Blackwall tunnel run, March 2012. Pic: Lavey UK/YouTube
The growl of revved engines echoes around the tunnel, as one by one by the high-end sports cars roar off into the darkness. Drivers and vehicles line up to take their turn. This could be Monaco: status symbols racing along public roads, ‘car club’ members showing off their latest toy to anyone who cares to look.
Only this isn’t Monaco. This is Blackwall Tunnel on a Saturday night, and these roads have not been closed for the event.
‘Tunnel runs’, as they are called, have been taking place in the east end of the capital for several years, with participants often meeting at Westferry Circus before heading off around a route that takes them through some of east London’s busiest thoroughfares.
Yet the runs have now grown so popular that they are becoming disruptive for residents, who have started approaching local MP Jim Fitzpatrick to ask if anything can be done to stop them.
Fitzpatrick has now written letters to both Tower Hamlets police and the council to demand action. He said: “These cars use the tunnels and the route for no other purpose than to showcase the sound and speed of their cars.,
“Videos posted online show dangerous and loud street car racing which belongs in a Hollywood movie and not the streets of east London.”
According to the MP’s office, what used to be an occasional nuisance has become a monthly occurrence. Constituents have raised concerns about the late night noise, as tunnel runs usually start between 12am and 1am. They have also complained about being unable to use the tunnel.
Fitzpatrick said that a dispersal zone has already been instigated by Essex police to prevent similar events from happening there. He said: “As well as causing a disturbance to residents, the fast cars endanger motorists on the road.
“We need these tunnel runs off the road which means a dispersal zone and barriers on race nights.”
The runs have become an online phenomenon, with blogs, videos and Twitter hashtags capturing the attention of a world wide audience. A search for ‘Blackwall tunnel run’ on Youtube gives more than 100 results, with the most popular video having received over 20,000 views.
The Twitter account @MissBanzai has been set up to alert fans of when ‘Japanese only’ runs are taking place, and on 20 October tweeted “Well, another Tunnel Run draws to a close. 3hrs from Start to Finish for most, 10 Tunnels, 265 Jap Motors woke up London one more time”.
Organisers of the tunnel runs have argued that the events are legal and are often used to raise money for charity. They also make it clear on their Facebook group that they do not promote dangerous driving.
The Metropolitan Police said the letter had been received but that a response had not yet been prepared. The next tunnel run is planned for November 17.
I was on this Tunnel Run, the organisers informed the relevant Police Forces and as far as I know no Police Action against tunnel runners took place.
I am one of these Japanese Car anthusiasts who attends these tunnel runs. I do it to raise money for Charity, and to meet like minded people and go for a cruise around London with other fans of Japanese cars. We raise Thousands for Charity and tell everyone that attends not to break any laws. If you were to attend, you’d see that we all have fun, and its physically impossible to get lots of cars to speed through any city, let alone London.
This is also our home. We organise these events with Police/AA/RAC and media involvement and have the sanction of many other road users. We hold the events late at night when there’s least traffic and we are less likely to cause any disruption.
No one else complains about the noise of November 5th Fireworks, the closing of roads for Political and other street rallies, even the London to Brighton Classic Car race gets to use the roads during the day time and get lots of media coverage. We do not disrupt anyone.
Occasionally, there will be some noise, yes, but then if you wanted peace and quiet maybe you should go and live in the countryside?
If anyone wants to comment on a tunnel run, I suggest they attend one of ours. A properly organised one and see the comraderie, the fun and the efforts made by all who attend to have a fun evening, twice a year, raising thousands for those needy causes. Until such time as driving my car with some friends in London late on a Saturday night becomes illegal, I shall continue to raise more money for needy causes and have fun too.
This is preposterous! These events are not created for people to ‘street race’ and as mentioned, organisers never condone or want to be associated with dangerous driving and usually always seek permisson with the police and local authorities. Granted, these events can be noisy, but Wesferry is an access tunnel underneath office blocks. Just goes to show how little Mp’s know or care about public philanthropy. I’ve never heard of any deaths directly caused by the gathering of automotive petrolheads standing in the cold talking about cars. The message is clear, Jim Fitzpatrick would sooner the protect the late night delivery drivers from the noise of engines revving than give to charity causes.
It is pathetic that people actually complain about this. I am a regular to the miss banzai tunnel runs and we do not drive around London “racing”. We do this huge cruise to raise money for charities. And at the same time show of our pride and joys which we are passionate about. We raised over £5000 last year if I remember correctly. Every car that wants to join the tunnel run has to donate £10 per car plus £5 per passenger. The more people that come, the better.
