The Golden Smile

Organised by the team behind the Essex VW Night, the Spooky Vee Dub Club and SX Dub Club. With more than 120 cars in attendance, this cruise not only brightened up a dull start to 2019 but also raised more than £1,500 for Farleigh Hospice.

- Paul Knight

There was a time when Southend was considered to be something of a VW Mecca and you regularly saw cool VWs cruising the so-called Golden Mile at the weekend. Then, as the boy racer movement began to take over, the vibe slowly changed and ‘cruises’ became ‘gatherings’ and that sadly led to unruly behaviour by a small group of idiots who were intent on street racing and burnouts. This led to bad press and public outrage, which in turn led to the local council banning vehicle cruises and gatherings entirely just a couple of years ago. Yes, that’s right, if you turned up with a couple of friends, you could technically be moved along by the pol