It’s not every day you’ll see a row of upwards of 30 Mk1 Golfs parked up in Central London, but for a couple of years now, London Cartel has organised dedicated – and strictly well-mannered – cruise events. All just to celebrate the cars, bring owners together, capture the backdrops, and take in the Capital atmosphere.
Born out of a combined appreciation of Mk1 Golfs and photography, the idea of getting into town at night and turning up the exposure to create stunning imagery is an ingrained habit, cultivated by the old school ’90s minds behind it all. Rekindled and armed with top notch camera equipment, it results in stunning night-time automotive photography. An instant hit on the Facebook and Instagram feeds, word soon spread these impromptu moving motor shows have an attention-grabbing USP about them.
So over the Easter weekend, the team hit the town, with a West-then-East game plan. Starting with the glitzy Chelsea Embankment, they convoyed over to the Science Museum via a food stop, before
heading for the London Eye. Midnight gone, with plenty of cars still in tow, it was over to the hipster-graffitti contrasts of Shoreditch in E1, where the Hardtops, Cabriolets and Caddys gate-crashed an impromptu railway tunnel party. Mutual respect was clear all round as everyone soaked up the cars.
Blunted initially by inclement weather and location curveballs, the team juggled their schedule to keep the show on the road, whilst videographers shadowed the event to capture it all in motion. For those who stayed on to the finish in Greenwich, they got pictures of their cars on the slipway shot used, not just recently by Volkswagen Fleet, but also by Dizzee Rascal in the Nutcrasckerz music video. Photography at night brings this location on to a whole new level though, with all the lights across the river in Canary Wharf providing a stunning canvas. Not for nothing is it coined the money shot!
Newcomers and regulars combined. A lot of the Mk1 owners know each other, with support coming in from the Berkshire Mk1s and Dub Foundation, both Mk1 Golf Owners Club regions, East Coast Dubs, and not least the London Cartel who also represent the Mk1 Owners Club in the Capital.
As everyone congregated and socialised whilst the cameras sucked up the stills, it wasn’t just about appreciating the cars and the work that goes into maintaining them. Parking the cars up en-masse gets the general public’s juices going with passers-by always evident, reaching for their phone cameras, looking and knowing they’re witnessing a throwback moment.
That’s the effect the Mk1 Golf has. In fact when Cartel team go driving round London alone in their GTIs, the public will still stop, wind windows down and ask if cars are for sale. Is it any wonder, the values of this here-and-now classic are only going north?
All done without the need for banging stereos, in among the selection of Volkswagen’s finest, there was everything from the most standard ‘OEM’ spec through to a re-commissioned barn-find, to the wholesale 8-valve crossflow, 16-valve and 20-valve turbo conversions. The love is still strong in the Mk1 modifying world, whichever your take.
Words: Chris Eyre
Photos: Sanj Patel / Anna Richardson / Keith Sowden
More information and pictures on the Facebook page here.
The opinions expressed here are the personal opinions of the author and do not necessarily represent the views and opinions of VW Heritage
What is the point of cruising?
Is it another way of showing off?. …I often find that those with the least to show are often the ones who are the biggest show offs. Just like the smallest dogs tend to make the most noise ; )
To me it’s like saying to the world that you have nothing better /more constructive to do with your time and that you have too much money but very little sense.