And when we arrive at the Blackwall Tunnel, there is a bit of noise, a bit of showing off, but its controlled. If a civilian car enters the tunnel everyone stops what there doing and drives slowly behind them till its safe to make noise again. We all take responsibilities for our own actions and try to make the night as safe as possible. (To be honest its the typical chavvy boy racers that arrive at blackwall tunnel in there crappy corsas that ruin the night and make it dangerous for us.) Not even the police have a problem, they love chatting to us about our cars!
Stupid remarks by ignorant MP … definitely one to put you off voting for labour or even trusting the MPs to use our government tax money in the most needed areas.
It’s like saying let’s ban football because it causes too many fights.. that just isn’t happening.. or saying people who own and drive a classic car which are mostly modified cars nowadays are driven by “nutters” and are dangerous because they have louder exhausts???
It all makes sense now… let’s make quieter cars which you can’t hear coming at you at 30mph because clearly that’s the safest aided way for children or partially death or blind people to cross the road. It’s not like it’s year 2012 where iPods and ipads and many other products are used while we walk on the streets in our daily life distracting us already …
Maybe some people should just hit reality and let the CURRENT generation handle the current lifes issues, I bet Jim can’t even use his phone properly without a secretary helping him.
Someone’s been reading their ”My first book on sensationalist journalism” haven’t they?
How about adding a few facts into the mix? There is no racing for a start!
100 YouTube videos? So what? 20,000 views? Erm, so what? What relevance do these figures have? None, other than to try and add weight to an extremely feeble argument.
There are far more important issues that need the attention of local authorities. Driving in tunnels isn’t one of them. Jim Fitzpatrick MP should be ashamed of himself for wasting his time on this.
Another ignorant clueless MP who doesn’t know what he is talking about.
just cant get my head around where the word RACE comes into this!!!
have enjoyed the missbanzai events for years and have never seen dangerous driving by any of those attending,and have really enjoyed seing the interest from the police including the interceptors(who have the same japanese cars as members)who have no issues with the behaviour of the organised events!
but i take HUGE OFFENCE to linking it to a charity and trying to give it legalities!!!!!!!!!ridiculas.
if the police see bad driving or the cameras pick up speeders in these tunnels then the people involved will and should be punished!
this is exactly what these organised events want to stamp out!
which is why they rent(at their own cost)private venues where they can create a safe insured enviroment for their partisipants.
Hi everyone,
Thanks for all your responses to the article. It was written on the basis that there have been complaints about the runs and the MP in question has written a letter to Tower Hamlets asking to have them stopped. However, there are clearly strong feelings about the tunnel runs, so we would welcome a contribution from anyone who goes on the runs if there is someone who would be interested in contributing to our comments page?
I hope I sufficiently highlighted that the events can be used to raise money for charity and that the organisers do stress that no dangerous driving is promoted.
If you would like to get in touch with the news team, you can drop us an email at news@eastlondonlines.co.uk
Hi there, just want to say what an ill-informed idiot this Fitzpatrick is, has he ever attended one of these meets? I bet 99% of the people who complained are all OAP busy bodies who probably owned a chavved up cortina “back in the day”.
Seriously this is ridiculous, people who are ill informed always assume the worst, they say the younger generation are all wasters, but I wonder who raised them?
this is just something else for this Fitzpatrick to use a an easy way out of blagging his way out of doing nothing or little at all.
I have to agree with all the comments posted below the column. Where I live in rural Somerset, there’s no events or organised nights set up for any modified cars, which is probably why I have had 2 of mine written off by the incompetence of drivers who “race” through the town.
If more of these events were set up, it would offer these drivers somewhere to promote their vehicles and something to do instead of trying to show off, letting other people decide if their cars are even good, let alone road worthy. Where I live action has been made to stop meetings of vehicles all together in the evenings along the seafront, which has lead these car to now meet closer to residential areas closer to the town centre, it hasn’t made anything better infact its made the situation worse for all parties involved.
I too modify my cars, having had several old minis, 2 of which have helped to raise over £3000 for charity, and now own a Mk2 Toyota MR2, and a 1967 Mini Clubman with a 1.3 Toyota starlet turbo engine. Both of these cars are my pride and joy, and also my daily runners. If you try to stop meets it in turn just makes them more popular. Help to promote them for the evenings and you’ll infact be helping to save lives!