If you have 84 gold bars to move across London, how do you do it? Conventional wisdom indicates that a large, heavily armored truck is the way to go. Porsche had other ideas. In cooperation with Baird & Co. Porsche moved the bars in a trio of Panamera Sport Turismos. The publicity stunt, titled “Gold Rush,” was used to promote a new vault opening at Hatton Gardens. The gold delivered by the Panameras would be the first gold deposited in the new vault. The route took the cars and cargo across London from the Docklands to the Hatton Garden vault. As a tribute to the original “Italian Job“, the three cars are finished in red, white and blue; the colors of the Minis used in the original movie with Michael Caine.
Why Transport Gold In Panameras?
The 24 gold bars are valued at around 10 million GBP(roughly $14m US). This is enough to buy 84 Panamera Sport Turismos, or very nearly one 917. Each individual bar is worth 420,000GBP and weighs 12.5 kilograms. Brinks-Mat stationed a pair of armed security guards and a radio operator in each car along with the 160kg gold cargo. Baird & Co. stipulated that the cars used would need to be capable of traversing London at high speed, despite the additional weight.
To cope with the loads Porsche provided two Sport Turismo Turbos and one Sport Turismo Turbo S E-Hybrid- the most powerful car currently in Porsche’s lineup. Unladen any of the three cars can sprint to 60 miles per hour in under four seconds. Fully loaded the three cars should still be more than capable of outrunning virtually anything they are likely to encounter.
Security was Tight
To protect the convoy the police closed the roads between the Docklands and the Hatton Garden Vault. The original route included Blackfriar bridge, and took the cars past the Tower of London, Waterloo Station and the High Court. The secret route had to be altered as the new “Mission: Impossible” movie was being filmed on Blackfriar Bridge on transport day. The cars were guarded fore and aft with several motorcycles and a screening police helicopter.