'Like living in an episode of Top Gear': The beautiful rural spots where people use McLarens and Ferraris to pop down to the shops

Exhausted super cars can check into the spa at The Car Hotel in the north Cotswolds where they'll find five-star storage, a concierge service and a 750m purpose-built tarmac tracks for vehicle exercising. After it opened in 2019, it sparked a race to build more facilities.

This was the first of five car hotels in a 20-mile radius, with the latest opening near Bibury in Gloucestershire, dedicated to classic cars. Nearby, in Oxfordshire's Hook Norton, car dealer Tom Hartley Junior is now designing the ultimate showroom for performance cars and vintage cars. When completed, it will be 42,500sq ft of sales and exhibition space. 

It seems Knightsbridge is no longer the go-to location for super car spotters – Porsches, Aston Martins, Bentleys, Ferraris, Maseratis, Lamborghinis and many a Rolls Royce can be spied cruising the country lanes in bucolic locations such as the Cotswolds, Warwickshire and Essex.

‘These exclusive parts of rural England often feel like an episode of Top Gear – the cars rolling around the countryside in areas such as the Cotswolds can often be worth hundreds of thousands if not millions of pounds,’ says Harry Gladwin of The Buying Solution. 

He cites the car park at Estelle Manor – a rural, members-only retreat just north of Oxford – as being akin to a car museum, with Bugattis and McLarens on show in the summer months. 

In fact, the rural location with the most registered super cars in the UK is the local authority district of Stratford-upon-Avon, which stretches down to the Georgian market town of Shipston-on-Stour and the village of Whichford. 

According to new research from Savills, there are 66 registrations of super cars per 1,000 home sales in this corner of Shakespeare's county. This makes sense. Stratford is near Silverstone and the car manufacturing hub of the West Midlands with specialist engineering firms on hand. ‘It's a natural magnet for car enthusiasts,’ says David Henderson of Savills based in Stow-on-the-Wolds. ‘Villages to the south of Stratford are so close to the Cotswolds and car-orientated events like the Broadway Car Show that takes place in August,’ he adds. 

The data, exclusive to Country Life, reveals the top 20 rural districts for super car registrations. Sevenoaks (Kent), Uttlesford (Essex), the Cotswolds (Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire) and Waverley (Surrey) complete the top five.

Top 20 Rural Boroughs by Proportion of Super-luxe Car Ownership

Source: Savills

Of course, super car registrations go hand-in-hand with expensive properties. The area on the ranking with the highest average property value is Waverley at £647,935. This is Jeremy Hunt land and the local authority area that includes Surrey's county town of Guildford and designer villages such as Chiddingfold, Hambledon and Bramley. Off the leafy lanes in the Surrey Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and on the edge of the South Downs are a network of hidden private tracks leading to vast country piles shrouded in mature woodland with multiple garages for super cars. At the weekend the Mulberry Inn in Chiddingfold (once owned by Chris Evans) turns into a pit stop for super and classic cars. 

The second most expensive area identified as having the highest number of super car registrations is Winchester where the average house price is £592,790, followed by Sevenoaks (£576,664). The most northerly spot in the ranking and number 20 is South Lakeland (£313,224), the southern half of the Lake District National Park, home to holiday home hotspots such as Bowness-on-Windermere and the Lakeland Motor Museum. 

There is a Gothic-style pile for sale near Kendal in nine acres for £2,750,000 through Ashdown Jones. Down a sweeping drive, with plenty of parking, it also has a five-car garage.

This isn't enough, however, for most super car owners. If they aren't checking into a car hotel then they need to buy a home with the right premises – or buy and then build.

‘For super car owners moving to the countryside, practicality has to keep up with their passion. These cars are treated like family members – kept cosy, spotless and in perfect condition. A chilly old barn just won't do it,’ says Jamie Freeman of Harringtons. ‘Garaging isn't just important, it's non-negotiable. One of our clients, a serious car enthusiast, bought a place without a garage, but wasted no time getting planning permission for a top spec build with heated floors and soft surfaces,’ he says. 

The ‘environment’ should be temperature-controlled with a dehumidifier, maximum security, rising bollards, CCTV and infrared cameras. Other amenities include heated driveways, turntables, hydraulic car lifts, inspection pits, spray booths and fully-equipped mechanic workshops. These premises are more art gallery than garage.

‘Having an on-site car museum isn't just about safeguarding investments: it's about elevating their standing within their circle of fellow enthusiasts. There is undeniably an element of competition,’ says Lindsay Cuthill of the high-end country estate agent Blue Book. ‘No collector wants to be the one inviting guests over to a dimly lit, uninspired storage unit when their peers are unveiling sleek, architect-designed showrooms with bars and even cinema screens,’ he adds.

Anna White is an award-winning property and lifestyle writer for the Guardian, Evening Standard and the Telegraph