(cont)

“The passenger in question has never been in a limo’ before.” Says Kevin.

“She’s quite excited and wanted to make a trip to her favourite restaurant that little bit more special.”

Indeed, with so many of her friends with her, using Boston Limoscene’s vehicles means eight friends can travel in comfort – potentially the vehicles can transport 12 but UK legislation limits the number of passengers – no bad thing given the extra space that eight can enjoy. Each vehicle features soft leather seats, TV and DVD, stereo, air conditioning, mood lighting and minibar. It’s a good deal more luxurious than travelling by minibus, but Kevin says the real secret to the vehicles’ success is the sociable nature of the ride.
“People enjoy facing each other, being able to talk to each other.” He says. “Passengers always tend to feel a little disappointed when they arrive at the destination as the journey’s over… all report that time had seemingly flown-by whilst they were having fun!”

The vehicles are certainly comfortable and do have plenty of space, but that does make them slightly nerve-racking to drive as I found out.

At 30ft, they’re monstrous to park and manoeuvre, with extra care needed around roundabouts in particular and with some other vehicles on the road failing to properly anticipate the vehicle’s length.

Nonetheless, they’re extremely smooth to drive thanks to an automatic gearbox and air suspension. With a 4.6 litre V8 engine the vehicles achieve a pretty poor 11mpg around town, but a slightly more respectable 20mpg when cruising – indeed the biggest difficulty in driving the vehicles, according to Kevin, is the noise from excited passengers. Upon arriving at the restaurant our chauffeur duties saw us opening the door for our ladies to alight and wishing them a happy meal before driving back to base and awaiting the collection time at just after midnight.

Returning home at 1.30am, it had been an exhausting day preparing each vehicle and ensuring they remain clean and safe for each subsequent group of passengers but hugely rewarding nonetheless as each of the ladies thanked us for a great evening. It’s impossible to think that Kevin and his drivers complete the same ritual hundreds of