Ferraris, Porsches and a one of a kind Pagani Zonda Fantasma Evo – is this Hong Kong’s biggest supercar collection? – video
“My obsession with cars started as early as I can remember,” Jonathan Hui, the scion of one of Hong Kong’s best-known business dynasties, tells me at his family home in Big Wave Bay. While his parents might have thought this was just a phase, as his passion for cars grew, so did their expense. His collection now spans over 20 cars including multiple Ferraris and a one of a kind Pagani Zonda Fantasma Evo, for which Hui collaborated with founder Horacio Pagani in crafting its unique specifications. “As a child the only gifts I was ever interested in was cars. It started with match box cars, progressed to building model cars and when I was a little bit older remote control cars,” he continues. You might find a picture of Hui next to the word “petrolhead” in the dictionary.
The grandson of the late shipping and property tycoon Hui Sai Fun, founder of the Central Development Group, Hui began collecting vintage cars 10 years ago. Before then he was only interested in the latest and the greatest, but as he grew older, so too did his passion for older cars. He is particularly interested in cars from the 1950s onwards. One of his hopes in building this car collection is to unite his family members across different generations. “The dream trip would be sending a bunch of these cars to Europe. We would all get together and go on a road trip,” Hui says, grinning from ear to ear. “So I’ve taken it upon myself to try and build this collection and to keep the family together across generations.” And Hui has quite the family tree to unite, coming from one of the “four big families of Hong Kong”. His late grandfather Hui Sai Fun’s Central Development Group holds the city’s Central Building as part of its portfolio. While collecting cars and racing might be Hui’s passion projects, he works alongside his cousin Julian Hui, who is married to former actress Michele Reis, at their family business. It sounds like his dream would make an epic road trip.
It’s not just nostalgia and road trip fantasies that drive Hui on to build his collection. The first question he asks before making a purchase is whether the car delivers a unique driving experience. A subjective point, he admits, but by honing in on the driving experience, you start to explore different brands, types of cars and the past 70 years of automation through a whole new lens. Each one of the broad range of cars in his collection offers something unique and different.
The most important thing when it comes to maintaining his collections is to drive the cars, of course. They’re not just meant to be looked at like a piece of art in a museum, says Hui, “The thing I love about cars is the thrill of driving and the emotion of driving cars.”
For Hui that means not just owning and collecting cars, but taking his obsession to the next level – racing. This is something he had wanted to do since the day he passed his driving licence, which he followed up with a course on advanced driving. “For me to enjoy a car properly, you need to be able to drive it properly.”
Hui started racing in 2004, and what started as a hobby has moved on to a whole other level in recent years. In 2018, Hui and three old friends formed the Hong Kong Racing Team to compete in 24-hour endurance races across the world in the GT3 category, culminating in a win in Monza, Italy, last year. Racing competitively and being a better driver allows Hui to enjoy his collection even more, he says. “I have a motto,” Hui says, “get out and drive!”
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The grandson of Hong Kong shipping and property tycoon Hui Sai Fun, Jonathan Hui loves his cars and has built a envy-inspiring collection of Porsches, Ferraris and a one of a kind Pagani Zonda Fantasma Evo – but what car gets him most revved up?