the flip-up seats in a normal cab. The fridge, footrest, surround sound, Bluetooth connection and smart glass sunroof (which can switch from opaque to clear) are all presumably popular add-ons as well.
The big difference between the luxury taxi and the standard model (besides about £70,000) is, as I discover as we tootle south down Mare Street, in the comfort and the quiet. Modern black cabs are much easier on the bottom and ears than old-school versions, yet the Sutton upgrade represents a big further improvement in suspension and soundproofing. The Bethnal Green Road, as I know from traversing its length twice a day on the 388 bus, is not short of potholes. All that extra springing and plush Bentley leather upholstery smooths out the bumps very nicely.
“Some clients want them to use as a mobile office,” Sutton tells me. I extract the fold-out table and, pretending I’m Matthew McConaughey cruising around LA in The Lincoln Lawyer, write my notes, later perfectly legible, even those done at 25mph. After a while I get distracted by Tommy Walsh getting excited about a fixer-upper in Faversham in Homes Under the Hammer. You don’t get that on the 388. Then again, my bus commute is my reading time, and — due respect to Tommy, who is a near neighbour of mine in Hackney — books are better for the soul than daytime TV.
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Then again, you don’t get use of a courtesy umbrella on the 388. Plus, when I press the intercom button, Juan actually talks to me, unlike most London bus drivers, who seem to have taken a vow of silence, even seeming to regard an acknowledgment of my cheery “Good morning” as a breach of union rules. Also, buses are always prone to, in escalating order of misery, the dread announcements concerning a change of driver; waiting here “to help even out the service”; “This bus has changed destination”; and, worst of all, “This bus terminates here”, which basically translates as “Sod off”. On the other hand opportunities for both eavesdropping and casual conversations with strangers, both of which I enjoy, are limited in such a private, well-insulated space. Swings and roundabouts.
My grandad was a black cab driver in London in the 1930s, when times were hard, before American GIs arrived to revive business. I had an uncle and a cousin who did the Knowledge too, so I have a soft spot for these iconic vehicles. It’s a spot that has now grown softer for riding in one so well appointed. I’ve always maintained that, in the unlikely event of becoming quite disgustingly rich, I’d first hire an executive assistant to organise and run all the boring, tricky bits of my life. I’d also wear a brand-new pair of socks every day, because the pleasure of putting on new socks is hard to beat. After that, however, I might well be tempted to splash out on one of these beauties, for use on strike days, perhaps, or when it’s cold and wet. There are certainly, I reflect as we pull up outside my office, worse ways to travel.
clivesutton.co.uk
The Clive Sutton LEVC VIP Taxi factsheet
• Clive Sutton started building taxis three years ago and is the official converter for LEVC (London Electric Vehicle Company).
• It builds bespoke taxis for corporate and individual clients in the UK and overseas, including France, Spain, UAE and China.
• The model Robert was testing is the two-seater configuration, featuring a redesigned interior rear cabin finished in leather and Alcantara electrically reclining seats and fold-out tables.
• The media package includes a rear screen with Apple TV and Bluetooth audio streaming.
• It costs from £124,505 (plus VAT), including a new LEVC TX donor car.
David Green
