Wimbledon Southside Hustle, February 2023

Of all the car meets and events I have been to, there are a few that stand out as absolute favourites. Goodwood always holds a stellar event, whether it's the revival in September or the breakfast clubs they hold throughout the year, the provenance of the venue and the feeling you get as an enthusiast in the grounds of Goodwood make it hard to beat. For all the glitz and glamour you get from that though, it is nice to take a step back and come back to earth. On the first Sunday of every month, a group of like-minded enthusiasts gather in a quaint area of leafy Wimbledon for the ‘Southside Hustle’. What started as a way to spend a morning with a small gathering of friends has morphed into a bit of a cult gathering for car people in South London, and the quality and variety of the cars they bring along is just immense.

Take this weekend just gone as an example. A Fiat Panda 4x4 was flying the flag for the small car connoisseurs among us, while an extremely rare Lamborghini Silhouette stood proudly on the front row for the Italian exotics. Other eccentricities turned up too, including a Mk2 Ford Transit, a mint green Porsche 968 convertible, a Peugeot 205 Rallye and three different Lotus Elan’s. Classic cars, supercars, fast estate cars, modified cars and hot hatchbacks are all equally as welcome as each other and it makes for a refreshing and laid back atmosphere that can be missing from other events.

As for my favourite car of the day, that’s an extremely tough choice. Everything there had something that interested me, even the Transit, and a lot of them are vehicles I would love to drive and aspire to own one day. I enjoy driving cars more than I like to stand and look at them though, so the one that takes the cake for me was an example of the Porsche 911, specifically the 996 generation. The car that I’m talking about was modified so tastefully that it could almost be a standard car. It was a Carrera 4S out of the factory, meaning it has the wide-hipped Turbo body, four wheel drive and the 320bhp, 3.6 litre naturally aspirated Carrera S engine. Where it got interesting for me though was that this example had received modifications to the drivetrain that rendered it rear wheel drive, rather than four, which is likely to improve the steering. Not only that, but it had 996.2 GT3 wheels, which are perfect on this car, and the interior was finished off with Recaro Pole Position seats. As a car to drive and pile the miles on, it doesn’t get much more desirable for me. Right now, I can't think of anything I would rather take on a long European road trip. Loads of room in the back for a body weight's worth of bread and cheese and a heavenly flat-six soundtrack that would ricochet off the mountainside like smooth wine make for a very enticing recipe indeed.