I remember the Guildford Cruise from, maybe 10 or 15 years ago, when it filled the whole of the Ladymead retail park parking area & even extended round to the loading bays behind the shops. Several hundred customs. Even a rock n roll disco outside the BurgerKing.
Eventually it was killed off by the thumpy thumpy stereo brigade you mentioned, racing up & down the dual carriageway outside, causing trouble in the carpark & generally being a pain in the *rse. The Police stepped in with speed camera vans & roadside MOT tests & within a few months the thing had died completely. Same thing happened to the Chelsea Cruise a few years previously.
Now both Chelsea & Guildford are making tentative comebacks, but in both cases there's just a dozen or so cars each month, mainly Yanks & 60s Brits. Guildford's still at the Ladymead retail park, (Halfords, Homebase & B & Q, almost opposite Guildford fire station), on the first Sunday of each month, from around 4.30 - 5pm. The noise boys are there but lurk at the other end of the carpark, until the cruisers head for home around 6 or 7pm. I know it's not much -a few cars for just a couple of hours, but it's local to us & if people are making the effort to turn out, we'll call in when we can too.
