It started quietly then all hell broke loose - on the trail of South Manchester's illicit car meets

Yahoo

01-04-2025

It's 6.30pm and I'm sitting in my car in a supermarket car park in Stockport waiting for a message. A few metres away from me a police car is idling. I have a feeling we're both here for the same reason.
Me and a colleague are currently waiting on an update from a group chat for a car meet. These see motoring enthusiasts gathering to show off their vehicles and share their interests.
But while some meets might be closer to a stationary car show, the meet we are chasing tonight is something decidedly less static.
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The secretive group shares locations at the last minute, with attendees then rushing to the meeting point, often with the police not far behind.
As rain patters down on my windscreen my phone lights up with a message - the first location has been posted.
We are directed to an industrial estate near Cheadle with an empty car park and a long empty road with a smooth curve leading down to it. It looks like we're the first to arrive, and we hang back and watch the turning into the estate from across the road.
Just as we start to worry the location was wrong, a brightly painted hatchback with neon lights roars down the road, the exhausts popping as it accelerates.
It's followed by another, then other until there are around five cars.
Just minutes later, a GMP transport unit car arrives. It cruises down to the group with the unhurried purpose of a shark swimming up to a whale carcass.
We follow on foot and are greeted by a group of around five people packed into a hatchback. They look to be in their late teens or early twenties, a mix of men and women, and warn us about the police.
Without even getting out of their car the police move on the group, herding them out of the car park like a border collie.
The road once again falls quiet.
But sure enough, another message pings into the chat, and we are directed to a shopping centre car park. Like an automotive Ahab we follow on.
The group has swelled here, with at least a dozen cars and a crowd of around fifty people milling about in groups on the car park.
It's only now that we discover that our presence has not gone unnoticed.
Rumours circulate in the group chat about two 'police spies' who are tailing the group and alerting the cops to the next location.
We don't know whether to be worried or amused. Probably a bit of both.
The numbers growing, the newly formed convoy leap back into their vehicles and depart.
We check the chat, there's has a new location just outside Alderley Edge. It has the title "Drift/Circuit".
The convoy, now swollen to a couple of dozen vehicles, makes it way there, crossing over the boundary between Greater Manchester and Cheshire.
Drifting is a technique where a driver deliberately oversteers and loses traction on the tires while still maintaining control of the car.
Given that it requires the car to effectively lose grip on the road, drifting on a public road is considered dangerous driving by law enforcement even if done by someone who knows how to do it properly.
On this occasion however, the drivers didn't even get chance to attempt it as police showed up minutes after they did, scattering the group.
But they were not so easily deterred, melting away like a dazzling shoal of fish, only to reform elsewhere.
Another location drops, this one back over the border in Trafford. Once again we set off.
This location is set on a length of straight road with a roundabout, and labelled "drags".
And this time, the meet appears to have slipped past police and is able to continue undisturbed for a full hour.
As people arrive, a pair of cars pull up on the road. Ahead of them a crowd gathers, many of them carried there in the vehicles that will soon be racing.
An orange cone in the road marks the start line. There's no light or flag, just a simple countdown - 3, 2, 1, and with the roar of augmented engines the cars rocket away.
They travel at terrific speeds, shooting directly past within inches of spectators watching from the pavement and the kerb in the middle of the road.
The prospect of someone losing control is terrifying. I can't help but think of Sam Harding, a talented young footballer who was killed after being hit by a car doing almost 100mph at a meet in South Manchester not unlike this one.
After an hour or so, the cars once again moved off to a new location, rushing off into the night.
This time, we would not be following them.
Both Greater Manchester Police and Cheshire Constabulary carried out operations over the weekend.
A dispersal order was in effect in Stockport prohibiting anyone from travelling between locations in convoy.
Meets are drawn to the south of Manchester for the intersection between GMP, Cheshire, and Merseyside allowing them to skip between jurisdictions in an effort to stay one step ahead of police.
Cheshire Police reported 31 traffic offence reports for a variety of offences, including speeding, illegal number plates, and driving without due care and attention.
GMP meanwhile reported 26 breaches of the public space protection order which had been put in place.
The number of offences gives some idea of the scale of the meet, and the potential for disruption to residents left frustrated by the noise.
Chief Inspector Zoe Bowden, of Macclesfield Command, said: 'As previously stated, we understand the frustration and anger that illegal car meets cause, and we are committed to doing all we can to tackle the issue.
'We have a zero-tolerance approach and as these results demonstrate we will take action against those who break the law.
'This is an ongoing operation, and I hope that the action taken this weekend will provide some reassurance and act as a warning to those planning to come to Cheshire.
'Our message is clear – anti-social behaviour and anti-social use of vehicles will not be tolerated.'