Tycoon’s underground ferris wheel to show off his Ferraris

WHAT’S the point of a classic Ferrari collection if you can’t display it in the most outlandish way possible? Enter, the giant subterranean ‘ferris wheel’.

The London Eye-style carousel will have bays for eight vehicles, rotating them around a whopping five-storey chamber underneath billionaire tycoon Jon Hunt’s back garden.

The founder of estate agent Foxtons sold the firm for £370million on the eve of the financial crash.

Now his mega-basement – adding five underground levels to his three-storey home – is one of the most ambitious ‘iceberg’ developments ever seen. The ferris

‘Displayed like objects of art’

wheel is at one end of a giant ‘museum’ for all his classic cars and motorbikes, designed to allow the vehicles to be displayed ‘like objects of art’ with glass floors and viewing galleries.

Mr Hunt’s plans for the 80ft deep underground extension, which stretches the length of his 180ft rear garden, also includes a swimming pool and full-size tennis court. Yesterday the 62-year-old defeated a legal bid by the French government, whose London embassy is next door, to block the grand design.

The French – who have rented the building next door since 1946 – claimed the tycoon’s plans were illegal after they were approved by Kensington and Chelsea London Borough Council in 2010. But their objections were dismissed at the High Court by Mr Justice Holgate.

Father- of-four Mr Hunt and his wife Lois, 60, have already begun work on their Grade II-listed eightbedroom mansion, which they bought in 2005 for £15.75million.

Homes on the street, Kensington Palace Gardens in West London, are now worth between £50million and £120million.

The row over the plans comes as investigations begin into the collapse of a £3.5million Georgian townhouse in Barnes, West London during work to create a giant basement.